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Re:Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and soft... by imtringued on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @04:48AM (#12303224)
I don't like browser based desktop apps. They have all the disadvantages of native apps but lose most advantages of HTML5 apps by being platform specific (apparently these is no discord desktop for linux) and require you to download an entire browser engine along with your app. You have to install them as opposed to just visiting an URL. They are not as lightweight as conventional desktop applications and don't perform as well. I'd rather see the browser getting more powerful. The cat is out of the bag already. If they're going to use a browser anyway, why can't they just run in my browser of choice along with all the other websites?
Re:Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and soft... by JasonSage on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @05:32AM (#12303388)
> apparently these is no discord desktop for linux

The Discord developers are working on this. It's not just web components but also native dependencies as well, so it's understandable I think if the Linux version comes in a little bit behind macOS and Windows versions where the majority of the gamer market is.

Next up, I'm starting to like when companies use desktop HTML5 apps. HTML and JavaScript does enable developers to move quickly with their interfaces, and I find them to be generally much more well-kept than native counterparts, where there's more inertia in making interface changes. A good comparison gamers will be familiar with is Steam. The Steam UI is written in a valve-proprietary, CSS-like language that I imagine is less performant than CSS. It's also REALLY buggy, so much so that I'm surprised that Valve has not already moved to an Electron app for Steam. If they did they'd be able to iterate quickly on interface improvements which they certainly don't do now.

Re:Twitch is acquiring popular video game community and soft... by amadeus on Wednesday August 17, 2016 @02:25PM (#12307030)
Disclosure: I'm a Discord developer.

Discord works in a browser or with the native apps. Just visit the website and click 'Open Discord in your browser'