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Comment by nkkollaw | Hacker News Reader

As a Linux user, it's a huge productivity boost because I wouldn't be able to use 90% of the app I us since they wouldn't be available on Linux.

I also don't notice my machine slowing down with Electron apps.

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> As a Linux user, it's a huge productivity boost because I wouldn't be able to use 90% of the app I us since they wouldn't be available on Linux.

That's not true. There are native cross-platform GUI toolkits, such as Qt. There's just as much reason for a Qt app to run on Linux as an Electron app.

I think the guy you're replying to's point is that Qt versions of the apps he uses don't exist - the Electron ones do.

The alternative to many Electron apps isn't a native app in another framework, it would simply be no app (on linux).

Usually the alternative to many electron apps is the web version which lacks 5% of the features but is 10 times more efficient.

Native and Electron apps have two advantages over web though. Fist one is, that they do have access to the file system. This makes a whole range of applications (like Git Kraken) possible. The other is that an application has an icon in the taskbar/dock. When somebody pings me on slack I know where to go to read it. When somebody calls me in hangouts, I have to go fishing for the tab or window with the site open.

Not true.

One example of a service that probably _could_ have a web version is Spotify, but they only offer their service via their Electron app.

Apps I care about are VSCode, Atom, Spotify, Slack.

Spotify actually does have a web player.

Yup.

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