Microsoft wants devs to build Electron AI apps on Windows 11, says no need of native code, despite RAM concerns

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨throws_lemy@reddthat.com⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/03/17/microsoft-wants-devs-to-build-electron-ai-apps-on-windows-11-says-no-need-of-native-code-despite-ram-concerns/

Electron apps are ruining the Windows 11 experience, and even the JavaScript creator has warned against ‘rushed web UX over native,’ but it doesn’t look like that will change Microsoft’s plans. In a post on X and other places, Microsoft reaffirmed its commitment to AI in Windows 11 and encouraged Electron developers to consider using AI in their apps.

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db2@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Microslop Winslop 11 with Electroslop

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- lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Image
  
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finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Today it took almost 30 seconds for the context menu to appear when I right clicked on a file in windows explorer. God forbid they make an actually responsive UI.

(Inb4 “install linux”, it’s a work computer and I don’t get a say in OS)

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- CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Dude. Same. Windows 11 at work is fucking awful.
  
  My laptop idles at 12 out of 16 gigs of RAM free.
  
  Right clicking takes dozens of seconds, especially on a network share.
  
  Did IT remove a letter mapped network drive? Haha! Fuck you! Windows hangs indefinitely if you open Windows explorer. You gotta fuck around in the registry to remove that shit.
  
  The only good thing about windows 11 is tabs in Windows explorer. Which MacOS and Linux have had for a gazillion years.
  
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  - Bloefz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Microsoft don’t care about file shares anymore anyway, they want you to sign up for OneDrive :(
    
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  - melroy@kbin.melroy.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I can't even type normally anymore in teams. Since it will hang my business laptop during typing. It's so awful.
    
    Really Teams is the worst product.
    
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  - zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    This reminds me that many years ago, there was a small market for better file managers in Windows. Most were more like “side grades” that were better in some ways, but worse than others, but there was one that was way better than all of the called Directory Opus. It was silly expensive for the time (I want to say like $80), and most others were free, but holy shit was it feature filled, including tabs, and just really good. It was also a bit heavy compared to explorer back then. Now it probably runs insanely fast and is still way better. I just looked and it still exists at basically the same price, but any sane person considering it should just leave Windows.
    
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  - wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Tell corporate to give you more RAM or let you choose a lighter operating system 🤷‍♀️
    
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- reev@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Even in the browser Outlook (a Microslop web app running on a Microslop browser) sometimes takes up to a minute to load on refresh. HOW!? God I hate that company.
  
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  - finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Lmao yup, the desktop app, ‘new’ outlook takes up to 30 minutes to load sometimes
    
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  - filcuk@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I’ve never had outlook take long, always done in about 5 seconds. Firefox too, which would be the last to optimise for.
    
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- Magnum@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Install linux
  
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- toad@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Find a new job
  
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  - finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Lmao. Are you offering pay my bills and provide health insurance?
    
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- Quazatron@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Just like the good old days of running Windows 3.1 on an Intel 386sx. We’ve come full circle.
  
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  - zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Win 3.1 wasn’t even that slow on a 386sx (yay, 386 buddies! o/), its nothing compared to Win 11 on midrange and lower laptops these days. Then again, those CPUs usually came in PCs with Win 3.0, so Win 3.1 was definitely noticeably heavier. MS also wasn’t nearly as large and well funded back then, there is no excuse for this other than pure incompetence.
    
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- XLE@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Look into cleaning up your context menu shell extensions: just a single bad one will freeze your context menu exactly how you described it.
  
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  - finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Unfortunately, I have literally zero control over what’s installed on my computer at work
    
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- lost_faith@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  work computer, Win 11, here. I need to lock my PC when I leave my desk. Over the last month or 2 (maybe more?) when I 3 finger salute to lock, it used to open in a moment, now I can count to at least 4 before the screen comes up
  
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  - finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Windows+L locks it directly, fyi
    
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- CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  When I started at my last job, I asked for a mac; I worked on Linux, Windows (wsl), and wanted a change. Most of my collegues (in the dev team) initially asked for a windows PC, but literally everyone ended up on Mac.
  
  Windows is only usable when the WSL is set up and then you basically work exclusively on that VM lol, I literally cannot understand how anyone puts up with this OS. Any other OS is excellent just by comparison.
  
