Electron (software framework) explained

Electron
Logo Size:64px
Author:GitHub
Developer:OpenJS Foundation
Released:[1]
Latest Preview Version:32.0.0-beta.3[2]
Programming Language:C++, JavaScript, Objective-C++ and Objective-C
Operating System:Linux, macOS, and Windows
Platform:IA-32, x86-64, ARM
License:MIT License[3]

Electron (formerly known as Atom Shell[4]) is a free and open-source software framework developed and maintained by OpenJS Foundation.[5] The framework is designed to create desktop applications using web technologies (mainly HTML, CSS and JavaScript, although other technologies such as front-end frameworks and WebAssembly are possible) that are rendered using a version of the Chromium browser engine and a back end using the Node.js runtime environment.[6] It also uses various APIs to enable functionality such as native integration with Node.js services and an inter-process communication module.

Electron was originally built for Atom and is the main GUI framework behind several other open-source projects including GitHub Desktop, Light Table,[7] Visual Studio Code, WordPress Desktop[8] and Eclipse Theia.[9]

Architecture

Electron applications include a "main" process and several "renderer" processes. The main process runs the logic for the application (e. g. menus, shell commands, lifecycle events), and can then launch multiple renderer processes by instantiating an instance of the class, which loads a window that appears on the screen by rendering HTML and CSS.

Both the main and renderer processes can run with Node.js integration if the field in the main process is set to .

Most of Electron's APIs are written in C++ or Objective-C and are exposed directly to the application code through JavaScript bindings.[10]

History

In September 2021, Electron moved to an eight-week release cycle between major versions to match the release cycle of Chromium Extended Stable and to comply with a new requirement from the Microsoft Store that requires browser-based apps to be within two major versions of the latest release of the browser engine.[11]

Electron frequently releases new major versions along every other Chromium release. The latest three stable versions are supported by the Electron team.[12]

Chromium version !Node.js version Module version N-API version ICU version
20 August 2024 4 March 2025 128 ? ? ? ?
[13] 11 June 2024 7 January 2025 126 20.14 ? ? ?
16 April 2024 15 October 2024 124 20.11 ? ? ?
20 February 2024 20 August 2024 122 20.9 ? ? ?
5 December 2023[14] 11 June 2024 120 18.18 ? ? ?
10 October 2023[15] 16 April 2024 118 18.17 ? ? ?
15 August 2023[16] 20 February 2024 116 18.16 ? ? ?
30 May 2023[17] 5 December 2023 114 18.15 ? ? ?
4 April 2023[18] 10 October 2023 112 18.14 ? ? ?
30 November 2022[19] 15 August 2023 110 18.12 ? ? ?
30 November 2022[20] 10 October 2023 108 16.17 ? ? ?
26 September 2022[21] 4 April 2023 106 16.16 ? ? ?
2 August 2022[22] 7 February 2023 104 16.15 ? ? ?
24 May 2022[23] 29 November 2022102 16.14 106 ? ?
29 March 2022[24] 26 September 2022100 16.13 103 ? ?
1 February 2022[25] 2 August 2022 98 16.13 101 ? ?
15 November 2021[26] 24 May 2022 96 16.9 99 ? ?
21 September 2021 24 May 2022 94 16.5 98 ? ?
30 August 2021 29 March 2022 92 14.17 89 8 69.1
25 May 2021 31 January 2022 91 14.16 89 7 68.1
2 March 2021 15 November 2021 89 14.16 87 7 68.1
16 November 2020 30 August 2021 87 12.18 85 5 65.1
25 August 2020 25 May 2021 85 12.16 82 5 65.1
18 May 2020 2 March 2021 83 12.14 80 5 65.1
4 February 2020 16 November 2020 80 12.13 76 5 65.1
22 October 2019 25 August 2020 78 12.8 75 4 64.2
29 July 2019 18 May 2020 76 12.4 73 4 64.2
24 April 2019 4 February 2020 73 12.0 70 4 63.1
20 December 2018 22 October 2019 69 10.11 69 3 62.2
18 September 2018 29 July 2019 66 10.2 64 3 ?
1 May 2018 24 April 2019 61 8.9 57 ? ?
12 December 2017 20 December 2018 59 8.2 57 ? ?

