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Wait ... let me see if I can anticipate the top comment "Electron consumes so many resources ... Why so resource hungry ... My workstation already runs Chrome,

Wait ... let me see if I can anticipate the top comment "Electron consumes so many resources ... Why so resource hungry ... My workstation already runs Chrome, can't have electron apps bogging it down ... Slack runs on Electron ... VSCode is the only good Electron app ... Why are we doing this ... Dennis Ritchie would be turning in his grave" This topic could honestly trigger the "parse regex with html" kind of reply.

windsurfer 7y ago
Well, Slack is currently taking almost 3 GB of memory on my machine. Not entirely sure if that's due to Electron or Slack, but I have never found an Electron app that didn't consume vast swathes of memory. https://imgur.com/GscRFD7.png https://imgur.com/GscRFD7.png
- eicossa 7y ago
  Truth. When I first discovered Electron apps, i was amazed. Now i just walk away. I'm not saying any of these comments surrounding Electron are invalid, it's just that these things represent a kind of truthful circlejerk around the topic. I find it humanizes the HN crowd tbh. Otherwise most of the comments here are so aloof and definitive. Electron comments brings out all the normal folks :)
- maxbrunsfeld 7y ago
  It is not because of Electron. An empty Atom window containing 5 source code files consumes about 120MB of RAM. For comparison with native apps, an empty iTerm2 window uses 100MB, and so does an empty Notes.app window. The base memory footprint imposed by Chromium is not that significant.
  - windsurfer 7y ago
    On my machine, an empty Atom instance is using about 400 MB: https://imgur.com/S1POSPz.jpg https://imgur.com/S1POSPz.jpg
    - maxbrunsfeld 7y ago
      Do you have some packages installed? If so, can you re-run with `atom --safe`? Granted, it is totally normal to have packages when using Atom, but their memory cost shouldn't be considered a penalty that you pay due to Electron. Rather, it's a penalty that you pay if you want an extensible application in which extensions are allowed to use JavaScript.
      - windsurfer 7y ago
        I have no custom packages installed - I use atom just to take notes and do small text editing. When I run `atom --safe` it starts at around the same amount of memory usage: https://imgur.com/j4Co4n6.png https://imgur.com/j4Co4n6.png Side note: Running that command is now preventing my from quitting Atom using the Atom > Quit menu entry. I had to force quit it to get it to close.
  - brylie 7y ago
    How much memory does a "hello world" app use?
- vips7L 7y ago
  Slack is currently only using 90MB on my machine...
  - windsurfer 7y ago
    Are you sure you are looking at all running processes? Slack splits it's memory usage across multiple, as you can see from my screenshot.
    - vips7L 7y ago
      Windows groups them so yes.
    - plexicle 7y ago
      700MB on my machine. Logged in to 4 active workspaces.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  If a developer has already decided they care about resource consumption and bloat so little that they're distributing on Electron, then why would you expect them to care about resource efficiency at all?
- 52-6F-62 7y ago
  I tend to get "helpers" that pile up that seem to consume the most. I developed an application with Electron (+ Vue + Node) for an internal tool used by non-technical staff at my work and I don't have nearly the consumption as some other applications, but there is a lot less occurring on the renderer process than it appears with other applications. I've added VSCode (with a large project), my application's usage (censored because it's proprietary, but it's a document-based application) and the worst memory offenders on my system (16GB 2015 MBP): https://imgur.com/a/9rs707J https://imgur.com/a/9rs707J I've heard of other similar strategies-- but the best one seems to be to offload as much of the work to the main process or talk to a binary wrapped up in the application and do as little lifting with the renderer (the Chromium portion) as possible. My results have been alright so far.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
laichzeit0 7y ago
This is no different than every C thread turning into a Rust evangelism crusade. For me personally it’s interesting because it corroborates the fact that stereotypes do exist, and generalizations can be made about groups of people, to the dismay of people against generalizations.
gsaga 7y ago
I agree, imagine not having a 32gb workstation in 2019.

windsurfer 7y ago

Well, Slack is currently taking almost 3 GB of memory on my machine. Not entirely sure if that's due to Electron or Slack, but I have never found an Electron app that didn't consume vast swathes of memory. https://imgur.com/GscRFD7.png https://imgur.com/GscRFD7.png

eicossa 7y ago
Truth. When I first discovered Electron apps, i was amazed. Now i just walk away. I'm not saying any of these comments surrounding Electron are invalid, it's just that these things represent a kind of truthful circlejerk around the topic. I find it humanizes the HN crowd tbh. Otherwise most of the comments here are so aloof and definitive. Electron comments brings out all the normal folks :)
maxbrunsfeld 7y ago
It is not because of Electron. An empty Atom window containing 5 source code files consumes about 120MB of RAM. For comparison with native apps, an empty iTerm2 window uses 100MB, and so does an empty Notes.app window. The base memory footprint imposed by Chromium is not that significant.
- windsurfer 7y ago
  On my machine, an empty Atom instance is using about 400 MB: https://imgur.com/S1POSPz.jpg https://imgur.com/S1POSPz.jpg
  - maxbrunsfeld 7y ago
    Do you have some packages installed? If so, can you re-run with `atom --safe`? Granted, it is totally normal to have packages when using Atom, but their memory cost shouldn't be considered a penalty that you pay due to Electron. Rather, it's a penalty that you pay if you want an extensible application in which extensions are allowed to use JavaScript.
    - windsurfer 7y ago
      I have no custom packages installed - I use atom just to take notes and do small text editing. When I run `atom --safe` it starts at around the same amount of memory usage: https://imgur.com/j4Co4n6.png https://imgur.com/j4Co4n6.png Side note: Running that command is now preventing my from quitting Atom using the Atom > Quit menu entry. I had to force quit it to get it to close.
- brylie 7y ago
  How much memory does a "hello world" app use?
vips7L 7y ago
Slack is currently only using 90MB on my machine...
- windsurfer 7y ago
  Are you sure you are looking at all running processes? Slack splits it's memory usage across multiple, as you can see from my screenshot.
  - vips7L 7y ago
    Windows groups them so yes.
  - plexicle 7y ago
    700MB on my machine. Logged in to 4 active workspaces.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
If a developer has already decided they care about resource consumption and bloat so little that they're distributing on Electron, then why would you expect them to care about resource efficiency at all?
52-6F-62 7y ago
I tend to get "helpers" that pile up that seem to consume the most. I developed an application with Electron (+ Vue + Node) for an internal tool used by non-technical staff at my work and I don't have nearly the consumption as some other applications, but there is a lot less occurring on the renderer process than it appears with other applications. I've added VSCode (with a large project), my application's usage (censored because it's proprietary, but it's a document-based application) and the worst memory offenders on my system (16GB 2015 MBP): https://imgur.com/a/9rs707J https://imgur.com/a/9rs707J I've heard of other similar strategies-- but the best one seems to be to offload as much of the work to the main process or talk to a binary wrapped up in the application and do as little lifting with the renderer (the Chromium portion) as possible. My results have been alright so far.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

laichzeit0 7y ago

This is no different than every C thread turning into a Rust evangelism crusade. For me personally it’s interesting because it corroborates the fact that stereotypes do exist, and generalizations can be made about groups of people, to the dismay of people against generalizations.

gsaga 7y ago

I agree, imagine not having a 32gb workstation in 2019.