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  - finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It’s not really a matter of preference. I’m a mechanical engineer, not a developer, and several industry-standard programs are only available for windows, so it doesn’t really matter if I’d like to use a different OS.
    
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  - obbeel@lemmy.eco.br ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It doesn’t make sense to stay locked into the Mac environment unless the hardware is incredible or you need to develop iOS applications.
    
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- wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  As long as you’re getting paid for those 30 seconds, it’s the shareholders’ problem. Keep your blood cool, take a sip off coffee and sit back. Twiddle with a thingamajig on your desk.
  
  If your supervisor asks what you’re doing, say “waiting for Windows to load”. Because that’s what you’re doing, and if they don’t like it then they should let you use a different OS.
  
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- MisterFrog@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Me every day at work.
  
  It’s even worse working in the company’s network drive.
  
  But damn, it often takes ages for a right click to appear in the goddamned downloads folder (which is in its default C drive location…)
  
  I feel you pain friend.
  
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  - finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Oh god don’t even get me started on our network drives lol. Searching for drawings can take HOURS
    
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- Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Win 11 feels like i replaced by SSD with an HDD. I’m half convinced that they’re making it as awful as possible so when the whole OS as a service thing arrives, it’ll feel super snappy.
  
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  - finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I will say that LTSC runs way smoother than regular windows, but that’s almost certainly because it’s got a lot of the bullshit stripped out.
    
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panda_abyss@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The one thing Apple has done an amazing job of over the years is providing a solid, clean, common application framework for all of their systems.

They’ve fucked it up recently, but basically, 90% of the time you’d get the same consistent interface design across all apps, with common design language and iconography and accessibility features. They aggressively deprecate so you have to keep that $100 dev fee rolling, but the experience has been good for the the better part of 20 years (post carbon & X11, pre-liquid ass, the cocoa years).

If everything is a vibe-coded web app then everything is going to look like different, feel like shit to use, and perform like shit.

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- Deestan@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  If everything on Windows is a vibe-coded web app then everything is going to look like different, feel like shit to use, and perform like shit.
  
  I am happy to report: Windows apps that look different, feel shit to use and perform like shit are already available!
  
  E.g. Teams, the CPU warmer from hell, was rolled out to Windows long ago. It was coded in Electron and couldn’t even integrate with Microsoft Windows’ taskbar popups. They had to fake one by creating a window that moved itself up from below the screen. Did this break when you changed resolution? Yes it did. Did it break when you moved the taskbar? Yes it did. Did it break when- YES IT DID
  
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- batshit@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  The one thing Apple has done an amazing job of over the years is providing a solid, clean, common application framework for all of their systems.
  
  iOS doesn’t even have a universal back button, every app has their own way of implementing it.
  
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  - Link@rentadrunk.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It has swipe to the right from the side of the screen. That works in very application I’ve tried.
    
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  - panda_abyss@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    If your app uses NavigationView, like 80% of apps, you get a back button and swipe gesture for free.
    
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  - undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    What is it with Android users’ obsession with the back button? Who actually cares? Why would I want some button that goes back to the wrong app for some reason?
    
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- org@lemmy.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  How has Apple fucked up recently?
  
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  - faltryka@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    As an avid Apple user the most recent ui changes are unfathomably bad. The os has become notably less useful to me in som frustrating ways. I can solve some but not all of it through settings.
    
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DupaCycki@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

push software that needs tons of ram cause ram shortage ??? …profit?

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- paris@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  At least for Enterprise where the real money is, “???” seems to be www.microsoft.com/en-us/…/windows-365-enterprise
  
  This isn’t some grand plan 5d chess. The people running these companies are dumb as hell and lucky. They get convinced from one silicon valley thought leader’s blog post that ai and electron are the future and then direct the entire company in that direction thinking they’re a great leader who will be remembered for pushing the company in a novel direction at just the right time. They attend a talk by a different thought leader who talks about a future of ai cloud computers that anyone can access from anywhere with more computational power than could ever fit into the shitty laptop they’re accessing it from, then they go to the board meeting the next day with their bright new idea to do cloud personal desktops.
  
  These companies are entirely responding to (nonsensical) market forces and the whims of high ranking individuals within their ranks. It’s painful and ridiculous.
  
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  - paris@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    To be clear, there are some benefits to provisioning enterprise devices in a tightly controlled cloud environment, but we’ve all seen ideas with “some benefits” get shot down by managers and CEOs who “don’t get why anyone would want that” so I’m not keen on giving Microsoft too much credit.
    
