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Comment on RAM prices soar, but popular Windows 11 apps are using more RAM due to Electron, Web components

A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

It’s because people want cross-platform apps and web is the easiest way to do it.

Just use the website then? There already is a suitable browser installed on every system. But no, people want apps. Makes it easier to stop people from having opinons about data collection and such. And the full browser stack needs to be fully reproduced each time. It gets really ridiculous when these apps sit idly in the notification area. Not to speak of security implications because electron apps and such usually don’t get timely updates.

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ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

Just use the website then?

It is a good solution for some apps but if you need to store data locally, use push notifications, run something in the background or access any native APIs you have to go with a native app.

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- A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  All major browsers can do this - with the exception of running something in the background I guess. But that is exactly the sort of usage scenario where an Electron app is the worst choice. Coding a separate utility with no GUI would be the sane thing to do here, not put whole browser stacks into memory.
  
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  - ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    You’re actually right, by now browsers have APIs to do most of the things apps do. Technically you could convert most apps to websites. I guess as a user I just don’t want all my apps to open a tab in my browser. I want to move apps between virtual desktops and monitors independently and I don’t want my app’s window to be clattered by all the menus from my browser. On mobile I also prefer switching between apps than between different tabs. For me the best compromise is:
    
    for system tools that don’t have to be cross platform and critical apps write native apps
    
    for small/medium cross platform apps use webviews like Webview2 or Tauri
    
    for big apps like Teams or Discord just use a website
    
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    A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    
    I guess as a user I just don’t want all my apps to open a tab in my browser. I want to move apps between virtual desktops and monitors independently and I don’t want my app’s window to be clattered by all the menus from my browser.
    
    All this is already possible with most browsers.
    
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  - BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Pretty sure PWAs can run in the background.
    
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dasbteam@lemmynsfw.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
WebBluetooth, WebUSB, WebSerial and the File System Access API aren’t universally available in Browsers for example.

Tauri would be a lesser evil compared to electron, but that then involves libwebkitgtk.

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