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Comment by qyv | Hacker News Reader

Not particularly directed at OP, I haven't tried or even downloaded the app. But am I the only one that when I see 'Node' and 'Desktop' in a headline immediately think 'this may be really nice but it is just gonna be to big for what it does'? And, as a followup, what is the appeal of using Node for desktop dev?

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You are not the only one. But not because of Node (which is not that big) but because of Electron.

That said, the big issue is that we don't (yet) get to share Electron installs. If all desktop applications had to bundle all their dependencies, including what the OS already provides to them, they would be just as big.

Electron apps themselves aren't that big. Even Atom.

Electron really should be treated like `node` and be a dependency. Of course you could still package your apps with Electron, and you can do that with node too (if you wanted to), still nobody distributes node applications like that.

Actually, I tried fixing that problem with `asv`: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10244073

You get to use a similar kit that you're already using for webdev.

For example, the only time I've maintained a proficiency in both a webdev stack and a native kit was when I was paid to work on both full-time.

Node's main appeal to me is a similar consolidation: using one language. At least until I find out I'm immortal.

The advantages would include shared tooling, a cross-platform GUI, and the ability for end-users to modify the code.

Regarding size, it appears to be around 100 MB, so you could have 20971 separate installations of it before filling up a 2 TB drive.

Memory usage could be an issue, but whether that matters will depend on your audience the app. In this case, the aim is toward HN, so it doesn't seem like an issue.

While I hope flash drives will come down in price, who has a 2TB flash drive right now? My entire desktop OS, with at least three web browsers, multiple sdks/compilers etc take up a grand total of 15GB. Granted, that'd still leave room for 150 "apps" in the same space (note that I actually only have 3GB free, though). Still, 100 MB for what is essentially high-level code? It's absurd.

[ed: Not directed at op, as such, just how silly the general node ecosystem is currently]

On the flip side, that's 10 full installations of Doom, which is my standard measure of software size.

Smaller apps would probably benefit from an electron-like system that just uses the inbuilt system browser. I'm not aware of any such projects, though.

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