←back to thread

Electrobun: Cross-platform desktop applications written in TypeScript

(electrobun.dev)
323 points CharlesW | 1 comments | 20 Nov 24 23:58 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
throwaway888abc ◴[21 Nov 24 06:52 UTC] No.42201803[source]▶
"...and cross-platform desktop applications" the homepage says

But, Sadly, this is mac only[0] no windows or linux ? Do I understand it correctly ?

[0] https://electrobun.dev/docs/guides/Compatability

replies(5): >>42202177 #>>42202312 #>>42203186 #>>42206845 #>>42209187 #
NoahKAndrews ◴[21 Nov 24 08:40 UTC] No.42202312[source]▶
Looks like they're planning to only ever support building on Mac, but they plan to support running on Windows and Linux in the future
replies(2): >>42202321 #>>42206697 #
jclulow ◴[21 Nov 24 08:42 UTC] No.42202321[source]▶
Wild that one would pick the only platform with a rubbish VMs and CI story as the OS to use for building software!
replies(3): >>42203134 #>>42203561 #>>42203838 #
veidr ◴[21 Nov 24 12:16 UTC] No.42203561[source]▶
What's wild about it? It's one person, and they probably mainly use a Mac. If they used Windows, it would be Windows-only at this stage. I have lots of projects that only run on Linux. Clearly, if the project succeeds and gains tractions, the other platforms will come.
replies(3): >>42204373 #>>42204502 #>>42206976 #
gorjusborg ◴[21 Nov 24 14:15 UTC] No.42204502[source]▶
It assume it will severely limit its uptake.

If I had to pick one platform to build on, it would be linux. Pretty much every platform has the ability to run linux executables (via Docker, among others).

If this is a personal project, that's cool, but then I really don't care that much. On the other hand, I think an electron-like with something like Bun could be really useful.

replies(1): >>42204740 #
stickfigure ◴[21 Nov 24 14:42 UTC] No.42204740[source]▶
At least here in the US, the majority of developers daily drive macs on their desktop. Even (especially!) the ones that deploy exclusively on linux.

Having to run a docker container to get the dev env setup would be even more likely to slow adoption. Nobody wants to do that shit.

replies(5): >>42205101 #>>42205442 #>>42206194 #>>42206995 #>>42207828 #
gorjusborg ◴[21 Nov 24 15:42 UTC] No.42205442[source]▶
But almost nobody uses MacOS to run CI, which is usually how artifacts are built for the field. Having linux support first means people can actually use this for production (this project seems from from ready for that anyway) with some inconvenience for local dev.

MacOS only means I can work with it on my machine, but can't actually build it using CI/CD.

replies(1): >>42205884 #
Klonoar ◴[21 Nov 24 16:23 UTC] No.42205884[source]▶
I mean, GitHub Runners supports macOS for CI just fine.
replies(1): >>42210337 #
1. gorjusborg ◴[22 Nov 24 01:18 UTC] No.42210337[source]▶
Okay, fair.

I don't have metrics, but I bet linux is far and away the CI platform of choice.

I am not trying to bash this, but rather say that mac only is likely to limit usage. Early on that can be okay, but there are many people who will be turned off immediately.