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- FauxLiving@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  -> …profit?
  
  They’re already hitting the storage side of things pretty hard.
  
  reddit.com/…/hp_laptop_falsely_advertises_having_…
  
  Buy up all of the hardware on the planet to have a monopoly on compute/storage -> rent the compute/storage to everyone who can’t buy it.
  
  See also: Housing
  
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  - Passerby6497@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Posting scammy Amazon links feels like cheating when having these discussions, but I kinda get where they’re coming from. The fact that people can try to sell a laptop with only 64gb disk is absolutely mental to me, because that’s not even enough to let the BASE OS run normally and update reliably. And that’s before you start doing anything on it.
    
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  - wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I’m so glad I bought my laptop when I did recently, with plenty of RAM and storage. Just in time before that stuff becomes impossible to find or impossibly unaffordable.
    
    This generation of hardware will probably be the plateau. The decline and fall is just around the bend. Maybe another generation of CPUs before those go for bust, too. They can rent out GPUs, RAM, and storage, but as far as I’m aware the CPU needs to be local on the device. At least, a CPU needs to be on the device…
    
    I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this trend is occuring just as NPUs are starting to hit the market. Those chips are too powerful to let the plebeians own and use without restriction, in the corpo’s view.
    
    Whether a better system replaces this one after it falls, or we enter an era where consumer hardware is a thing of the past, remains to be seen. Maybe when the AI bubble bursts, tech companies will have to liquidate their data centers and secondhand servers will become cheap. That would do wonders for the fediverse and the decentralized web…
    
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MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Once again, Microsoft is a strong contender for Linux Marketer Of The Year award

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Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Sure, I love it when a 50KB app takes 50MB because some cunt designer only knows HTML.

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harsh3466@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
This quote from the article is fucking hilarous:

Discord has also openly admitted that its Windows app is a resource hog, and it has rolled out a feature that allows the app to restart itself when RAM usage exceeds 4GB.

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- JillSteinsPuckeredAnus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Why is my Electron “Hello World” app 10Gb?
  
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- FinalRemix@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’ll never understand “installing” a website. Just open the damn site in Firefox.
  
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- arschflugkoerper@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  sooo ist that a memory leak, or what has to happen for that being the solution?
  
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mycodesucks@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Image

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Sanctus@anarchist.nexus ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Lack of constraints has killed everything. I hope.all the RAM becomes unusable people are forced to work with 3mb again.

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- MirrorGiraffe@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Nah, they’ll just push for streaming compute power and charge you once more!
  
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  - Jesus_666@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I’m just waiting for their reaction when everyone is supposed to use cloud desktops and the average application assumes the user has 128 GB of RAM.
    
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- mrnobody@reddthat.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You mean when care was taken while coding and an OS could "run on 1GB but suffice with 2GB? I know everyone hated Win 8 but it was a welcomed change plus no bullshit on it at the time.
  
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  - empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Real men remember when windows vista launched like shit because it assumed there were way more brand new high memory machines out there than there actually was
    
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  - zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I wouldn’t call Win 8 welcome, most people rather hated it. Then again, following Windows 7, which I the best of the bunch, couldn’t have been easy. MS just bet that the future of Windows was tablets and the world replied “lol no”.
    
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  - HyperfocusSurfer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yeah, 8.1 took like 800 megs ootb, while 10 wanted about 3 gigs to itself (not sure about earlier versions, tho; mb enshitification happened gradually)
    
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  - Samskara@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Since the mid 2000s desktop OSs haven‘t done anything fundamentally new until AI integration. Hardware accelerated compositing was the last big step. That was done with a couple of MBs on the graphics chip and less than 1 GB of RAM.
    
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Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Spontaneously I had the idea of entering this forbidden word into a browser, just to see what would happen:

microslop.com

The result was truth, and nothing but the truth, I can assure you :-)

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- wltr@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Oh yeah, it’s good. The link to microslop: microslop.com
  
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  - JayGray91@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Idk why but this is sort of funny to me.
    
    Image
    
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LiveLM@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Not really surprising considering Windows seems to be increasingly swapping their Native Shell components for Web Views (you can tell because sometimes they’ll randomly fail to load (: )

You know it’s bad when Brendan fucking Eich is the reasonable one
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- maplesaga@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Why is settings getting so bad, its like using a nonfunctional electron app.
  
