Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#521

Post by adrianN » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:45 AM UTC

zelly wrote: post #520

I'm going to take the contrarian position here and say No, there is no place for native desktop apps. If a user has enough resources to run a graphical operating system, then they have enough resources for an extra copy of Chromium. The exception to this is something either so simple that it only has one button (e.g. some file format converter) or so large (e.g. Photoshop, Bloomberg, AutoCAD, Mathematica, Visual Stud…

Maybe your native editors just suck.

There are many people who have older hardware. For example I write this on a 2009 Macbook. My parents use older hardware still. And we're relatively well-off in a rich western country. These machines are perfectly fine to use for almost all tasks, but they're not powerful enough to run ten copies of Chrome. We might easily be able to afford that newer 500€ laptop, but for many people that multiple months of income. Not to mention the unnecessary waste the churn produces.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#522

Post by zelly » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:49 AM UTC

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #478

Whenever this sort of question comes up, I always look over at my macOS dock and see what's running or permanently docked there: - Marked (Markdown previewer/converter): native. - Transmit (file transfer): native. - PDF Expert: native. - ImageOptim (image optimizer): native. - Fantastical: native. - MailMate: native. - Terminal: native. - iA Writer: native. - Safari: native. - CodeKit: native. - Dash: native. - GitUp…

Telegram is Qt

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#523

Post by uttamk » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:49 AM UTC

The key advantage for webapps is distribution. I can create a new version and almost instantly distribute to all my users. Therefore webapps can change much faster than native ones

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#524

Post by zmix » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:52 AM UTC

I prefer desktop apps and I pay license fees for those, which I use as standard for the task or daily. Nothing beats them. I especially like it if they are made scriptable, preferably by using a scripting host provided by the OS (if available).

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#525

Post by giulianob » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:54 AM UTC

mingabunga wrote: post #130

bobblywobbles wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admire your words here. I am on the other side, building electron apps, I appreciate the flexibility and ease because I would rather iterate on ideas then learn three different OS-hooks. I do agree that memory usage is too high on these types of apps and we as developers can be lax about performance.

I agree too, and your average user is not going to care about the fact you've used Electron, or even know. It's a big win for development.

Your average user has just come expect technology to suck nowadays. Go look around and many people are jaded by how poor things actually function.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#526

Post by jhasse » Mon, May 18, 2020, 4:57 AM UTC

vb6sp6 wrote: post #415

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VSCode is Electron? I had no idea. That’s the only electron app I use willingly then! Good job MS!

The first clue is a text editor that uses 180mb of ram :)

It can do A LOT more than editing text.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#527

Post by jhasse » Mon, May 18, 2020, 5:00 AM UTC

api wrote: post #293

burke wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Electron hater, I’m constantly surprised at just how much VS Code doesn’t suck.

It doesn't suck, but try Jetbrains IDEs. C++ and other "not JS" language support is vastly superior including refactoring that actually works.

Check out clangd or ccls for VSCode. They have refactoring that actually works (probably still rather basic when compared to Jetbrains IDEs).

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#528

Post by zelly » Mon, May 18, 2020, 5:01 AM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #521

zelly wrote: post #520

I'm going to take the contrarian position here and say No, there is no place for native desktop apps. If a user has enough resources to run a graphical operating system, then they have enough resources for an extra copy of Chromium. The exception to this is something either so simple that it only has one button (e.g. some file format converter) or so large (e.g. Photoshop, Bloomberg, AutoCAD, Mathematica, Visual Stud…

Maybe your native editors just suck. There are many people who have older hardware. For example I write this on a 2009 Macbook. My parents use older hardware still. And we're relatively well-off in a rich western country. These machines are perfectly fine to use for almost all tasks, but they're not powerful enough to run ten copies of Chrome. We might easily be able to afford that newer 500€ laptop, but for many peo…

What about WebView then? Surely you can run 10 desktop apps that use WebView because it's just like having 10 Chrome tabs open.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#529

Post by sbergot » Mon, May 18, 2020, 5:09 AM UTC

ridiculous_fish wrote: post #519

I will come at this from a different, philosophical perspective: Web apps come from a tradition of engaging the user. This means (first order) to keep people using the app, often with user-hostile strategies: distraction, introducing friction, etc. Native desktop apps come from a tradition of empowering the user. This means enabling the user to accomplish something faster, or with much higher quality. If your app dis…

What a perfect HN reply. Webapp bad. Native good. No justification. Just a bunch of generalizations.

Gmail empowers me. Wikipedia empowers me. Github empowers me.

Of course native application are important. You don't need to rely on those moralistic justifications.

Re: Ask HN: Is there still a place for native desktop apps?

#530

Post by chipotle_coyote » Mon, May 18, 2020, 5:16 AM UTC

zelly wrote: post #522

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #478

Whenever this sort of question comes up, I always look over at my macOS dock and see what's running or permanently docked there: - Marked (Markdown previewer/converter): native. - Transmit (file transfer): native. - PDF Expert: native. - ImageOptim (image optimizer): native. - Fantastical: native. - MailMate: native. - Terminal: native. - iA Writer: native. - Safari: native. - CodeKit: native. - Dash: native. - GitUp…

Telegram is Qt

Oops. Thanks!

...although I realized just now that I'm actually using the native client, so it should actually have been another "native" in my case. D'oh.

https://github.com/overtake/TelegramSwift