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points by andsoitis 1 day ago | 0 comments

Use the native widget toolkit if the platform you target; your users will love you more.

Most native widget toolkits don't actually support rendering into 3d canvasses very well, nor very compact UI layouts. I generally prefer native widgets, but for a dense prosumer application, they aren't always the correct choice (and you'll see even Apple stray from their native UI widgets for, say, Logic Pro)

[–] pjmlp 1 day ago

They actually do, just not on GNU/Linux, **BSD worlds.

[–] scns 1 day ago

Apple bought Logic.

[–] swiftcoder 1 day ago

> Apple bought Logic.

A quarter-century ago, yes. If they haven't migrated to native widgets in 25 years, that might be an indicator of something

[–] creata 1 day ago

None of the apps on my computer have any sort of cohesion with each other. It might just be me but I think this idea is dead, on Windows and Linux at least.

[–] p-e-w 1 day ago

I target all platforms, and so does most other desktop software today.

[–] bvrmn 1 day ago

Ok for linux it's GTK and Qt. What's native for windows in 2026? It's a complete joke of system UI.

[–] chem83 1 day ago

In 2026 it’s WinUI. Microsoft has been clearer about it: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/winui/winui3

But the premise is silly: if Linux has two native toolkits, how is this a sensible recommendation?? Hint: it isn’t, because GTK/Qt are not the native, but rather simply the most used.

Also, go to Mac, and SwiftUI still doesn’t support all that AppKit used to, leaving an incentive for developers to deviate from the platform’s recommendation.

And back to Windows, WinUI still doesn’t fully replace Win32 or Windows Forms, so same conclusion applies.

[–] spider-mario 1 day ago

> But the premise is silly: if Linux has two native toolkits, how is this a sensible recommendation?? Hint: it isn’t, because GTK/Qt are not the native, but rather simply the most used.

I’m going to hazard the claim that in probably most people’s conception of the term, GTK is native in GNOME, Cinnamon, Xfce, etc. and Qt is native in KDE, LXQt and Sailfish OS.

[–] anonymous908213 1 day ago

I am pretty sure HN is an enclave of the only remaining people in the world who think this way. A sanctuary preserving the last specimens of an endangered species.