Making and managing an electron app is easier, but it is possible (with more work) to have clean install/uninstall, a nice UI, and consistent regular updates while still being fast and efficient.
Better programs will always need more work to create.
I am curious about what other options there are, and why Electron is what a lot of people go with.
People choose Electron because they already know how to write Chromium apps (web dev). It’s really just ease of development, using another framework takes more specialized skills than using Electron.
The root cause is one step deeper, tbh: Web apps are cheaper. You take BSc’s and make them create web pages, and hey, with Chromium they can also be your desktop app devs. No need to have costly MSc’s for backend or full-stack work.
I mean this might vary depending on where in the world you are, but web devs earn a fair bit less over here.
No need to have costly MSc’s for backend or full-stack work.
Lmao where are you seeing backend shops just full of MSc’s writing new sorting algorithm and arguing about the BigO notation of their problem?
I’ve worked at Fortune 500 and MAANG companies, and the overwhelming vast majority of backend engineers that I’ve seen have BScs at best.
It doesn’t even make logical sense in the context of your argument given that Electron is purely a frontend technology. It has no bearing on your backend costs or how many backend engineers you need if you’re building your frontend natively or with Electron.
It doesn’t even make logical sense in the context of your argument given that Electron is purely a frontend technology. It has no bearing on your backend costs or how many backend engineers you need if you’re building your frontend natively or with Electron.
You take BSc’s and make them create web pages, and hey, with Chromium they can also be your desktop app devs. No need to have costly MSc’s for backend or full-stack work.
Pros: native code is going to be the fastest possible to run and have the smallest dependencies
Cons: have to write all your code 3+ times in different languages, have less time to develop new features and optimize existing code.
Progressive Web App:
Pros: single app, write once runs anywhere, no signing keys, no lock in, can be hosted anywhere, runs on everything
Cons: artificially limited by Apple on iOS, doesn’t have access to deep operating system resources, only what’s exposed through the browser, limited multithreading capabilities
React Native:
Pros: single app, write once, runs anywhere, similar enough to React Web that a lot of developers will have an easy time learning it
Cons: still kinda finnicky, not super easy to make it work and perform well across all platforms, you’ll probably still end up having to write some native code, not actually CSS / React Web so still a bit of a learning curve coming from there
Qt:
Pros: single app, write once, runs anywhere, low level / compiled means that it will be small and performant
Cons: written in C++, harder to find developers for, harder to implement modern out of the box niceties that CSS gives you for free, poor devX compared to react
.NET MAUI (formerly Xamarin):
Pros: single app, write once, runs anywhere, low level / compiled enough to be more performant than most web apps out of the box, well documented
Cons: written in C#, easier to find devs for but not many experts in it specifically, MVVM model is not as pleasant of a devX as React, again no css
Electron:
Pros: single app, write once, runs anywhere, has full access to operating system resources and deep multithreading if needed, can be as simple as web app in a container or as complex as something like VSCode.
Cons: takes up more storage and ram since you’re bundling chromium with your app
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Isn’t this about performance and not storage?
Making and managing an electron app is easier, but it is possible (with more work) to have clean install/uninstall, a nice UI, and consistent regular updates while still being fast and efficient.
Better programs will always need more work to create.
I am curious about what other options there are, and why Electron is what a lot of people go with.
People choose Electron because they already know how to write Chromium apps (web dev). It’s really just ease of development, using another framework takes more specialized skills than using Electron.
That’s why everything is Chromium these days.
The root cause is one step deeper, tbh: Web apps are cheaper. You take BSc’s and make them create web pages, and hey, with Chromium they can also be your desktop app devs. No need to have costly MSc’s for backend or full-stack work.
I mean this might vary depending on where in the world you are, but web devs earn a fair bit less over here.
Lmao where are you seeing backend shops just full of MSc’s writing new sorting algorithm and arguing about the BigO notation of their problem?
I’ve worked at Fortune 500 and MAANG companies, and the overwhelming vast majority of backend engineers that I’ve seen have BScs at best.
It doesn’t even make logical sense in the context of your argument given that Electron is purely a frontend technology. It has no bearing on your backend costs or how many backend engineers you need if you’re building your frontend natively or with Electron.
Yeah, that’s what I said.
?
In this situation you never needed MSc’s…
Options:
Native app for each platform:
Progressive Web App:
React Native:
Qt:
.NET MAUI (formerly Xamarin):
Electron:
Flutter is quite nice too. Closer to web dev, but still pretty close to native.
Tauri is also a more recent option, which uses the native webview. Not sure if it’s suitable for production yet though.