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,…?

  • Aniki 🌱🌿English
    3·
    6 months ago

    I vehemently oppose using webviews for desktop applications in general so regardless of if there’s a better one, they all suck.

    Neutralinojs implements a secure WebSocket connection for native operations and embeds a static web server to serve the web content.

    WHY do we do this? How is this any better than a native app? I’d almost, ALMOST, take Java over this madness.

    • ominouslemon
      3·
      6 months ago

      Companies are not willing to develop native applications anymore. Most apps are server-based anyway and developing native apps is expensive

      • Aniki 🌱🌿English
        1·
        6 months ago

        I mean – I totally get it but this is /c/linux not /c/programming. I understand the difficulty of developing both but I lament the fact that open source isn’t utilized to make the process easier running a damn webserver to render a mostly static view.

        • ___
          2·
          6 months ago

          I’m with you for the most part. Web technology has the ability to run well locally, and at speed. The current integration is lacking however.

    • intelisense
      1·
      6 months ago

      I just wish there was a native alternative to Visual Studio Code with a decent ecosystem of plugins.

      • Aniki 🌱🌿English
        1·
        6 months ago

        Mate, VSCodium is pretty right the fuck on. I’m a devops engineer but mostly a python dude so I use PyCharm for most development but when I need to do ANYTHING else that’s not Python my VSCodium is pretty dialed.