Abandonment Issuesīut the loud Mac people on the Internet seem to have come up with a third reason. The two biggest reasons I’ve heard are that Electron apps can be bloated (using up tons of RAM) and that they don’t look or act like native apps. For example, on macOS, you would expect the stoplight red/yellow/green buttons in the upper left, but on Windows, you’d expect the red box with a white X in the upper right.Įlectron apps have a bad reputation, and I’ve been trying to figure out why. Then the developer can use the HTML and CSS to make it look appropriate for the operating system you’re on. The advantage from a developer’s point of view is that they can write one set of code for macOS, Windows, and Linux to perform the necessary functions of an app.

The panties in a bunch part is that starting with 1Password 8, which is now out in public beta, 1Password is no longer a native Mac app, it’s an Electron app.Įlectron apps are kind of like web apps, in that they’re written in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. I won’t try to replicate what he explains, but the bottom line is that their new approach has gotten the Internet’s collective panties in a bunch. He describes the challenges of keeping multiple teams developing independently and yet in parallel along with a server-side team and how this approach slowed them down from doing the enhancements they wanted to do. Michael Fey wrote a blog post at explaining how 1Password has evolved over time as they went from a Mac app alone to adding iOS, Android, Windows and Linux applications. This week they have a new target for their hand wringing, and it’s the changes that the folks at AgileBits announced about 1Password. Last week every single Apple-centric podcast was busy with hand wringing about Apple’s new child protection efforts.

1password 8 for windows