# What Is Electron and Why Is It So Polarizing?
**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-is-electron-and-why-is-it-so-polarizing/639968
**Category:** programming
**Created:** [June 23, 2019, 5:29am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-is-electron-and-why-is-it-so-polarizing/639968 "2019-06-23T05:29:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kirupa](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kirupa)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2019, 5:29am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-is-electron-and-why-is-it-so-polarizing/639968/1 "2019-06-23T05:29:38Z")
by [kirupa](https://www.kirupa.com/www.kirupa.com/me/index.htm) | filed under [Web Apps](https://www.kirupa.com/apps/index.htm)
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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at [https://www.kirupa.com/apps/what\_is\_electron.htm](https://www.kirupa.com/apps/what_is_electron.htm)
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### Author:  [@prg9](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/prg9)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-is-electron-and-why-is-it-so-polarizing/639968/2 "2019-06-24T16:01:19Z")
Nice article, too bad the controversial aspects of performance and security can’t be improved faster. WebViews and now Electron, where are we heading with this web apps series? Maybe culminating in using the native webviews of the host OS and not needing middleware?
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### Author:  [@kirupa](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/kirupa)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2019, 5:09am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-is-electron-and-why-is-it-so-polarizing/639968/3 "2019-06-28T05:09:57Z")
It’s a troubling trend. I love the web, but I do greatly dislike the loss in performance web apps (even in the desktop form) typically bring with them. Here is one example that surprised me about Dropbox:
>
At some point, I would expect always-running apps like Dropbox to be respectful of system resources and not rely on a web layer to make their UI work.
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### Author:  [@prg9](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/prg9)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/what-is-electron-and-why-is-it-so-polarizing/639968/4 "2019-06-28T13:28:46Z")
Yeah indeed, I mean its nice that we have gotten to this point, but we need to hopefully reach and mirror more closely with native apps concerning app size, performance management. etc. Its nice to develop once with web tech and deploy across multiple platforms but sadly most times those solutions come with various costs.
> [@prg9](#):
>
> Maybe culminating in using the native webviews of the host OS and not needing middleware?
I think there are some cleaver approachs being sought out, here is one example.
> **[GitHub - branchseer/DeskGap: A cross-platform desktop app framework based on...](https://github.com/branchseer/DeskGap)**
>
> A cross-platform desktop app framework based on Node.js and the system webview
Also Flotato is a pretty interesting conccept.
> **[Flotato is a wildly clever way to get web apps on your Mac](https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/29/18644080/flotato-mac-web-apps-electron-fluid-webkit-slack-twitter)**
>
> What is this new devilry?
Hopefully we will get there, but its been a rather bloated experience in the meantime. I think web tech will prevail as an alterntaive to native, it cant get worse (I hope). 😉