I agree, there is a loud minority who religiously criticize Electron while most desktop apps get written in it. The same was also true for Java applets.
Electron made many trade-offs indeed but writing "this is electron based so I'll not use it" and "great idea but unfortunately built with Electron, so I closed the tab" kind of comments on every bloody HN thread is extremely tiring.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think the criticism is without merit... Like, I still don't run the standalone Slack app (on my desktop) and only run the browser version, because, like, why would I run two browsers?! (I'd make an exception for a really useful app like I make an exception for Java with IntelliJ's IDEs). But on the other hand, I also understand the author's point of view, and I definitely wouldn't berate him for it.
> I agree, there is a loud minority who religiously criticize Electron while most desktop apps get written in it.
Current GUI programs running on my computers:
- StumpWM :: not Electron
- emacs :: not Electron
- Firefox :: not Electron
- st :: not Electron
- Chromium :: not Electron
- dunst :: not Electron
- redshift :: not Electron
- xautolock :: not Electron
- nm-applet :: not Electron
From my own perspective, 'most desktop apps' are not written in Electron.
> - Chromium :: not Electron
Can't tell if this is a joke or not.
I meant basic GUI apps written in the last few years.
Running on macOS, I have a dozen or so native Cocoa applications written in the last few years.
Electron is like Flash of yore -- it's a giant "hack me" sign on your computer.
Performance issues aside, Electron, to my knowledge, is nothing like Flash in terms of security. There have been only a few security bugs in Electron itself, while Flash was riddled with them.
Interesting, that's exactly what I'd say about your comment...
The way I interpret the author's point is, with a lot of real-world programming/engineering experience also comes the appreciation of tradeoffs and priorities. Like, people don't use Electron because it's well-designed or efficient, but because it allows you to quickly and easily create new software that mostly works mostly everywhere. If you can come up with a better alternative, or substantially improve Electron, you should definitely do it!