Best of Desktop Development — 2025

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    Article
    Avatar of java_libhuntAwesome Java Newsletter·41w

    Java desktop app with Shadcn UI

    Building modern desktop applications with Java doesn't have to mean using outdated UI toolkits like Swing or JavaFX. This guide demonstrates how to create a cross-platform Java desktop app using web technologies including shadcn/ui, React, and TypeScript. The approach uses JxBrowser to embed a Chromium-based web view, serves web resources from the classpath for security, and implements type-safe communication between JavaScript and Java using Protobuf and gRPC. This hybrid approach combines the power of Java backend with modern web UI capabilities.

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    Article
    Avatar of theregisterThe Register·42w

    Microsoft promises to make WinUI 'truly open source'

    Microsoft announced plans to make WinUI, their modern Windows UI framework, fully open source after years of developer frustration over slow progress and bugs. The transition will happen in four phases, starting with more frequent code mirroring to GitHub and eventually making it the primary repository. However, the timeline remains unclear due to dependencies on proprietary Windows components. Developers remain skeptical about Microsoft's commitment, citing years of stagnation and questioning whether sufficient resources will be allocated to improve the framework.

  3. 3
    Video
    Avatar of codeheadCodeHead·51w

    Is Desktop Development Still Relevant

    Desktop development remains highly relevant in 2025, particularly for performance-critical applications in video editing, music production, gaming, and financial trading. While web-first approaches dominate consumer apps, desktop apps excel where direct system access, GPU utilization, and offline reliability are essential. Modern cross-platform frameworks like Tauri, Flutter, and .NET MAUI have evolved beyond bloated Electron apps, offering efficient native performance. Industries requiring high security, local data processing, and mission-critical functionality continue to rely heavily on desktop applications.

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    Article
    Avatar of electronElectron·30w

    Electron 39.0.0

    Electron 39.0.0 brings upgrades to Chromium 142.0.7444.52, Node 22.20.0, and V8 14.2. The ASAR integrity feature, which validates packaged apps against build-time hashes to prevent tampering, graduates from experimental to stable. New features include hardware acceleration detection, HDR color space support for offscreen rendering, granular accessibility management, and dynamic ESM imports in preloads. Breaking changes include deprecation of the --host-rules command line switch in favor of --host-resolver-rules, always-resizable window.open popups per WHATWG spec, and restructured shared texture OSR paint event data. Electron 36.x.y reaches end-of-support.

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    Article
    Avatar of phProduct Hunt·50w

    Viberunner: Build personal desktop apps in seconds

    Viberunner is a tool that enables users to quickly create personal desktop applications and utilities without traditional development complexity. The platform focuses on rapid app creation, allowing users to build custom desktop solutions in seconds for their personal workflow needs.

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    Article
    Avatar of lpythonLearn Python·46w

    I built a Learn Python desktop Application with python to learn python 😂

    A developer shares their journey of creating an offline Python learning desktop application using PyQt. Starting as a personal solution to avoid browser tabs and unreliable internet during learning, the project evolved into a cross-platform desktop app with integrated code editor and terminal. The post covers challenges with PyInstaller packaging, debugging cross-platform issues, and the satisfaction of building something useful for other learners.

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    Article
    Avatar of electronElectron·37w

    Electron 38.0.0

    Electron 38.0.0 introduces major stack upgrades including Chromium 140.0.7339.41, Node 22.18.0, and V8 14.0. Key features include system accent color customization, enhanced macOS tray icon positioning, new memory info fields, and improved dialog centering. Breaking changes include dropping macOS 11 support, removing deprecated environment variables and events, and deprecating routing ID properties in favor of frame tokens. The release also concludes Google Summer of Code projects for window state persistence APIs and Devtron extension modernization.

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    Article
    Avatar of justjavaJust Java·25w

    Java desktop app with Vue.js

    Learn how to build cross-platform desktop applications by combining a Vue.js frontend with a Java backend using JxBrowser's embedded Chromium engine. The approach enables modern web UI development while maintaining native filesystem access, offline capabilities, and seamless JavaScript-Java communication without requiring native toolkit rewrites.

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    Article
    Avatar of electronElectron·47w

    Electron 37.0.0

    Electron 37.0.0 introduces smooth corner CSS squircles with the new -electron-corner-smoothing property, upgrades to Chromium 138, V8 13.8, and Node 22.16.0. Key features include new window.open options, mouse event interception, and macOS menu enhancements. Breaking changes affect utility process behavior, WebUSB/WebSerial blocklist support, and protocol response handling. Electron 34.x.y reaches end-of-support with this release.

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