Usage

See main article: List of software using Electron.

Desktop applications built with Electron include Atom,[27] balenaEtcher,[28] Eclipse Theia, Microsoft Teams before 2.0,[29] [30] Slack[31] and Visual Studio Code.[32] [33] Brave Browser was based on Electron before it was rewritten to use Chromium directly.[34]

Reception

The most common criticism of Electron is that it necessitates software bloat when used for simple programs.[35] As a result, Michael Larabel has referred to the framework as "notorious among most Linux desktop users for being resource heavy, not integrating well with most desktops, and generally being despised."[36] Meanwhile, Joey Sneddon states that this tradeoff is sensible as Electron greatly lowers the cost of developing and maintaining cross-platform software.[37]

Researchers have shown that Electron's large feature set can be hijacked by bad actors with write access to the source JavaScript files. This requires root access on *nix systems and isn't considered to be a vulnerability by the Electron developers.[38] Those who are concerned that Electron is not always based on the newest version of Chromium have recommended progressive web applications as an alternative.[39]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: electron/electron. GitHub. 8 May 2018. 2 August 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160802143311/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v0.1.0. live.
  2. Web site: Release electron v32.0.0-beta.3 · electron/electron. 31 July 2024. GitHub. 5 August 2024.
  3. Web site: electron/LICENSE at master. GitHub. 3 July 2020. 12 May 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170512183219/https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/master/LICENSE. live.
  4. Web site: Sawicki. Kevin. 23 April 2015. Atom Shell is now Electron. live. 6 January 2022. Electron. https://web.archive.org/web/20171109205411/http://electronjs.org/blog/electron . 9 November 2017 .
  5. Web site: Build cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS | Electron . February 1, 2023 . 9 May 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220509124521/https://www.electronjs.org/ . live .
  6. Web site: Electron Internals: Using Node as a Library. electronjs.org. 8 August 2016. 3 July 2020. 9 November 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171109205326/https://electronjs.org/blog/electron-internals-using-node-as-a-library. live.
  7. Web site: Horner. Gabriel. Light Table 0.8.0. 10 December 2015. 3 July 2020. lighttable.com. 13 December 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151213173414/http://lighttable.com/2015/12/10/light-table-0-8-0/. live.
  8. Web site: GitHub Repository. GitHub. 16 June 2019. 19 February 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160219194955/https://github.com/Automattic/wp-desktop. live.
  9. Web site: Theia - Cloud and Desktop IDE Platform. 2021-12-31. theia-ide.org. 20 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180420143515/https://theia-ide.org/. live.
  10. Web site: From native to JavaScript in Electron Electron Blog. electronjs.org. 19 March 2019. 2019-04-26. 26 April 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190426032159/https://electronjs.org/blog/from-native-to-js. live.
  11. Web site: New Electron Release Cadence | Electron. 14 July 2021. electronjs.org. 9 February 2022. 14 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210714162435/https://electronjs.org/blog/8-week-cadence. live.
  12. Web site: Electron Releases Electron . 2022-12-16 . electronjs.org . en . 16 December 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221216134548/https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/electron-timelines . live .
  13. Web site: Release electron v31.3.1 · electron/electron. 29 July 2024. GitHub. 5 August 2024.
  14. Web site: Release electron v28.0.0 · electron/electron. 2023-12-04 . 2023-12-14 . GitHub . en . 14 December 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231214215655/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v28.0.0 . live .
  15. Web site: Release electron v27.0.0 · electron/electron. 2023-10-10 . 2023-10-11 . GitHub . en . 11 October 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231011081004/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v27.0.0 . live .
  16. Web site: Release electron v26.0.0 · electron/electron. 2023-09-23 . GitHub . en . 23 September 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230923151615/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v26.0.0. live .
  17. Web site: Release electron v25.0.0 · electron/electron. 2023-09-23 . GitHub . en . 23 September 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230923151832/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v25.0.0. live .
  18. Web site: Release electron v24.0.0 · electron/electron. 2023-09-23 . GitHub . en . 23 September 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230923152010/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v24.0.0. live .
  19. Web site: Release electron v23.0.0 · electron/electron . 2023-09-23 . GitHub . en . 23 September 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230923152229/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v23.0.0 . live .
