Every web developer who uses electron for making desktop applications with ease knows that electron is slow. But the team over Tauri is not only trying to surpass Tauri but wants to make a more secure and faster-performing framework for building desktop applications with ease.
What is Tauri?
Tauri is an app construction toolkit that lets you build software for all major desktop operating systems using web technologies. The core libraries have been written for you in Rust and the user interface can be written using virtually any frontend framework. It includes an optional and tree-shakeable JavaScript API for comfortable low-level system access, a desktop binary bundler with code signing and artifact verification, a secure updater to keep your users on the latest version, an extensive plugin system, and support for OS-level integrations such as notifications and app trays.
Tauri is as simple to use as it is easy to extend. For those new to the Rust programming language, Tauri provides a comfortable learning environment that will grow with you. Once you have installed Rust, creating your first app is a mere running of create-Tauri-app. But you don't have to use Node.js at all if you would prefer to remain in the safety and comfort of 100% Rust.
Security First
In today's world, every honest threat model assumes that the user's device has already been compromised. This puts every developer in a complicated situation because if the device is already at risk, then the software is also at great risk.
Tauri takes Defense's in-depth approach. Tauri makes you take every precaution possible to minimize the surface area you present to attackers. Tauri lets you choose which API endpoints to ship, whether or not you want a localhost server built into your app, and it even randomizes functional handles at runtime. These and other techniques form a secure baseline that empowers you and your users.
Slowing down attackers by making static attacks crushingly difficult and isolating systems from one another is the name of the game. And if you are coming from the Electron ecosystem - rest assured - by default Tauri only ships binaries, not ASAR files. Which is a huge security pain.
Tauri takes security as a guiding force, And it gives you every opportunity to take a proactive security posture.
Performance
Tauri also gives the user and developer a performant application, which improves user experience and it also doesn't take a lot of work from the developer. You can see benchmarks on Tauri's official website.
Environment
Tauri's team loves nature and also takes action to protect it.
Tauri enables you to make apps that are lean and performant, which reduces electricity, storage space, and general natural resource consumption. Every byte saved is a leaf on a tree that gets to grow.
To illustrate this, the Tauri team compiled some numbers on the ecological impact of a Tauri app's size. As you can see, even small increases in size have a hefty impact on the environment!
The transmission of 1 GB of information takes an estimated 0.1kWh, which is equal to 0.06 kilograms of CO2. (https://www.emergeinteractive.com/insights/detail/does-irresponsible-web-development-contribute-to-global-warming/)
Although the carbon absorption capacity can vary, it is generally considered that a tree can store about 167 kg of CO2 per year or 1 ton of CO2 per year for 6 mature trees (https://climate.selectra.com/en/news/co2-tree)
Love for open source community
Tauri's team is driven by the passion and love of the open source community which is supporting the work and contributing to making the Tauri and world a better place.
We know that open source software is a means of fostering equality and collaboration, which is why we placed the ownership of the code at the Commons Conservancy. You can rest assured knowing that the code base will never be rug-pulled or locked behind open-core pay-to-play feature gates. We believe in open collaboration and safe spaces for all. We have an open working group, accessible to any competent contributors. And we love you all. ❤️ - From Tauri Team
Future Plans
After the release of the 1.0 release, the Tauri team is already setting sights on the next steps for Tauri. Tauri team plans to work on:-
1. Mobile support for both iOS and Android
The mobile support for IOS and Andriod is certainly exciting, as it will be a big game changer for the industry.
2. Alternative renderers
Alternative renders will surely help developers to improve the performance of their application by choosing the right render for app.
3. IPC enhancements to enable improved debugging
This will be very useful
4. Runtime plugins
It is very exciting to hear that there will be runtime plugins for the Tauri apps, as they will save a lot of time and will help the developer, also it will be exciting what plugins will the community would make
5. Support for additional bindings in other languages
It would be crazy if we will be able to use python as a backend...Ah can't wait to see
Conclusion
Tauri is gonna be a game changer in a few years, and as an electron developer, I see it is going to be a valuable skill to know Tauri and work with it. So I would suggest you guys go test the Tauri and let the Tauri team know if you have any feedback.
And also follow me on Twitter and Github to be updated with more web development tips and news.
Have a good day,
Rajvir Singh
Top comments (2)
Interesting for someone learning Rust and Javascript, like me. I'm looking forward the mobile support.
Me too, It is gone be a game changing