I keep thinking that this could be solved by just building Electron into the OS as a shared framework so we don't have to have a separate copy for every app, but the more I dig into it, the more I realize I'm just reinventing the web browser.

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thisislife2 a day ago | parent | next [-]

There is something called the "WebView" in all the major platforms. The idea is that it allows you to use the browser engine only for creating the UI. But people complain its not "enough" because it is not the same on all the platform (it is if you use it just for UI), restricts access to some browser APIs (ignoring the fact that the OS often offers the same, even and more APIs) and Javascript (a crappy language for creating software applications).

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paxys a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You are describing PWAs, but they'll never have the same API access & permissions as a native app.

	▲	mistercow 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, and I think it’s worth asking why there. Why do we not just have a standard for PWAs with privileged OS access? There are two obvious answers. The first is portability. And sure, but Electron provides an answer here, so why can’t we provide one with PWAs? We could even have OSes define this interface for different browsers to target in a standardized way. Yes, you need platform specific code, but that’s often the situation with Electron too. The other answer is security. But how is Electron / any other installed app any better? Because we require more explicit consent before installing a “real” app than for installing a PWA? OK so, just let’s just do that for PWAs too.

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mixmastamyk a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Tauri: https://tauri.app/