Linux App

[Mohan-Mano]

Hi the Windows app looks awesome, any scope for creating one for Linux desktop ?

[rocksdanister]

I need to think about it, can be a fun exercise.

Creating Linux version would require rewriting the shaders to GLSL and using framework like Avalonia or Uno for Linux.

I would like to keep the UWP Windows version separate for performance.

[rocksdanister]

I am looking into using Uno for Mac/Linux version.

Will try to rewrite the shader to SkSL since SkiaSharp is already included with Uno.

Image editing/ML code will also be rewritten to use SkiaSharp to avoid additional ImageSharp dependency.

Windows will continue to use UWP/ComputeSharp for performance.

SkSL example:
unoplatform/uno#13812

[Mohan-Mano]

Thank you so much for considering my request. To be honest I am no developer so i did not understand any of the terms mentioned by you but I was able to come to a conclusion. that you are trying to do something bring a version for MAC/Linux.

Thank you so much for that.

[rocksdanister]

To be honest I am no developer so i did not understand any of the terms mentioned by you

No worries, I use github issue as a bookmark/todo list.

that you are trying to do something bring a version for MAC/Linux.

That is correct, yes.

[MartinZikmund]

@rocksdanister that sounds great! Let us know if you need some support from our team 👍 !

[inson1]

@rocksdanister Why not use Avalonia? What is performace difference of Avalonia with UWP and Uno?

[rocksdanister]

I made the final decision to use Avalonia #85

lw_mac_alpha1_d1.mp4

STORY TIME
Original plan was to use WebView and make an app (mac, linux) and wallpaper version for my Lively Wallpaper app while maintaining the uwp version for Windows.
But on testing WebView (Tauri and other solutions) had poor performance on linux (webgl did not even initialize properly or super slow) - turns out default linux gtk browser was quite slow and not as performant as chromium.. my other option was to use Electron which I wanted to avoid.
I looked at other options like Flutter but no C# ( I made a weather abstraction library for this and didnt want to rewrite everything + uwp version.)
Then its either build my own using imgui, silk.net or Uno, Avalonia.
I build a prototype in Avalonia since I hav used it in the past for a bit ( its very easy and quick to setup and simple back then whereas Uno was giving me trouble.. etc) and ended up finishing the Avalonia version since by the time I built all the shader systems already.
I do wonder how much performant Electron would hav been (minus the memory + storage).. since its built for blurring and css effects 🤔