[edko]

It depends on the application. I did a couple of projects with Rust's web-view crate (which uses native Safari on MacOS, and native Edge on Windows). This gave me access to the full JS and the full Rust ecosystem. I think the possibilities were richer than if I had used Electron alone. For example, I was able to use the Tantivy crate, for very fast and powerful full-text search. All of this with a fraction of the executable size.

[Klonoar]

I mean, no: you can do the same stuff with Electron, and you _won't_ be saddled with the issues inherent to WKWebView that Apple still hasn't fixed years later. There are also web features that Safari notoriously does not implement that you'd have access to in Edge.

Webview2 on Windows is also going through a weird period where you can't rely on it "just working" without the end user installing a runtime.

There is a thread, long ago here on HN, where the developer who made the Slack transition from native webviews per platform (which it was, originally, and everyone conveniently forgets) to Electron. He notes it was specifically because cross-platform issues become a pain in the ass to deal with, and Electron avoids that.

There's a disconnect between the average HN commentator who builds a UI in HTML/CSS/JS, and the types of frontends that larger applications build in those languages. Cross platform stuff shows up, and it's not a great use of time when there's one runtime sitting there that does everything and looks the same everywhere.

[jeremyjh]

I don't know why you are being downvoted. Personally I consider Electron to be cancer but this comment is very informative and raises some very valid points. For some reason it is 2020 and there is no fully qualified solution for cross platform desktop application development. Every option has massive downsides, gotchas, rough edges and limitations.

[Klonoar]

Meh, it's downvotes due to blind Electron hate. I'm not too surprised nor bothered by it.

[edko]

I think the trick may be deciding what to do on the web side and what on the Rust side. In the case I was mentioning, I used the web side only for display. All the file handling, app updates, full-text search, etc., I did in Rust, and it worked very well on both MacOS and Windows (didn't check Linux).