[dmazzoni]

I'm a fan of more frameworks for desktop apps that wrap system webview rather than embedding Chromium.

Chromium is awesome and all, but it's just way overkill for many apps, and doesn't make sense for the download size and the need to support auto-update for security features.

[hresvelgr]

I feel the reason the system web-view is eschewed in these frameworks is because you have no choice but to maintain compatibility with 3-4 browsers: Edge/IE on Windows, Safari on Mac, and Firefox on Linux (usually).

[thayne]

> Firefox on Linux (usually).

No, linux is usually webkit (which is also what safari is based on). Both Gtk and Qt have webkit-based widgets.

I'm not aware of a gecko based webview for desktop. Unfortunately, Firefox's technology is even more poorly suited for embedding than chromium's.

[yoav]

The number 1 request I get from people is to add the ability to optionally bundle chromium.

I personally prefer the system webview because you don’t have to rush update your app for every chromium security update. And on the web making things cross browser is a normal part of the job and instinct imo.

But there are a ton of early startups that only have bandwidth to support chrome/chromium in their complex webapps and want a quick way to port their web app to desktop app. For them taking on the security burden and increasing bundle size is a good tradeoff to getting that consistency.

Luckily electrobun has a custom zig bsdiff implementation that generates update diffs as small as 4KB and self extracting executable that uses zstd so at least the file size is less relevant of a concern compared to electron.

[ericwood]

These days it's really not bad, and it's even easier than shipping a normal web app, where there's a potentially unbounded number of browsers consuming it. Knowing exactly which clients to develop for is a luxury.