First, of course you can make a living out of desktop applications. In the echo chamber of HN you could maybe get the idea that they are no longer relevant, but out in the real world millions of people need to do real work, but don't have a stable connection to the Internet.

Second, If you decide to create a desktop application, then make it native. I must strongly advise against using any of these "web frameworks" e.g. Electron, QTwebkit etc. to create desktop applications. They are slow, bloated and probably contain many security holes because of the huge complexity of browser engines.

They only exists because many developers don't know anything else than web development, instead of learning new skills they created this abomination. One earlier post said that minumum an i3 was required for the apps to remain snappy, think about it, that is just ridiculous especially in a time where PC's are upgraded much less frequently than they used to be. I would NEVER install an application created using a web framework.

I have good experinces with Rust and Golang when creating native applications for multiple OS.