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  - Rooster326@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Because AI is writing it.
    
    cnbc.com/…/satya-nadella-says-as-much-as-30percen…
    
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sonofearth@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Repeat with me.

INSTALL LINUX!

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- Qey@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  with me.
  
  INSTALL LINUX!
  
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chunes@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Inner-platform effect in full swing. Windows exists only to run Chrome. Chrome is the new OS layer.

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cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
If you don’t want to write native code, then make a PWA. At least those don’t run a separate copy of chrome for each program.

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- aeharding@vger.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  And or tauri
  
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TerdFerguson@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What do we say?

“MAKE. IT. SHITTY.”

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- Washedupcynic@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  MAKE IT SHITTY!
  
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Bloefz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Microsoft also make the one app that actually shines in electron: vs code. It’s really quite optimised. But somehow they didn’t bother learning lessons from that and keep rolling out terrible slop like teams and new outlook.

It’s weird how one company can do things right and also be do incompetent at the same time.

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- kalpol@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
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  - odelik@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It’s missing the arm that has the gun pointed at themselves.
    
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  - SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I just realized I’ve been staring at this picture for over a minute, trying to figure out what it means. What does this picture mean?
    
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- Jankatarch@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Tbf vscode has opensource contributors and they had the code for atom text editor (by developers of electron) to look as reference code.
  
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- mghackerlady@leminal.space ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I can’t stand VScode, whoever decided a text editor should be written in HTML/CSS and JavaScript deserves to be shot
  
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- Master167@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Isn’t VS Code open-sourced? Can those optimizations be contributed to the wider community of electron experts?
  
  I guess my point is VS Code works well because the users can fix it and they have the ability to do so. The same cant be said for Teams & Outlook. No one can fix that PoS.
  
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Samskara@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The next step in app delivery is shipping a full VM with the operating system and the app.

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ivypt200@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I remember when 16 GB was for high work-load workstation tasks, it was not that long ago. Now it keeps getting used up by one single instance of firefox when it is open for too long. Screw javascript bullshit, i just want to use lynx and netsurf already.

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Jankatarch@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Javascript creator thinks they are rushing things.
Javascript creator thinks they are rushing things.

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ItsMeForRealNow@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yeah sounds like an AI agent decided that.

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ImgurRefugee114@reddthat.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’m pretty anti webtech but even I’ve written GUIs in wails. I hate electron so much, but what makes it worse is that there are so many better options. The people that keep pushing it are stupid*

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Reygle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Hi, uh- just incase Slopya Nadella of Microslop happens to read the comments here one day,
Slopya- please take your sloperating system, print the slop code on A4 paper, fold it until it’s all corners. When done, insert rectally.

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allywilson@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
This sentence reads like Microsoft is the inventor of Javascript:

Electron apps are ruining the Windows 11 experience, and even the JavaScript creator has warned against ‘rushed web UX over native,’

So there’s 3 things, either they meant Typescript, they are very wrong or they’re quoting Brendan Eich and not attributing it to him.

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cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
the worst thing about electron apps besides everything about election apps are the fact that there’s no shared libraries so you basically have to have a billion of the same node modules on your system for every electron app that you have.

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KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’m not listening to Microsoft anymore

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GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
this solidifies two of my predictions from 15-20 years ago.

Microsoft is moving to an “internet required” is, likely meaning cloud based OS

all apps will become web apps

1000003241

my final prediction from then was subscription based access to your operating system, apps, and data. you own nothing. your data is constantly consumed and used to train their products. you will never be able to extract your data and will be forever locked-in to their product. this also means that you will have to pay extra for app use. need to use Photoshop? that’s an extra fee. need to use 3D rendering software? thats the ultra package with GPU fees per hour.

most of this is actually happening under the covers, but nothing is locking us in.

I would say we have about 5-7 years before the above happens and there’s no way back.
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lung@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Windows now Chromebooks?

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psoul@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
FYI for those who don’t know what electron is:

en.wikipedia.org/…/Electron_(software_framework)

[…] desktop applications using web technologies (mainly HTML, CSS and JavaScript )

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lechekaflan@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Every damn fucking time MSFT is mentioned: Install Linux, Problem Solved.

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this@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I would actually be for keyboards having a dedicated AI key, because then I would always have a key to remap to my voice PTT without loosing anything useful.

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