I think Electron devs really need to step and try to address the performance problems but even if they do, I don't think it'll help much since they have to allow full web platform to run. Electron has brought so many apps to Linux that devs otherwise wouldn't even consider so I'm happy about that. On the other hand these apps have major performance problems. Especially the ones that I've to leave running in the background.
I think a better platform could be a highly stripped down version of web to the point where it is not even web anymore but still familiar and simple to use. Kind of like what Flutter did (Desktop support in flutter would be pretty great actually). Either that or a serious react native platform/framework that focused on Desktop computers.
> electron developers are going to understand how to use browsers, but fixing the browser itself is the way to make it use less RAM.
This to me is the crux of the issue. Github has a lot of great engineers but they're less likely to be versed in C/C++/whatever else is required to make this kind of thing truly succeed.
It really begs the question of what Microsoft were thinking the day they decided to build Code on it.
Microsoft is thinking of portability as a primary. Also VS Code is a way better experience than Atom after having given Atom many chances. Microsoft wants to build tools anyone can use to enhance usage of their cloud platform offerings from any OS.
They’d already built a web based editor for cloud dev and ported it to electron as a desktop app afaik. They didn’t set out to make an electron editor.
I don't think servo will help much in the long run. It's just that web is too complex a platform with tons of APIs, technologies and edge cases to support. Any full fledged web engine will always be heavy. I think Electron (or something that wants to displace it) should give up on support web platform on Desktop, pick a limited subset of it and run with it. Yes, we won't have the ability to bundle web apps as desktop apps anymore but that's exactly what will fix the mess. We don't need a way to turn a website/webapp into a desktop app. We need a way to make it very easy to port a webapp to a desktop app will little effort. The key is to make the knowledge transferable, not the actual code as is.
I think a better platform could be a highly stripped down version of web to the point where it is not even web anymore but still familiar and simple to use. Kind of like what Flutter did (Desktop support in flutter would be pretty great actually). Either that or a serious react native platform/framework that focused on Desktop computers.