I think what's missing from a lot of these discussions is that web services shouldn't need to write native apps. All they need to do is provide a full API and let third-party native app developers do the rest of the work. The problem is that these companies want to control "the whole experience". People often say, "It was either Electron or nothing", but that's assuming only one company is writing every native app. The real problem with the official Slack Mac app is that it exists! If Slack just got out of the way and let Mac native developers take the opportunity to write Slack apps, we'd probably have a number of good ones.
Consider Twitter. The healthiest app ecosystem Twitter ever had, on both Mac and iOS, was when there was no official Twitter app. There were a bunch of great third-party native Twitter apps. But then Twitter acquired Tweetie, released an official app, and that was the beginning of the end. In the end, Twitter destroyed its own app ecosystem by trying to control everything.
"Why is [web service] using Electron?" is the wrong question. The right question is, "Why is [web service] writing native apps?" Let web developers be web developers, and let Mac developers be Mac developers. Each can do what they do best, without trying to do everything.
I can’t speak to everyone but they are boring to me because there’s not much of a problem to solve, just UX. And it isn’t something I need personally, so I just use the api or maybe a CLI.
I just assumed lots of people think like this due to the dearth of nice UIs on top of apis.
> I can’t speak to everyone but they are boring to me because there’s not much of a problem to solve, just UX.
"just UX". I think this attitude separates you from a lot of native iOS and Mac developers, whose primary focus is UX. Indeed, one might say that's the foundation of those whole platforms.
> I just assumed lots of people think like this due to the dearth of nice UIs on top of apis.
What dearth? Like I said, Twitter used to have a great third-party app ecosystem before the company intentionally destroyed it.
Isn’t this article about how people make Electron apps instead of spending time in proper UIs? I think that’s part of an example of a dearth of UIs.
Of course my interest in UX separates me from other developers. There are lots of people making a living doing UX. And I’m not one. But my point is, it seems like those UX people aren’t creating lots of open source projects, or commercially viable projects, to provide nice UIs on top of apis.
> Isn’t this article about how people make Electron apps instead of spending time in proper UIs?
You speak vaguely about "people" making Electron apps, but the big issue is that big companies are making Electron apps for popular web services, and the popularity of these web services is why a lot of people are complaining about the Electron apps.
> it seems like those UX people aren’t creating lots of open source projects, or commercially viable projects, to provide nice UIs on top of apis.
Which APIs are you talking about? It's difficult to make a commercially viable project on top of obscure or unpopular APIs. The point of my original comment is that popular APIs can generate their own native app ecosystems.
Consider Twitter. The healthiest app ecosystem Twitter ever had, on both Mac and iOS, was when there was no official Twitter app. There were a bunch of great third-party native Twitter apps. But then Twitter acquired Tweetie, released an official app, and that was the beginning of the end. In the end, Twitter destroyed its own app ecosystem by trying to control everything.
"Why is [web service] using Electron?" is the wrong question. The right question is, "Why is [web service] writing native apps?" Let web developers be web developers, and let Mac developers be Mac developers. Each can do what they do best, without trying to do everything.