Javascript / GitHub Electron Review

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Review of Javascript / GitHub Electron powered by the Slant community.

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What are the best languages to write a desktop Linux application in?

Pros

Pro
Works on Linux, Windows, Mac

Being powered by Javascript, apps build with Electron can be packed to run on all 3 platforms.

Pro
Wide spread support

Javascript is a very easy language to learn, and is handy for all manner of other things. There's a good chance you already know it, or that you will need to know it in the future.

Pro
WebApps without additional work

If you don't require native features and could write a web app (i.e. a website with dynamic elements), then you could just extend it and turn it into a native app. This means that people just need to type your URL to use you app and may get more by downloading and installing it.

Cons

Con
Low performance

Electron applications use significantly more CPU, RAM, and disk space than applications written in almost any other framework. This results in poor battery life as well as an unpleasant user experience.

Con
Backwards incompatibility between versions

Electron is growing and constantly changing, but there is no care whatsoever whether the changes in a new version will break your application or not. Even if you write and maintain one app, changes to how Electron handles JS files and functions will make maintenance of a single app your full time job. Even the development process, programming mindset and tooling changes between versions, so there is no guarantee that your app will even have a proper architecture a year from when you've built it.