Why people hate Electron - Linux lounge - EndeavourOS Forumforum.endeavouros.com › why-people-hate-electron

So, if you’ve ever abandoned using an app after finding out it was built with Electron, what was the final straw? Was it slow start-up times? High RAM usage? Something else entirely? … Overall, I feel like some people jump on the “Electron bad” bandwagon because there are apps based on Electron that vary in quality a lot. Some are really good while some, for no real reason, feel odd when using them. They feel sluggish, all consume quite a few resources and some believe they don’t really have a place. I personally see Electron as a net positive, since there will be less work to do on all platforms, thus time can be better spent on something else. ... Another issue (now you have got me started!) is they all run on different version of electron, they never seem to keep up with the current version. I have 3 versions (I think, at work, so can’t check) of electron installed, for programs I rarely use. When I get home, will list the versions and the apps I use From my perspective there are two big issues with Electron applications. 1. They consume a lot of resources, mostly RAM. This is especially a problem with simple applications where they would normally be lightweight but are carrying huge overhead instead. 2. Security can be an issue with Electron applications. You basically have a web browser core and node.js embedded in your application. This creates a huge attack surface. On top of that, Electron apps often do a bad job of keeping up-to-date with the latest Electron. … There are multiple versions of electron in the repo and AUR and apps can be linked to those old versions. Also, some applications come with bundled electron. Electron apps not integrating or otherwise doing whatever they want to do is a huge reason why I don’t like them and I wouldn’t consider it to just be a blanket statement. … On top of that like many others have mentioned they are resource intensive in both ram, disk space, and cpu. I have literally had to help people on these very forums who are new and don’t know any better. There was a person who pretty much seemed to unknowingly use only electron apps which would eventually cause that person to run out of memory.