[evv]

This is effectively asking to double the size of the engineering team, or slow it down dramatically.

If I were a startup or small business, I'd rather ship a slightly slow-feeling app with my existing team of web developers who already know their tools, than to hire a bunch of native developers and somehow get them all on the same page.

[saagarjha]

> If I were a startup or small business, I'd rather ship a slightly slow-feeling app with my existing team of web developers who already know their tools, than to hire a bunch of native developers and somehow get them all on the same page.

That might be the time where you'd want to stand out from your competitors by shipping a fast, native app rather than a web app.

[evv]

Slack was able to stand out from its competitors by providing a reasonably fast web app. Nobody cared (cares?) about the desktop app.

It sure seems like you can compete with a good feature set and fast iteration on your product. Throwing more web developers on the project is often the right call, so you can keep shipping new features quickly on every platform.

I'd love to be proven wrong, but performance seems to be an afterthought to the market.

[saagarjha]

> Nobody cared (cares?) about the desktop app.

Let me tell you, people do care about the desktop app, and not in a good way…

[scarface74]

It depends on how you define "success". I define a "successful" business as one that is profitable.

Is Slack good enough that enough people will pay for it to make it a sustainable long term business?

https://www.recode.net/2017/6/15/15810088/slack-deal-funding...

[scarface74]

How many people use Slack desktop app? They also have good native apps for Android and iOS.

[scarface74]

Yes. I'm asking a business that want to provide a native client to provide a native client.

If it can be done as a web app why not do it as a web app?

Yes I am a developer and for products that are suited to be on the web, I write websites.

[evv]

What if that business wants to provide an "app" icon in the macOS dock, and a "program" in the windows start menu, without hiring a bunch of native developers? What would you advise for them, if not electron?

[scarface74]

If they want to have happy customers they won't do that - electron apps eat battery life compared to just going to a website.

[ascorbic]

And asking to drop Linux support.

[scarface74]

Is that a bad thing? What does the Slack "native" app do that the website doesn't? The website supports push notifications on the desktop.