From the DF Archive: ‘Electron and the Decline of Native Apps’
Revisiting his 2018 piece, John Gruber says his concern about Electron harming native Mac apps was justified, but native Mac apps are now resurgent. He critiques Anthropic's Claude as an "Electron turd," noting the irony that Claude itself can generate quality native Mac code.
Background
Electron is a framework that lets developers build desktop apps using web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) instead of a platform's native tools (like Apple's AppKit/SwiftUI for Mac). Major apps such as Slack, Discord, VS Code, and Notion use it. Critics argue Electron apps are bloated, sluggish, and feel foreign on Mac — ignoring Apple's Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) and behaving like wrapped websites rather than proper Mac applications.
John Gruber (Daring Fireball) has long argued that Electron is a "scourge" but not a death sentence for native Mac development. This retrospective from 2026 argues his concern was warranted but not fatalistic: truly native Mac apps are seeing a resurgence, even as Electron persists. He contrasts Apple's own Mac apps — the un-Mac-like Journal app vs. the more native-feeling new Siri app — and points out the irony that Anthropic's Claude, a company whose AI can generate native Mac code, ships an Electron-based Mac app.