  20. Web site: Release electron v22.0.0 · electron/electron . 2022-12-16 . GitHub . en . 15 December 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221215021758/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v22.0.0 . live .
  21. Web site: Release electron v21.0.0 · electron/electron . 2022-12-16 . GitHub . en . 16 December 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221216134546/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v21.0.0 . live .
  22. Web site: Release electron v20.0.0 · electron/electron . 2022-12-16 . GitHub . en . 16 December 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221216134548/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v20.0.0 . live .
  23. Web site: Release electron v19.0.0 · electron/electron. GitHub. 31 May 2022. 31 May 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220531223319/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v19.0.0. live.
  24. Web site: Release electron v18.0.0 · electron/electron. GitHub. 4 May 2022. 4 May 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220504024011/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v18.0.0. live.
  25. Web site: Release electron v17.0.0 · electron/electron. GitHub. 28 February 2022. 12 February 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220212020115/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v17.0.0. live.
  26. Web site: Release electron v16.0.0 · electron/electron. GitHub. 3 December 2021. 6 December 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211206162946/https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/tag/v16.0.0. live.
  27. Web site: Sawicki . Kevin . 23 April 2015 . Atom Shell is now Electron . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20191016124310/https://electronjs.org/blog/electron . 16 October 2019 . 15 July 2017 . Electron.
  28. Web site: Etcher on GitHub . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20181116012922/https://github.com/balena-io/etcher . 16 November 2018 . 7 July 2020 . GitHub.
  29. Web site: msdmaguire . How Microsoft Teams uses memory - Microsoft Teams . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20201208013106/https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-memory-usage-perf . 8 December 2020 . 2021-11-12 . docs.microsoft.com . en-us.
  30. Web site: Redmond . Tony . Teams 2.0 Moves Away from Electron to Embrace Edge WebView2 . Office 365 for IT Pros . 2 August 2024.
  31. News: 25 October 2016 . Building hybrid applications with Electron . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20191016124311/https://slack.engineering/building-hybrid-applications-with-electron-dc67686de5fb?gi=b2a5127226ea . 16 October 2019 . 12 August 2017 . Several People Are Coding.
  32. Web site: Bright . Peter . 29 April 2015 . Microsoft's new Code editor is built on Google's Chromium . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150507020146/https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/04/microsofts-new-code-editor-is-built-on-googles-chromium/ . 7 May 2015 . 18 November 2015 . Ars Technica.
  33. Web site: 29 March 2022 . Open Source project . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20151123164810/https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode . 23 November 2015 . 20 May 2018 . GitHub.
  34. Web site: Singh . Jagmeet . 2017-01-03 . People are now even doing machine learning in JavaScript . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20170107122039/https://www.opensourceforu.com/2017/01/javascript-creator-brendan-eich-interview/ . 7 January 2017 . 2022-08-26 . Open Source For U.
  35. Web site: Proven . Liam . 2021-11-19 . Some FOSS gems: Franz, RamBox, Pidgin and more . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20211119235239/https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/19/friday_foss_fest/ . 19 November 2021 . 2022-08-26 . The Register.
  36. Web site: Larabel . Michael . 2019-02-09 . Electron Apps Are Bad, So Now You Can Create Desktop Apps With HTML5 + Golang . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20220826131838/https://www.phoronix.com/news/HTML5-Golang-Desktop-Apps . 26 August 2022 . 2022-08-26 . Phoronix.
  37. Web site: Sneddon . Joey . 2017-07-23 . Seriously folks, Electron apps aren't that bad . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180516103739/https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/07/why-electron-apps-arent-bad-2 . 16 May 2018 . 2022-08-26 . OMG Ubuntu.
  38. Web site: Gallagher . Sean . 2019-08-07 . Skype, Slack, other Electron based apps can be easily backdoored . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190807173425/https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/skype-slack-other-electron-based-apps-can-be-easily-backdoored/ . 7 August 2019 . 2022-08-26 . Ars Technica.
  39. Web site: Hoffman . Chris . 2019-08-15 . That native app is probably just an old web browser . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20190815143207/https://www.howtogeek.com/436841/that-native-app-is-probably-just-an-old-web-browser/ . 15 August 2019 . 2022-08-26 . How To Geek.

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