Sadly, that all went away (about the time the iPhone was released?) and we entered a UX dark age where users only ever get at most 2 choices about theming and UI is considered part of your brand. In the 90s and early 00s it was a sign of professionalism that applications used native OS widgets and respected the theming choices of the user. Web tech is cool for what it is within the scope of a webbrowser, but outside of that it is a steaming pile of. Yes, they lag and are slow on all OS's and yes we can notice it. Nevermind the resource usage and general laggy UI from these application. Basically they stick out like a fat wart. They ignore basic guidelines, spacing is all different, different themes, no native window dressing/menu's, most don't use the tray/notification system correctly etc. They do not conform to the rest of the system. Problem is, the moment I install any electron/web-based app (Slack, VS Code, Gitkraken, Spotify, Steam etc), they look out of place.

They use a tiny amount of disk space and a tiny memory footprint while running. Point is, the whole experience is very consistent. Most of them also uses the same keyboard shortcut system and accessibility features. The same buttons, same spacing, same font sizes/types, same colours, same systems shell/window decorations, scroll bars etc. The majority of the applications uses the operating system's theming system, which makes all applications look the same. Given no other alternatives to do X, what is preferable? An Electron app that allows people to do X, or no app at all?Įxample: On Fedora, I'd install the Arc Theme + some fancy icon pack. Here's a hypotetical/philosophical question for the community in general. But I feel that this policing of how people write their own software (especially when it's something purely done as a hobby and/or just to share something with people) is getting somewhat out of hand. That's not to say that Electron doesn't have all these issues, of course. And Electron lets me use the knowledge I already have to make things. HTML/CSS/Javascript is all I know and it's probably all I will reasonably stay with for a while because of various circumstances. But every time an electron app gets promoted somewhere (HN/Reddit/Twitter/wherever) there is always _someone_ yelling at the developer because they decided to use Electron.Īs a javascript developer, I'm sorry that I don't have the patience/smarts/skills/time to learn C++/Qt/GTK/WxWidgets/etc. More people making software is good! And the community grows because of it, and everything is better. I thought the community in general was in favour of allowing people to create whatever they wanted, however they wanted. This intense hatred for Electron has always baffled me.

Mac install slack