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Discussion on: Building my first desktop app: Electron initial impressions

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_tboner profile image
P13TER

I like your project, but I don't think you really answered the concerns about electron? I get it if you don't care, but this is an app where having the whole runtime is a bit of a hog since you'll have it open all the time. Seems like you just didn't want to learn a desktop language, which is fair, the GUI stuff I've done in C and C++ was terrible.
On another note, you couldn't find good widgets on Linux? I'd guess it's more of an Ubuntu problem but the widgets I've used on arch and other distros looked great. Lmk if you want suggestions, I don't like anything being on my desktop but I think I have an old conf file somewhere. I ended up doing polybars instead.

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originalexe profile image
Ante Sepic • Edited

Hi, thanks a lot for your feedback, appreciated!

My main reason for the project is actually reducing barriers for people who want to make their desktop pretty.

I am aware that there are various ways to craft some widgets even on Linux (for example Gnome widgets, which can also make use of web technologies).

The trouble is that:

  • It is a steeper learning curve than necessary
  • Widgets you create for Gnome you can not share with other people who are maybe using Windows
  • There is no central repository with all available widgets that are guaranteed to work on your system

I am aware that the performance will not be the same as writing a native solution. However, writing a fully native, polished app for each OS would take me years.

In this case, I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Electron is getting constant updates and some further optimizations will surely come in the future. Once the Glitter project validates the need for a solution like this, I can start looking into optimizing/rewriting it. Right now, I don't think it would make sense.