Electron apps are ruining the Windows 11 experience, and even the JavaScript creator has warned against ‘rushed web UX over native,’ but it doesn’t look like that will change Microsoft’s plans. In a post on X and other places, Microsoft reaffirmed its commitment to AI in Windows 11 and encouraged Electron developers to consider using AI in their apps.
The one thing Apple has done an amazing job of over the years is providing a solid, clean, common application framework for all of their systems.
They’ve fucked it up recently, but basically, 90% of the time you’d get the same consistent interface design across all apps, with common design language and iconography and accessibility features. They aggressively deprecate so you have to keep that $100 dev fee rolling, but the experience has been good for the the better part of 20 years (post carbon & X11, pre-liquid ass, the cocoa years).
If everything on Windows is a vibe-coded web app then everything is going to look like different, feel like shit to use, and perform like shit.
The one thing Apple has done an amazing job of over the years is providing a solid, clean, common application framework for all of their systems.
iOS doesn’t even have a universal back button, every app has their own way of implementing it.
If your app uses NavigationView, like 80% of apps, you get a back button and swipe gesture for free.
It has swipe to the right from the side of the screen. That works in very application I’ve tried.
It’s not universal. It has become more common, but there is no OS-level enforcement
What is it with Android users’ obsession with the back button? Who actually cares? Why would I want some button that goes back to the wrong app for some reason?
How has Apple fucked up recently?
-> push software that needs tons of ram
-> cause ram shortage
-> ???
-> …profit?
-> …profit?
They’re already hitting the storage side of things pretty hard.
Buy up all of the hardware on the planet to have a monopoly on compute/storage -> rent the compute/storage to everyone who can’t buy it.
See also: Housing
I’m so glad I bought my laptop when I did recently, with plenty of RAM and storage. Just in time before that stuff becomes impossible to find or impossibly unaffordable.
This generation of hardware will probably be the plateau. The decline and fall is just around the bend. Maybe another generation of CPUs before those go for bust, too. They can rent out GPUs, RAM, and storage, but as far as I’m aware the CPU needs to be local on the device. At least, a CPU needs to be on the device…
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this trend is occuring just as NPUs are starting to hit the market. Those chips are too powerful to let the plebeians own and use without restriction, in the corpo’s view.
Whether a better system replaces this one after it falls, or we enter an era where consumer hardware is a thing of the past, remains to be seen. Maybe when the AI bubble bursts, tech companies will have to liquidate their data centers and secondhand servers will become cheap. That would do wonders for the fediverse and the decentralized web…
Sure, I love it when a 50KB app takes 50MB because some cunt designer only knows HTML.
This quote from the article is fucking hilarous:
Discord has also openly admitted that its Windows app is a resource hog, and it has rolled out a feature that allows the app to restart itself when RAM usage exceeds 4GB.
I’ll never understand “installing” a website. Just open the damn site in Firefox.
Lack of constraints has killed everything. I hope all the RAM and storage becomes unusable people are forced to work with 3mb again.
You mean when care was taken while coding and an OS could "run on 1GB but suffice with 2GB? I know everyone hated Win 8 but it was a welcomed change plus no bullshit on it at the time.
I wouldn’t call Win 8 welcome, most people rather hated it. Then again, following Windows 7, which I the best of the bunch, couldn’t have been easy. MS just bet that the future of Windows was tablets and the world replied “lol no”.
I grew up with Windows 95 and later XP…
I remember watching the slow downfall ever since Office 2004 (or maybe that was the last one I liked, can’t remember if it was that or 2000) when they changed from primarily using toolbars with submenus to hiding everything in different tabs.
Like, I could find everything I needed to on the classic toolbars. The tabs, I never got used to…
I’ve hated enshittification since before there was even a word for it.
I strongly considered using Mate when I switched to Linux, but KDE is so sleek and I’m settling into it quite nicely. Plus, LibreOffice lets you choose your toolbar style, so I already have the classic version.
All my life I thought I hated computers, until I finally tried Linux. Then I realized I just hate Windows (and Mac, I tried Mac and hated it too).
I think I put off trying Linux for so long because I thought I was incompetent based on my experience with Windows, so I didn’t think I could learn Linux. I was wrong, and some of the beginner-friendly distros make it so easy.
I wonder if Windows does that on purpose, like an abuser who gaslights their victims by telling them they couldn’t make it on their own, that they need them, when they’re the ones holding them back…
Yeah, 8.1 took like 800 megs ootb, while 10 wanted about 3 gigs to itself (not sure about earlier versions, tho; mb enshitification happened gradually)
-
Not really surprising considering Windows seems to be increasingly swapping their native shell components for Web Views (you can tell because sometimes they fail to load (: )
-
You know it’s bad when Brendan fucking Eich is the reasonable one
Why is settings getting so bad, its like using a nonfunctional electron app.
-
Repeat with me.
INSTALL LINUX!
with me.
INSTALL LINUX!
Microsoft also make the one app that actually shines in electron: vs code. It’s really quite optimised. But somehow they didn’t bother learning lessons from that and keep rolling out terrible slop like teams and new outlook.
It’s weird how one company can do things right and also be do incompetent at the same time.
It’s missing the arm that has the gun pointed at themselves.
I can’t stand VScode, whoever decided a text editor should be written in HTML/CSS and JavaScript deserves to be shot
What do we say?
MAKE… IT… SHITTY.
the worst thing about electron apps besides everything about election apps are the fact that there’s no shared libraries so you basically have to have a billion of the same node modules on your system for every electron app that you have.
I’m not listening to Microsoft anymore
Only fair as they haven’t listened to us in decades.
Move to Linux while you still can (unless you are living already in California and it’s forbidden)
Linux is forbidden in California? America’s a weird fuckin place.
No, it’s not forbidden. No idea what that commenter is talking about.
I suspect they are talking about the new California law that says all operating systems, including Linux, need to have some form of age verification at account setup. Planned to go into effect Jan 2027.
Yup
Age verification bill is approved in California https://www.techradar.com/computing/software/californias-age-verification-law-is-proving-controversial-heres-what-you-need-to-know-and-why-some-linux-distros-are-in-the-firing-line
So yes basically the end result will be, Microsoft and Apple will implement age verification (aka ID check) on Os level. And Linux will not, meaning the state will prohibit the use of any Linux distribution that is not following their law.
not sure why people dumb down… if you don’t like it, go to your representative if you are living in the US.
Windows now Chromebooks?
Every damn fucking time MSFT is mentioned: Install Linux, Problem Solved.
Can someone explain what an electron app is?
Basically, you know how Spotify allows you to use the version you access on the web as if it’s an app (all the features are there)? That’s called a Progressive Web App (PWA). Basically, Electron apps open up their own browser to run a PWA. Why is this bad? 2 Chrome tabs already take up a lot of memory. Now imagine 3.
That was a fantastic explanation. Thank you.
