The launch of Electro, a new Rust-based image viewer promising blazing-fast performance, has sparked an important discussion about privacy and architectural choices in modern desktop applications. While the application garnered initial praise for its speed and minimalist design, community members have identified concerning behavior related to its use of Microsoft's WebView2 component.
Technical Stack:
- Frontend: Preact (TypeScript)
- Backend: Tauri v2.0 (Rust)
- Package Manager: npm
- State Management: Zustand
- Styling: Vanilla CSS
Privacy Concerns Emerge
What started as a celebration of a new performant image viewer quickly turned to scrutiny when users discovered unexpected network activity. Community members utilizing per-application firewalls detected that Electro makes connections to Microsoft servers upon startup, specifically to IP addresses associated with Redmond. This behavior stems from the application's use of Tauri 2.0 framework, which employs Windows' WebView2 as its default web view implementation.
Nope. Very first request it makes: From: Microsoft Edge WebView2 To: 13.107.42.16:443 - Redmond, United States of America
Key Privacy Issue:
- WebView2 component makes automatic connections to Microsoft servers
- IP: 13.107.42.16:443 (Redmond, USA)
- Issue stems from Tauri's default webview implementation on Windows
Architectural Trade-offs
The developer's choice of Tauri 2.0 represents a common trade-off in modern application development. While the framework enables rapid development and modern UI capabilities, it comes with dependencies that may impact privacy. The developer acknowledged this limitation and expressed plans to eventually move to a custom renderer to eliminate the Chromium/WebView2 dependency, though noting this would require significant development time.
Community-Driven Evolution
The discussion has highlighted how community feedback shapes software development. Beyond privacy concerns, users have contributed valuable feature requests, including command-line interface support, folder browsing capabilities, and window resizing improvements. The developer's responsive engagement with these suggestions demonstrates the project's commitment to community-driven development.
Future Directions
While Electro currently faces privacy challenges due to its technical stack, the developer has committed to addressing these concerns. The project's roadmap includes not only privacy improvements but also cross-platform support for Linux and macOS, though the latter depends on community contributions or future resource availability.
The situation serves as a reminder of the complex balance between development efficiency, feature set, and privacy considerations in modern software development. As Electro evolves, its journey may offer valuable insights for other developers facing similar architectural decisions.
Reference: Electro - A lightweight & blazingly-fast image viewer