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How is Electron doing btw? I'm itching to use it in one project but it doesn't feel like it's getting any traction in the community for a long time now. Since i

How is Electron doing btw? I'm itching to use it in one project but it doesn't feel like it's getting any traction in the community for a long time now. Since it's a long term project I kind of get mixed feelings about using it.

petargyurov 6y ago
This is my first project with it so I'm probably not in a position to provide much insight. So far development with it has been almost identical to coding a website, but maybe because I am yet to start on any OS dependant features. What makes you say that it isn't getting traction? AFAIK, some huge companies are using it to create their apps. I think it gets a lot of underserved hate, just because it's JS and because it isn't "truly native". People also love to chime in about its performance but 9/10 times that's down to a bad implementation, in my humble opinion.
- pjmlp 6y ago
  On top of that, I already have a browser installed and each Electron app is a step for turning the Web into ChromeOS.
- polishdude20 6y ago
  Is there any benefit to using electron vs a website with the same code? Especially if you want it to be free and accessible to everyone
  - westoncb 6y ago
    I have built a couple Electron apps, one of which will be available as a commercial product soon. The main advantages (over executing your app in-browser) to my knowledge: 1. You can execute native code outside normal browser sandbox 2. You get your own application window
    - polishdude20 6y ago
      Wait, you can execute say c++ using electron?
      - westoncb 6y ago
        Yep: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/using-native-node-modules https://www.electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/using-native-node-m...
    - wlesieutre 6y ago
      You can even have multiple application windows! But VS Code is the only one I can think of that bothers. God forbid you want to be in two Slack orgs at the same time, perhaps on different virtual desktops. Off to the browser version with you!
      - httpsterio 6y ago
        That's just bad usability on Slack's part, not a technical limitation of the tech. Also, afaik Slack is/has moving away from Electron.
        wlesieutre 6y ago
        Agreed on the bad usability, but that's par for the course with most Electron apps. You get the laziest possible "stuffed a webpage in a window" UI. And maybe it's even a nice UI in some ways, but it's usually pretty clear that it's not native software. Re: moving away from Electron, not as far as I know. They had a major update a year or so ago to make some big efficiency gains by not running a separate Electron instance for each organization, but the new version is still in Electron: https://slack.engineering/rebuilding-slack-on-the-desktop/ https://slack.engineering/rebuilding-slack-on-the-desktop/ One can hope that they'll take the iPad version and make some improvements to let ARM Mac users get that instead, but currently they've chosen to disable downloading it from the Mac App Store.
mimixco 6y ago
Spotify is an Electron app that's doing well. Also my own company's experiences with it have been good.
- ronjouch 6y ago
  Spotify isn't an Electron app. It predates Electron and uses CEF ( https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_Embedded_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_Embedded_Framework ), like Steam.
  - mimixco 6y ago
    I should have said Slack.

petargyurov 6y ago

This is my first project with it so I'm probably not in a position to provide much insight. So far development with it has been almost identical to coding a website, but maybe because I am yet to start on any OS dependant features. What makes you say that it isn't getting traction? AFAIK, some huge companies are using it to create their apps. I think it gets a lot of underserved hate, just because it's JS and because it isn't "truly native". People also love to chime in about its performance but 9/10 times that's down to a bad implementation, in my humble opinion.

pjmlp 6y ago
On top of that, I already have a browser installed and each Electron app is a step for turning the Web into ChromeOS.
polishdude20 6y ago
Is there any benefit to using electron vs a website with the same code? Especially if you want it to be free and accessible to everyone
- westoncb 6y ago
  I have built a couple Electron apps, one of which will be available as a commercial product soon. The main advantages (over executing your app in-browser) to my knowledge: 1. You can execute native code outside normal browser sandbox 2. You get your own application window
  - polishdude20 6y ago
    Wait, you can execute say c++ using electron?
    - westoncb 6y ago
      Yep: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/using-native-node-modules https://www.electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/using-native-node-m...
  - wlesieutre 6y ago
    You can even have multiple application windows! But VS Code is the only one I can think of that bothers. God forbid you want to be in two Slack orgs at the same time, perhaps on different virtual desktops. Off to the browser version with you!
    - httpsterio 6y ago
      That's just bad usability on Slack's part, not a technical limitation of the tech. Also, afaik Slack is/has moving away from Electron.
      - wlesieutre 6y ago
        Agreed on the bad usability, but that's par for the course with most Electron apps. You get the laziest possible "stuffed a webpage in a window" UI. And maybe it's even a nice UI in some ways, but it's usually pretty clear that it's not native software. Re: moving away from Electron, not as far as I know. They had a major update a year or so ago to make some big efficiency gains by not running a separate Electron instance for each organization, but the new version is still in Electron: https://slack.engineering/rebuilding-slack-on-the-desktop/ https://slack.engineering/rebuilding-slack-on-the-desktop/ One can hope that they'll take the iPad version and make some improvements to let ARM Mac users get that instead, but currently they've chosen to disable downloading it from the Mac App Store.

mimixco 6y ago

Spotify is an Electron app that's doing well. Also my own company's experiences with it have been good.

ronjouch 6y ago
Spotify isn't an Electron app. It predates Electron and uses CEF ( https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_Embedded_Framework https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_Embedded_Framework ), like Steam.
- mimixco 6y ago
  I should have said Slack.