And with browsers beginning to have hardware APIs, the web platform is becoming more and more universal in its ability to deploy in all major environments. There isn't much of a fundamental difference there between mobile and desktop operating systems. An operating system manages processes and their resources, and grants access to hardware that the processes might need. With Cordova you have one codebase that can be deployed to a few major mobile operating systems, said mobile operating systems not being too different in functionality from the major desktop operating systems. Electron and Cordova are in a way doing the same thing for different platforms, minus UI functionality as you may have been talking about. The biggest benefit to me would be having one consolidated runtime, where I have access to Node.js and Chromium API's, and said runtime being deployable to all major platforms. What if someone does want a feature that works on the desktop version of the app on their phone? The apps should be responsive of course, but core functionality should remain the same as far as possible in my opinion.Īre the common native desktop application behaviors you are talking about mostly UI based? I can see how native menus and other behaviors might not translate well. I sometimes think we don't have the foresight to limit the functionality of our applications appropriately. Back to Chrome, I want to be able to view source and even use the debugger, even on my phone. I find it sad when sometimes Google Maps features are platform specific. Why not? I want Chrome to work the same on my desktop as it does on my Android, my iPhone, or my tablet, the same for Firefox, slack, Google Maps. I strive for the same features across all devices as much as possible. To me, of course it depends case by case, but generally I want my app to be my app no matter what device it is on. Not all of the apps above necessarily have a desktop version run with a native executable, but they do have a desktop version in the browser. One codebase, one web platform, any environment.Įxamples of good mobile/desktop/web apps, where the screen size and device doesn't really matter, but you might want the same functionality: I'm definitely looking for one app that can run everywhere.

For ios instal Electron 27.1.0