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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What's your experience with Electron alternatives (lemmy.ml)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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,...?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

If you need multi platform support in one codebase, Flutter is a good choice. Ubuntu uses it for their new OS installer and GUI package manager.

Quite easy to get set up on Linux (though the recommended route is using Snaps).

No waiting ages for a massive node_modules folder to fill up, nor the general pain of using javascript; dart is a really nice language to write in.

You wont get the smallest binaries with it, but it's powerful, reliable, and pretty damn performant for a "non native" framework.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Second this. Been working with flutter and dart professionally for awhile now and it's great

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 months ago

I haven't use any alternatives, and haven't developed with electron, but I know that there are another alternative -- Tauri. It also uses web-view. It's built in Rust and allows apps to be developed in JS (providing JS api) and in Rust.

What I can say -- JS support won't be cross-platform, like we have with NodeJS in electron. Special debug per platform might be required.

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