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Electron vs. Tauri

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Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#21

Post by ambicapter »

Arrowmaster wrote: post #12

The author has obviously never tried Tauri on Linux. I've never seen one of their AppImages work correctly. Every project uses the upstream GitHub action to build binaries and it compiles dynamically linked binaries limited to the glibc from the Ubuntu 22 or 24 VM used. Xdg-open is often broken too from broken environment variables in the AppImages, so you can open a link in the default web browser. The entire build…

Sadly, every time that one guy posts his personal finance app on HN I try it and every time tauri gives me trouble to build, and when I fix whatever build errors it gives me it basically opens up a blank window and the app doesn't work (He now offers a Docker image which I can't help but feel is related to these difficulties).

Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#22

Post by andai »

Arrowmaster wrote: post #12

The author has obviously never tried Tauri on Linux. I've never seen one of their AppImages work correctly. Every project uses the upstream GitHub action to build binaries and it compiles dynamically linked binaries limited to the glibc from the Ubuntu 22 or 24 VM used. Xdg-open is often broken too from broken environment variables in the AppImages, so you can open a link in the default web browser. The entire build…

I've been a lifelong Linux user, and this makes me sad.

I don't know enough to comment about whether or not it's necessary, but any time I've tried to get anything working that wasn't updated recently, it was impossible.

Well impossible is a bit strong, the process ranges from:

- Find a forum post that links to some old .deb files and install them manually

- Install a newer version of a dependency and then recompile from source code, after spending an hour or two updating the program so it works with the new version of the dependency because the dependency changed its API for no reason (that one's not a Linux problem per se, but it wouldn't be necessary if the old one still worked!)

Better to download the Windows version and run it in WINE...

Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#23

Post by haideralshamma »

I am building an open source desktop app in Tauri [1]. One of the issues I encountered was having to duplicate and sync types between the TypeScript frontend and Rust. On the other hand, Rust proved to be a great language with a sizeable ecosystem for building application backends.

[1]: https://github.com/haideralsh/prompt-lab

Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#24

Post by s369610 »

Arrowmaster wrote: post #12

The author has obviously never tried Tauri on Linux. I've never seen one of their AppImages work correctly. Every project uses the upstream GitHub action to build binaries and it compiles dynamically linked binaries limited to the glibc from the Ubuntu 22 or 24 VM used. Xdg-open is often broken too from broken environment variables in the AppImages, so you can open a link in the default web browser. The entire build…

I really wanted to use tauri instead of electron, but the libwebkit it uses on linux is just too slow for modern CSS/html, from memory I managed to get single digit fps just scrolling the components page of daisy-ui. I am holding on for when they get a servo integration.

Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#25

Post by bpev »

haideralshamma wrote: post #23

I am building an open source desktop app in Tauri [1]. One of the issues I encountered was having to duplicate and sync types between the TypeScript frontend and Rust. On the other hand, Rust proved to be a great language with a sizeable ecosystem for building application backends. [1]: https://github.com/haideralsh/prompt-lab

fwiw, I think the most comprehensive cross-typing work done here has been specta:

https://github.com/specta-rs/tauri-specta

Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#26

Post by auggierose »

Of course a lot of apps will not be able to live with the restrictions, but if you can write your app as a webapp (PWA), you should do that instead of using Electron or Tauri. I do it because I find either build system atrocious, and with webapps I can just use esbuild. Using Chrome for example, people can install webapps as desktop apps on any operating system, if they like, and the footprint is minimal.

Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#27

Post by testdelacc1 »

> Tauri doesn’t seem to be able to create Mac universal binaries from their arm64 and x64 subcomponents.

I think this problem will be “solved” on its own. According to the October Steam hardware survey, about 15% of macs are still on Intel, with the number dropping each month. In a year it’ll be less than 10%. The software side isn’t looking good either - Intel Macs have received their last OS update this year. In 2028 Apple will classify Intel Macs as “vintage”, ending most service and parts support.

I’m not making a judgement here on Apple’s decisions. But Tauri is unlikely to spend their time optimising for a small fraction (Intel) of a small fraction (mac users), which is also reducing over time. Their time is probably better spent getting Windows support up to scratch because Windows isn’t going anywhere.

Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#28

Post by pjmlp »

What about neither?

If it must be Web, run the application headless and launch the system browser.

But really if 50 year olds can jungle between native and Web, so do you.

Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#29

Post by gigatexal »

Arrowmaster wrote: post #12

The author has obviously never tried Tauri on Linux. I've never seen one of their AppImages work correctly. Every project uses the upstream GitHub action to build binaries and it compiles dynamically linked binaries limited to the glibc from the Ubuntu 22 or 24 VM used. Xdg-open is often broken too from broken environment variables in the AppImages, so you can open a link in the default web browser. The entire build…

[flagged]

Re: Electron vs. Tauri

#30

Post by iamsaitam »

"Compatibility issues across system webviews are exceedingly rare, especially for the major operating systems."

When it comes to CSS, there will be the same vendor issues that you have on websites. It's not a magic bullet.

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