Ask HN: Why aren't devs making desktop apps any more?

Re:Ask HN: Why aren't devs making desktop apps any more? by jjice on Thursday March 24, 2022 @01:27PM (#30792898)

You're right that it's possible, and electron development isn't free, but it's significantly easier for a team of two than it is to maintain native Windows, MacOS, and Linux.

One way I think of Electron is that it's fine if it's a primary app I'm using, but when it's a side thing that I have to leave open (Spotify, Slack), it can annoying. I agree that I'd rather native apps for better performance and resource usage, but I understand the developer's plight.

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Re:Ask HN: Why aren't devs making desktop apps any more? by criddell on Thursday March 24, 2022 @02:39PM (#30793777)

There's no developer's plight for Spotify and Slack. They both have tens of millions of clients running. They can afford to make something better and if they had any respect for their users or the planet, they would.

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Re:Ask HN: Why aren't devs making desktop apps any more? by datagram on Thursday March 24, 2022 @04:38PM (#30795054)

I think one of the biggest problems with modern app development (web and desktop) is how much developers assume that their app is your primary app (and thus can hog resources/screen space/etc). The only apps that can ever reasonably make that assumptions imo are ones with real-time interaction, e.g. games. Anything else can and will be a side app in some scenarios.

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