Is Electron really that bad? If so, are there any good alternatives that solve the two issues I mention above?
Ask HN: Is Electron really that bad for desktop apps?
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Re: Ask HN: Is Electron really that bad for desktop apps?
#2Re: Ask HN: Is Electron really that bad for desktop apps?
#3That being said, I think the styling thing is a really important point that is often undervalued. I've written UIs in GTK, Qt, and Swing, and perhaps this is close-minded but I honestly can't take anyone who says that they're just as easy as HTML/CSS seriously. I mean, literally just look at how many beautiful websites are out there, and then how many beautiful, not just functional, native programs there are (in my opinion, very few). UX/UI is important, and I think not having to pull your hair out every time you want to move a button to the right 3 pixels and give it a prettier border is a big plus for Electron.
Re: Ask HN: Is Electron really that bad for desktop apps?
#4I've downloaded a fair number of Electron apps, and ultimately deleted or aborted the download of most of them. VSC is the one that currently survives.
If it's something that needs most of a browser and HTML - like an email client that cropped up as a Show HN recently, or a client for a wholly online service, Electron may be the right choice.
If it's something more trivial like a notepad, reminder, or timer, Electron is just needlessly making it unfriendly thanks to start time, and memory load. Multiple MBs shouldn't be necessary for a timer or calculator but Electron will make that so.
You may say that we have lots of memory these days, and we do. But I run lots of things these days, and if I have half a dozen such apps running in background I basically have half a dozen instances of Chrome. That's quite an extra load on memory and start times. It's also going to be one of the early casualties if my (or family tech support) laptop is starting to run low on memory.
Last, I think there is something to be said for Electron as an early version while testing, especially while still exploring UI and feature changes as you can focus on that not platform issues. Once you know what is needed, 9 times out of 10, give them a proper native program.
Re: Ask HN: Is Electron really that bad for desktop apps?
#5Re: Ask HN: Is Electron really that bad for desktop apps?
#6As a user, I can't stand electron based apps. I want normal ass UI on my programs. In fact, on my desktop, nothing is an app, it's a program... Make your thing a program.