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Ask HN: Why do you prefer native desktop apps?

by sandruso on 12/18/22, 11:07 AM with 16 comments

And would it really make difference if all web apps were native?

  • by noduerme on 12/18/22, 11:15 AM

    I think the question is vague. Native compared to what? Are Electron apps considered native under this paradigm?Native desktop apps have permissions and API access that are generally denied to anything running in a sandbox. On some platforms (Apple) they're also trusted (certified by the hardware or OS manufacturer) to have those perms. Users are generally not competent to decide what permissions to grant applications, and thanks to some major efforts at educating them most users know that, so they prefer apps that are signed and approved and which run "natively". That means there's incentive for developers to continue building native applications.

  • by perilunar on 12/19/22, 1:56 AM

    For apps I use frequently I prefer native: better performance, loads quicker, etc.

    For apps I use rarely, I'd prefer to just use a web app if possible: always up to date, not taking up disk space, etc.

    If an app requires internet access for data, then it might as well be a web app: e.g. I don't use native apps for social media.

  • by zzo38computer on 12/18/22, 8:32 PM

    I often prefer command-line, although GUI is also sometimes useful.

    Native programs can often have improved capability interacting with other files/programs on the computer better, including user configuration, and can often be made more efficient, and files can be stored locally (working without an internet connection, although sometimes this is possible with HTML too); however, in many modern programs they tend to avoid such things so it is often just as bad (or maybe even worse) than web apps. WWW also has many problems with its design; some things simply do not work with it, and even some things that could theoretically work, don't work well due to web browsers being badly written.

    Even for things using internet, there are better alternatives than web apps, e.g. NNTP, Telnet/SSH, IRC, etc. (However, web apps can still be made available too for users who prefer them)

    Regardless of that, FOSS is much better. But, even when I do want to run non-native programs, they will often be NES/Famicom, DOS, etc, rather than HTML.

  • by mikewarot on 12/19/22, 12:49 AM

    When you write a Windows Program in Lazarus/Free Pascal, you know exactly what it's going to look like when it runs. You know it will continue to run for decades. Its not subject to the whim of an app store or changes to javascript, chrome, internet censorship, or any other forces. It just does its job, quickly and efficiently .

    It's not going to break because of some breaking change to Python or a library like WxWindows. (Which makes WikidPad unusable in Linux)

    It's not going out of service because a vendor doesn't want to keep the support hosts online any more.

    It just keeps working, reliably.

    Now it should be possible to run any executable in a secure manner, but we don't have CabSec (Capability based security), so we're stuck with web apps instead.

  • by 082349872349872 on 12/18/22, 11:12 AM

    They run offline and (presumably) keep data local.

  • by solardev on 12/18/22, 4:41 PM

    For me the big one is performance. It doesn't have to load every UI screen as HTML over the wire, it has it all locally. In theory.

    Although these days even the desktop apps can also be very slow. Spotify is very slow for me compared to how Winamp was, for example, even though my computer is probably fifty times faster. Not sure how much of that is due to Electron. Even the native Windows apps are slow now, especially the ones that use the newer Microsoft frameworks.

  • by eternityforest on 12/18/22, 1:23 PM

    Honestly I prefer Android native apps more than anything. Android apps have the lowest rate of Stuff Not Working I've seen so far.

    I prefer local apps because the data is local and they can't be taken away if the cloud goes down.

    For inherently cloudful things like banking I'll use an app if it loads faster than the site, which it usually can because they have stuff like the ability to just quickly check balances without a password.

    But I don't really mind sites instead.

  • by beardyw on 12/18/22, 11:57 AM

    > And would it really make difference if all web apps were native?

    If something is a web app how can it be native? Am I missing something?

  • by pcdoodle on 12/18/22, 11:47 AM

    I can image the machine it is on and it can become my "Forever Tool". Buy it for life.

  • by chewz on 12/18/22, 11:40 AM

    Faster, take less disk space, better integrated into OS experience...