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.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

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Re: .NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

#201

Post by rixed »

glzone1 wrote: post #81
PenguinCoder wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of those are examples of overbloated, slow, horrible user experience apps.

Does their market share back up your take of them as horrible apps? Are there QT or GTK competitors crushing them? I always hear how terrible electron apps are, but the companies picking electron seem to get traction QT or other apps don't and seem to have a good cross platform story as well.

Beware with that logic. You notice successful electron apps because of how bloated they are. I suspect you use many Qt apps without even noticing.

One that comes to mind that I use daily and noticed only recently that it was implemented in Qt is the telegram desktop app.

Re: .NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

#203

Post by zigzag312 »

lazypenguin wrote: post #37
js4ever wrote: post #4

Too little, too late. Desktop apps are mostly dead.

Desktop UI toolkits are dead or stagnant but the desktop ui is still king IMO

I would much rather see web apps become canvas rendered WASM versions of desktop apps than desktop apps become webview apps. Latter is what we have been seeing in the recent years unfortunately.

Canvas rendered cross-platform UI frameworks like Flutter & Avalonia targeting browsers (WASM), might shift the balance back in favor of desktop UI.

Re: .NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

#204

Post by TiredOfLife »

oaiey wrote: post #115
mattfrommars wrote: post #25

In the .NET ecosystem, I have noticed people to shame .NET MAUI because Microsoft themselves don't use this framework - Microsoft Team is built on Electron and not MAUI. Why build a product on MAUI when Microsoft aren't too sure about it.

The answer to that is well known: Windows division builds WinUI/Win32 as their native C++/COM API, Office division went to React on their path to the web and the dev division fills gaps (WPF) and provides tools for external and internal devs (Maui for cross platform uis). It is history not the lack of will. At one point the windows division was in shambles (remember vista) and WPF pops up. At another point, the windo…

> Windows division builds WinUI/Win32 as their native C++/COM API

Windows for many years is just a pile of different browser engines stashed one atop another running broken javascript/xml with react native on top.

Re: .NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

#205

Post by zigzag312 »

shakna wrote: post #40
afavour wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if at any point browsers will offer a low level accessibility API for you to manually describe components. I’ve worked in the web for years and I’m a big believer but it’s also indisputable that Canvas offers more performant UI rendering than HTML when done correctly. I don’t think it should ever be used for web “documents” but web apps already bastardize HTML and CSS to achieve their aims anyway. Accessibil…

As far as standards is concerned, that API is ARIA [0]. W3C already offers guides for accessibility and canvas. But no one who opts for canvas turns around and remembers to do their landmarks.

> But no one who opts for canvas turns around and remembers to do their landmarks.

Not completely true. Flutter has been adding some accessibility for web canvas target. [1]

I think Avalonia is in in the make it work phase. Accessibility will probably be added in the make it right phase.

[1] https://docs.flutter.dev/ui/accessibility/web-accessibility

Re: .NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

#206

Post by nkrisc »

charcircuit wrote: post #70
a2128 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not using the standard web stuff usually means it's also an accessibility nightmare, tried using a screen reader on the demo and it doesn't work at all unfortunately

What screen reader? Over the last few years AI's ability to understand images has improved a lot.

Slow and expensive. You’re just proposing yet another “disability tax”.

Re: .NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

#207

Post by cons0le »

torben-friis wrote: post #188
mastazi wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why, in traditional rich desktop applications, I can't say I have ever missed the ability to select and copy text from the UI I do miss this on an almost daily basis and I have stopped paying for services that force me to use an app without offering a website. The last instance of this was just a couple days ago when I could not copy a tracking number from an e-commerce app (to then paste it into the shipping compa…

Most mobile experiences (and macOS desktop) let you select unselectable stuff with OCR. For macOS is by screencap and selecting on preview, for phones in their respective “ai analysis views” usually long pressing the bottom. I know it’s a silly flow when it could be selectable straight away, just pointing it out.

This is why technology is becoming garbage. In 2025 instead of copy paste, we fire up a gpu in a datacenter. it feels like "software engineering" is just becoming a BS contest for "how much AI can we shoehorn into everything"

Re: .NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

#208

Post by socalgal2 »

tThis is another horrible, "lets render everything in canvas" framework so no select, no OS level context menu, no accessabiltiy, can't look up a word using your OSes dictionary, no IME support so no Japan/Korean/Chinese/Thai input, no find, no extensions, because there's no structure to look at, no translation extensions, in fact no translation period. Ugh!

Re: .NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

#209

Post by Kye »

taftster wrote: post #7
judah wrote: post #6

This is interesting for sure. Kudos for bringing this capability to the web! One issue the demos reveal is, it doesn't _feel_ like the web. That is, I can't hit Ctrl+F to find text on a page. I can't select text with my cursor. I can't copy the address of a hyperlink. On my phone, I can't hard press on an image and share it to others. Screen readers can't handle it. I can't press a shortcut key to make everything lar…

That's not pedantic at all! Indeed, without these capabilities, it is by some definition not the real web. This hits into that concept of what exactly the "web" is. Is it just a media transport system? Or is it something more than that. Of course, we could cite Tim Berners-Lee here or Roy Fielding in this discussion. But at minimum, I think a lot of us are tired of the app-lification of the web and somewhat wish we c…

I've had the same thoughts as I watch YouTube slowly but steadily subsume "podcast."

We were all worried about something like Spotify killing off open RSS feeds for them, but there's a growing number of people who have no idea what a podcast is because people are using the term for YouTube channels with full video and no RSS feed (video or audio) to match it. Sometimes language drift is good, but not when it's done on purpose to get rid of a free and open technology in favor of silos.

"Wherever you get your podcasts" only works as long as it's built on top of an open method of syndication.

Re: .NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

#210

Post by gr4vityWall »

brokencode wrote: post #61
latentsea wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never build a frontend on a .NET technology. Period. They always end up unsupported in the end. Just use standard web technologies and thank yourself later. I've been a .NET dev for a decade now and that's what I've learnt.

As wrong as it feels to have to use Electron for a desktop app, it really is the safest approach for most applications. Qt also seems to be a good option, though there are licensing considerations for commercial applications. I’m excited for various upcoming Rust options as well, but right now Electron is the battle tested option. I am curious though about Avalonia. I’ve heard good things, but it’s definitely a small…

> Qt also seems to be a good option

I think Qt really is 'just' missing more language bindings, and a better hot reload story for more people to use it. Lots of devs (specially Free Software devs) would prefer to use native toolkits, if the prototyping experience was similar to how Vite is for web frontend stuff, I think Qt would be used a lot more.

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