I generally use conversations on this topic as a litmus test for a group or community. I’m pretty disappointed by all the whatabout-ism and false equivalence.
I expected better from HN.
We can study why this happened later. The genocide needs to stop now.
I’m going to hard disagree with this. A lot of the enjoyment I get from creation is the process of others enjoying what I’ve built.
Further more, building for others is great for building out areas you’re weak or inexperienced in. Like, I was poor on the accessibility front until I found the thing I created resonated with the visually impaired folk.
Having read through the comments and tried standard notes I can see why users might have been disappointed going from native to this web implementation.
I recently went through the process of switching to a web stack from a native iOS stack when it came time to support Android with one of my apps (https://getradiant.app/) and my biggest concern was making it feel a near as possible to the native app it was replacing and having it perform as well as possible on older Android devices. It turned out quite well and I’ve never had a user complain about the transition.
The trick to my mind was to treat web dev like mobile dev. Focus on bundle size, load speed and fluidity within the confines of a mobile environment. Constantly compare what you’re building to a native app. Probably focus on SPA over SSR/MPAs. And remember, if you apply all of the above to much less restrictive desktop browser environment with a much higher performance ceiling, the experience is going to be pretty good.
TLDR; think small, think fast and start with the most constrained environment you’re targeting, usually mobile, usually older Android. If you understand the limitations and considerations of browser engines when taking into account the above, the rest will follow and you’re going to have a good time.
I expected better from HN.
We can study why this happened later. The genocide needs to stop now.