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Let's hope it's not just another Electron-based abomination.
I'm assuming they have reworked their current web app into an electron (or similar) desktop application and going forward they can make changes and immediately push out to both web and desktop.
Out of curiosity, what makes people prefer desktop apps for mail over just visiting the browser version? The idea of downloading a desktop app for something I can do in the browser makes no sense to me. At least on mobile, the ergonomics of apps tend to make the experience better than the mobile-web version.
It also makes focusing on email easier. I dislike having to dive into tab sprawl to read/write email.
Let's hope it's not just another Electron-based abomination.
- Nautilus
- Brave (Chromium)
- Gnome-terminal
- VSCode (Electron)
- Telegram Desktop (̶E̶l̶e̶c̶t̶r̶o̶n̶ QT)[1]
- WhatsApp (web wrapper in Electron)[1]
- Discord (Electron)
- Spotify (Chromium Embedded Framework)
- Betterbird (Gecko, might as well be Electron)
- TickTick (Electron)
- Steam (Chromium Embedded Framework)
In a way it is very interesting to me, Chromium has pretty much become a "kernel" of sorts that all web technologies run atop. And I don't really buy the "Chromium gives Google power over the web", as it is permissively licensed, and there is at least one other giant stakeholder in the form of Microsoft.
Kind of makes me wish GNU and Apple would do what Microsoft has done, integrate a Chromium-based WebView into the OS and optimize it to the gills. The battle between Blink (Chromium), WebKit and Gecko has already been lost, might as well give your users the best UX they can get.
[1]There is work being done on native GTK clients by third parties, namely
- Paper Plane for Telegram: https://github.com/paper-plane-developers/paper-plane
- Whakarere for Whatsapp: https://github.com/tobagin/whakarere
Let's hope it's not just another Electron-based abomination.
It probably is. Since they already have a working web app, why would they throw all that away and start a new project from scratch targeting 3 platforms (MacOS, Linux and Windows) and triple the maintenance burden? I'm assuming they have reworked their current web app into an electron (or similar) desktop application and going forward they can make changes and immediately push out to both web and desktop.
I'd bet they say no. If they say yes, they're lying.
Out of curiosity, what makes people prefer desktop apps for mail over just visiting the browser version? The idea of downloading a desktop app for something I can do in the browser makes no sense to me. At least on mobile, the ergonomics of apps tend to make the experience better than the mobile-web version.
Webmail requires an active Internet connection. A desktop client lets me work in more environments/situations, and acts as a kind of local backup/cache of my communications. It also makes focusing on email easier. I dislike having to dive into tab sprawl to read/write email.
Out of curiosity, what makes people prefer desktop apps for mail over just visiting the browser version? The idea of downloading a desktop app for something I can do in the browser makes no sense to me. At least on mobile, the ergonomics of apps tend to make the experience better than the mobile-web version.
Let's hope it's not just another Electron-based abomination.
That ship has sailed. If I look at my Dock right now, from left to right I'm running: - Nautilus - Brave (Chromium) - Gnome-terminal - VSCode (Electron) - Telegram Desktop (̶E̶l̶e̶c̶t̶r̶o̶n̶ QT)[1] - WhatsApp (web wrapper in Electron)[1] - Discord (Electron) - Spotify (Chromium Embedded Framework) - Betterbird (Gecko, might as well be Electron) - TickTick (Electron) - Steam (Chromium Embedded Framework) In a way it i…
It’s not Chromium based but Apple does have exactly this in the OS. Given both Chromium and WebKit target the same web standards there should be a solid crossover. The reality isn’t there but it wouldn’t take much (except for willingness on Apple’s part, which is hard to come by)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It probably is. Since they already have a working web app, why would they throw all that away and start a new project from scratch targeting 3 platforms (MacOS, Linux and Windows) and triple the maintenance burden? I'm assuming they have reworked their current web app into an electron (or similar) desktop application and going forward they can make changes and immediately push out to both web and desktop.
We should ask people who complain about Electron apps if they're willing to pay an extra $20/month to pay for a team of developers to make and maintain a native app for each platform. I'd bet they say no. If they say yes, they're lying.
GPG key management is also a disaster. So they made it easy to communicate with others using proton fine, but communicating with non-proton users with GPG is a horrible experience.