node-webkit and atom-shell both embed a version of NodeJS along the chromium content module. As a result, their are usable only from NodeJS and create complexities when requiring native packages (these package need to be recompiled using the special nodeJS image)

On the contrary, Thrust exposes a standard IO API that is bindable from any language. Right now there are bindings for NodeJS, Go and Python. As a result these libraries are simply requireable or importable and can run with vaniall NodeJS/Go/Python.

We designed these libraries so that at post_install, a binary version of Thrust is downloaded automatically which makes apps based on Thrust distributable through the native package manager.

These are the two advantages that motivated Thrust vs atom-shell or node-webkit.