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Discussion on: Building my first desktop app: Electron initial impressions

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Ante Sepic • Edited

Hi, thanks a lot for your feedback, appreciated!

My main reason for the project is actually reducing barriers for people who want to make their desktop pretty.

I am aware that there are various ways to craft some widgets even on Linux (for example Gnome widgets, which can also make use of web technologies).

The trouble is that:

  • It is a steeper learning curve than necessary
  • Widgets you create for Gnome you can not share with other people who are maybe using Windows
  • There is no central repository with all available widgets that are guaranteed to work on your system

I am aware that the performance will not be the same as writing a native solution. However, writing a fully native, polished app for each OS would take me years.

In this case, I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Electron is getting constant updates and some further optimizations will surely come in the future. Once the Glitter project validates the need for a solution like this, I can start looking into optimizing/rewriting it. Right now, I don't think it would make sense.