Signal-desktop: Feature Request : Switching from Electron to React Native.
Electron is good but React Native is better.
It will be really cool to switch from using electron to react native for desktop apps (win + mac). The performance gain would be massive along with lesser memory usage.
anujsharma26
All 5 comments
I am not a maintainer here or even a contributor (yet. soon). While I would support a move away from Electron, I'll explain my down vote even though it's likely to be received as an unpopular opinion. One of the reasons I turned to Signal was to get away from corporations like Facebook. React may be open source, but it's owned by Facebook. As a long time contributor and supporter of open source software any effort I may put into upstream bug hunting or issue reporting would go towards supporting Facebook and their ecosystem. I choose to spend my time and effort in other directions. As such, I chose to use other options. Other frameworks have integrations with NativeScript; VueJS for one example. I felt that needed to be said.
I can't say I prefer NativeScript as an option either. I'm sure everyone would prefer to see native apps developed for individual platforms. So, in the spirit of seeking the best option, I'll propose that the community avoid wasting time refactoring into yet another sub-optimal solution (YASoS) and stick with Electron for now.
strixy
on 8 Jan 2021
Another cool alternative would be a Qt based client, or maybe a Native GTK one. This would also have a big performance boost as compared to Electron or React Native.
AbhayAysola
on 10 Jan 2021
Another cool alternative would be a Qt based client, or maybe a Native GTK one. This would also have a big performance boost as compared to Electron or React Native.
The Main Reason to move ahead to switching to React Native is to preserve the code.
anujsharma26
on 10 Jan 2021
The Main Reason to move ahead to switching to React Native is to preserve the code.
Hmm that's also a good point
AbhayAysola
on 10 Jan 2021
We're working on a number of performance and UX improvements, including evaluating Catalyst on macOS and reworking a lot of our logic to improve performance. But because this would be a massive rewrite of Signal Desktop and would dramatically increase the amount of work required, we have no current plans to drop Electron.
I wish we could say "yes" to everything, but there are some feature requests we won鈥檛 be able to address, so I'm going to close. And don't think we've forgotten about performance issues鈥攖his is stuff we're actively working on.
EvanHahn-Signal
on 11 Jan 2021
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Most helpful comment
I am not a maintainer here or even a contributor (yet. soon). While I would support a move away from Electron, I'll explain my down vote even though it's likely to be received as an unpopular opinion. One of the reasons I turned to Signal was to get away from corporations like Facebook. React may be open source, but it's owned by Facebook. As a long time contributor and supporter of open source software any effort I may put into upstream bug hunting or issue reporting would go towards supporting Facebook and their ecosystem. I choose to spend my time and effort in other directions. As such, I chose to use other options. Other frameworks have integrations with NativeScript; VueJS for one example. I felt that needed to be said.
I can't say I prefer NativeScript as an option either. I'm sure everyone would prefer to see native apps developed for individual platforms. So, in the spirit of seeking the best option, I'll propose that the community avoid wasting time refactoring into yet another sub-optimal solution (YASoS) and stick with Electron for now.