The Cost of 'Lightweight' Frameworks: From Tauri to Native Rust

4 days ago

The author expresses frustration with WebKit due to various issues encountered while developing Hopp, a remote pair programming app.
Key problems include SVG shadows not rendering properly, iOS WebKit crashes without error logs, difficulties with user agent strings, audio glitches, and lack of support for new codecs like AV1.
WebKitGTK's lack of WebRTC support was a significant hurdle for Linux compatibility.
The team considered switching to Electron but decided against it due to the need for manual updates and centralizing business logic.
Instead, they plan to move critical windows to a Rust-based implementation for simplicity, better codec support, and enhanced features like image upscaling.
The decision to stick with Rust and move away from WebKit is driven by specific use-case needs, though the author acknowledges that many apps might not face similar issues.

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