Gluon GitHub

Gluon Discord Server

What?

Gluon is a framework which does the same sort of thing as Electron but with a radically different (internal) approach. Instead of bundling Chromium (Electron) or using a Webview (Tauri/etc), Gluon uses a normal browser already installed. It supports Chromium and Firefox (a first) based browsers installed on the system as the frontend, and uses NodeJS in the backend to be versatile and easy to develop.

Why?

I have wanted to make something roughly like this for months but thought what would be the point if I was the only person using it. This is me trying to get other developers (and people generally) to look at it to gather opinions, feedback, wants, etc. This should be a useful framework for many people, if not it’s failing at it’s job. In my opinion, Gluon has great potential if it finds the right place and people.

FAQ

• Is this stable / production ready?
  Nope. It’s barely a week old (as of writing on Dec 12 2022). It’s experimental in alpha.

• Does this use less memory than X?
  It should use a bit (~10MB) less than Electron. With others it varies, but is generally at least the same if not slightly less.

• What browsers does it support using?
  Most Chromium or Firefox based browsers! Full testing remains to be done.

• What platforms does this support?
  For now, just Windows. But Linux support is coming very soon!

• What license does this use?
  MIT.

• Can I help?
  Yes! The number one thing I am currently looking for are opinions and feedback on what people generally want from a framework like this. Join the Gluon Discord and give them! (And get your friends to, too, if they want?) You can also financially help with GitHub Sponsors (not needed!).

• Why NodeJS? Use a native language!
  No. Gluon uses Node to allow easy and quick development plus versatility.

• But this is still packaging websites as native apps, boo!
  Okay. Can’t do much about that. This framework isn’t meant to solve that.

Anything else? Ask in the Gluon Discord!