Isn’t VSCode electron? Somehow Microsoft ended up with an electron app that doesn’t have all the hallmarks of what people complain about. What was done differently?
One of the biggest things people complain about with Electron apps is their slowness.
When I started using VSCode, it was perfectly snappy and I could see what people were talking about when they said, "But VSCode is Electron, and it's fine — it's just crappy developers."
After about six months of using it and loading in fewer than ten extensions, it has become very laggy. To the point that I have had to train myself to pause my typing after I press certain key combinations while the system catches up.
VSCode is great, but it's not a poster child for Electron.
The reason IS obvious: It's called "feature bloat." That being said, unless you install a bunch of extensions, VS Code is still pretty snappy, at least on all of my computers.
Probably as something made for developers, it was created to be fast and efficient and avoid sucking down inordinate amounts of resources.
Rather than the usual reason electron apps get made, which is because they’re “easy” and allow web-first devs to put out acceptable-quality desktop apps with no mind paid to those same concerns.
It is entirely possible to release good software with electron. It is also entirely possible to win the lottery.
I once couldn't start VSCode because my internet was offline. Turns out it was an electron bug. (This issue: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/7570 ). I've been suspicious of electron ever since.
Desktop is fundamentally a different medium from web. It's a pipe dream to expect the web mentality to just transfer over. It's akin to saying a webdev is a great gamedev because they can write code.
