>It’s React Native for Windows which is a flavor of React Native that directly calls Windows APIs including, you guessed it, WinUI 3.
>So that’s it. Windows Start has a very small section (that can be disabled) that’s written in a framework that follows React principles and compiles down to native code.
False. React Native doesn't "compile down to native code". It runs actual JavaScript, just not inside a browser, but a standalone JS runtime.
I wonder what engine they are using with ReactNative on Windows. Is it Hermes like with regular RN projects targeting iOS/Android? Or do they run on some system installation of a more traditional engine like V8/JavaScriptCore?
That is actually still React. React is React Core + ReactDOM (web) renderer. React Native is the React Core + native renderer. They are both still React, and they both use Javascript, which while fast when JIT'd, is typically much slower than native code.
I'm not commenting on whether this is a good or bad thing, but the article strikes me as a bit misleading.
The whole UI situation in Windows is absolutely ludicrous.
Is the recommendations panel in the start menu, which nobody actually wants to begin with, really so complicated that it justifies bringing in a JS runtime?
And is C# and WinUI really so hard to use that they can’t just make it with that?
And if WinUI is hard to use, maybe they should like.. make it better?
At least Apple had the decency to take the React paradigm and turn it into a native part of their development platform with SwiftUI, even if the implementation has been a bit rough around the edges.
It may not involve a webview, but from what I can tell it definitely still is running JavaScript.
Either way it doesn't matter. As someone who has used Windows in a significant way since the 90s, the taskbar and start menu are a buggy mess. The new design is awful, I just want a list of my programs like before.
The recommended section using React Native is honestly more strange and confusing than if they had just used React for the whole thing. It doesn't seem like a particularly complex UI element, it would be easier to just develop it using the already used native APIs.
The internet tends to flatten everything into “it's React”.
React Native for Windows is quite different from embedding a web React app in the OS shell. It’s essentially a renderer that maps React components to native WinUI controls.
So saying “Windows Start is written in React” is a bit like saying an iOS app built with SwiftUI is “written in HTML”.
Fatal error by the author: They’re right, it doesn’t use React in the way that everyone actually means and criticises. It still technically uses React though, so—as is already evident—you still get the worst of the worst, bad-faith arguers saying “WELL ACKSHULLY…”
> This is the Windows 11 start menu. See that Recommended section at the bottom of it? That is built with React Native for Windows. No, that is not a full JavaScript framework in your start menu. There’s no web view / browser running gobbling up your resources. It’s React Native for Windows which is a flavor of React Native that directly calls Windows APIs including, you guessed it, WinUI 3.
I would still say that means Windows Start uses React, frankly.
I understand there is a position of "we've always done it this way, so we keep doing it this way"
And.
"we need to move with the times and use new tech!".
But surely there is some happy middle ground that doesn't end up with a entire js runtime in the damn start menu?
I'm a fairly casual dev compared to faang folk, but surely even they realised this was an awful choice?
nit: the embedded screenshot of the Windows 11 Start Menu is low res enough that seeing/reading the Recommended section is challenging without squinting!
The weirdest thing about this (which is frankly bizarre) is Microsoft emphatically shilling React Native for MacOS[1] usage (???). Like, wtf? Why? Not only is it embarassing for MS to be using another competing company's (Facebook's) UI layer when they're, you know, an operating system company. But they're also pushing it for competing operating systems. What idiotic PM signed off on this? How in the world does Microsoft benefit out of promulgating Facebook's technology?
The amount of misinformation that spreads from a single tweet or blog post is insane. Someone says "Windows uses React" and suddenly it's gospel. The actual XAML Islands explanation makes way more sense from a performance standpoint. Microsoft has been using XAML for their UI framework for years, why would they switch to React for something as performance-critical as the Start menu?
59 comments
>It’s React Native for Windows which is a flavor of React Native that directly calls Windows APIs including, you guessed it, WinUI 3.
>So that’s it. Windows Start has a very small section (that can be disabled) that’s written in a framework that follows React principles and compiles down to native code.
False. React Native doesn't "compile down to native code". It runs actual JavaScript, just not inside a browser, but a standalone JS runtime.
I'm not commenting on whether this is a good or bad thing, but the article strikes me as a bit misleading.
>Windows Start does not use React
Ok
>This is the part of the Windows Start that uses React.
Ok
Is the recommendations panel in the start menu, which nobody actually wants to begin with, really so complicated that it justifies bringing in a JS runtime?
And is C# and WinUI really so hard to use that they can’t just make it with that?
And if WinUI is hard to use, maybe they should like.. make it better?
At least Apple had the decency to take the React paradigm and turn it into a native part of their development platform with SwiftUI, even if the implementation has been a bit rough around the edges.
Either way it doesn't matter. As someone who has used Windows in a significant way since the 90s, the taskbar and start menu are a buggy mess. The new design is awful, I just want a list of my programs like before.
React Native for Windows is quite different from embedding a web React app in the OS shell. It’s essentially a renderer that maps React components to native WinUI controls.
So saying “Windows Start is written in React” is a bit like saying an iOS app built with SwiftUI is “written in HTML”.
> This is the Windows 11 start menu. See that Recommended section at the bottom of it? That is built with React Native for Windows. No, that is not a full JavaScript framework in your start menu. There’s no web view / browser running gobbling up your resources. It’s React Native for Windows which is a flavor of React Native that directly calls Windows APIs including, you guessed it, WinUI 3.
I would still say that means Windows Start uses React, frankly.
But surely there is some happy middle ground that doesn't end up with a entire js runtime in the damn start menu?
I'm a fairly casual dev compared to faang folk, but surely even they realised this was an awful choice?
> No, Windows Start did not use React
[except for the bit that does]
https://x.com/0xAkuKun/status/2036235161956917593
VSCode had an instant search for 10 years. Now it's broken suddenly for the first time ever. Can't search anything. Back to greping like a cave man.
sigh
[1] https://microsoft.github.io/react-native-macos/docs/intro
On that note, do we have an open standard for OS implementations? Where the fuck is our modern scratch made OS written in Rust?
It’s about time we topple this shitty triopoly.