Electron is a widely hated framework on Linux, but what about the alternatives like Neutralinojs?
In their own words: In Electron and NWjs, you have to install Node.js and hundreds of dependency libraries. Embedded Chromium and Node.js make simple apps bloaty — in most scenarios, framework weights more than your app source. Neutralinojs offers a lightweight and portable SDK which is an alternative for Electron and NW.js. Neutralinojs doesn’t bundle Chromium and uses the existing web browser library in the operating system (Eg: gtk-webkit2 on Linux). Neutralinojs implements a secure WebSocket connection for native operations and embeds a static web server to serve the web content. Also, it offers a built-in JavaScript client library for developers.
Do you experience alternatives like Njs to blend more in the desktop layout, install less junk, use less memory, are more compatible with Wayland,…?
https://tauri.app/ is very popular and does not need electron. It uses the OS native we view.
And 2.0 will support Android and iOS
I wanna use Rust to build mobile apps so bad. I don’t really know what I want to build, but I want to use Rust to do it
Alternative for what? I never used electron apps and I don’t see any reason for that. If you are a developer, try Qt.
Qt and Electron are different technologies that achieve somewhat different goals
Qt and Electron are different technologies
Yes.
that achieve somewhat different goals
No.
You can’t get a website working as a “native” application with Qt, which is exactly what is Electron’s goal.
Which is why Electron reminds me of a little kid who’s just done some extremely difficult but utterlly pointless thing.
Websites belong in a browser. If it doesn’t work in any random standards-compliant browser, then you should be delivering it as a true native application, not some horrific fiji-mermaid-esque hybrid.
You are talking as if all people can make a native app with the same knowledge and amount of effort as it would take to develop a website.
Sometimes, web developers would want to go further with their app and deliever “native” functionality. Sometimes, a person wants to build an app but only happens to know how to build a website.
It’s a much more complicated matter than just some idiots deciding “let’s build an utterly pointless thing and then let other idiots build horrific fiji-mermaid-esque hybrids!!”.
https://asylum.madhouse-project.org/blog/2018/10/26/Walking-in-my-shoes/
Have you tried Flutter? https://flutter.dev/
React Native is good, and isn’t just a web view. It uses native UI widgets so the apps feel truly native. Many Android and iOS apps use it, and Microsoft ported it to Windows and MacOS and use it in some of their apps (notably, the Xbox app, parts of Office, and parts of Windows like the old Mail app in Windows 10, use it). Unfortunately there’s no stable port for Linux :/
In theory, someone could port React Native to use Gtk, Qt, or WxWidgets, but I haven’t seen any such efforts recently - there’s a few old projects but they’ve all been abandoned.
Have you tried Flutter?
I didn’t develop on it, but I’ve used recently one app written in it and it was hot pile of garbage.
It was slow as a slug, and eat lot of CPU. I’ve also checked web eversion and was astonished as it rendered everything into canvas. It’s really poor design choice to render everything by app itself.
I guess it was just buggy app, but I didn’t try other apps in flutter, so can’t compare.
But web demo of flutter UI components with list box was also not so fast. But perhaps it’s just web version. Didn’t know any example of good flutter app.
