What is better for a dev tool? Native Desktop App, or Rich Web App?

Question

I am working on a dev tool providing an All-in-One user management interface for various databases, deployment tools (e.g., k8s), and logging/tracing systems.The idea of having one binary application, you open it, and have everything in there (like IDE) sounds good to me. But I also see that more and more tools combine a backend application (client CLI/daemon running in the background) with a rich frontend web application for GUI.Even for a native desktop application, I do not exclude having a daemon running in the background or on a remote server. But the main question is, what's better for the user-facing part? Native Desktop or Web App?Which one do you think is preferable for a better user experience?

PaulHoule · Accepted Answer

The web has the fairly big advantage of being cross-platform. It sounds like the system you are describing is managing resources on a scale larger than one machine (k8s) so it seems consistent that the front end would work on more than one machine too.

eimrine · Answer

A browser application cons (most of them is also about Electron):not full speed of your PC,not enough hotkeys,no giant lists without pagination,no confidence that new/old version of browser will not break something,obstructions of using 100% of display without pressing F11and, of course, no ability to work without Internets with no afraid to wipe off "offline first" part of application if pressing something like F5 or Ctrl-W.A web application pros: no troubles with exotic architectures, no piracy (if we are talking about proprietary things), easy networking.

machinekob · Answer

I always prefer to use native > Desktop [qt] >>>> web apps.

sharemywin · Answer

Would this run on mac or linux?