Electron (formerly known as Atom Shell) is a free and open-source software framework developed and maintained by OpenJS Foundation. The framework is designed to create desktop applications using web technologies (mainly HTML, CSS and JavaScript, although other technologies such as front-end frameworks and WebAssembly are possible) that are rendered using a version of the Chromium browser engine and a back end using the Node.js runtime environment. It also uses various APIs to enable functionality such as native integration with Node.js services and an inter-process communication module.
Electron was originally built for Atom and is the main GUI framework behind several other open-source projects including GitHub Desktop, Light Table, WordPress Desktop, and Eclipse Theia. It is also used in Microsoft's proprietary code editor Visual Studio Code.
Architecture Chromium forms the basis of a managed runtime, allowing application developers to write cross-platform applications in memory-safe JavaScript or TypeScript and target Web browser technologies including HTML, CSS, and SVG for graphics.
Electron-based applications include a "main" process and several "renderer" processes. The main process runs the logic for the application (e.g., menus, shell commands, lifecycle events), and can then launch multiple renderer processes by instantiating an instance of the class, which loads a window that appears on the screen to render HTML, CSS, etc.
Both the main and renderer processes can run with Node.js integration if the field in the main process is set to .
Most of Electron's APIs are written in C++ or Objective-C and are exposed directly to the application code through JavaScript bindings.
History In September 2021, Electron moved to an eight-week release cycle between major versions to match the release cycle of Chromium Extended Stable and to comply with a new requirement from the Microsoft Store that requires browser-based apps to be within two major versions of the latest release of the browser engine.
Electron frequently releases new major versions along every other Chromium release. The latest three stable versions are supported by the Electron team.
+ Version history Release Status Release date End of life date Chromium version Node.js version Module version N-API version ICU version End-of-Life 12 December 2017 20 December 2018 59 8.2 57 ? ? End-of-Life 1 May 2018 24 April 2019 61 8.9 57 ? ? End-of-Life 18 September 2018 29 July 2019 66 10.2 64 3 ? End-of-Life 20 December 2018 22 October 2019 69 10.11 69 3 62.2 End-of-Life 24 April 2019 4 February 2020 73 12.0 70 4 63.1 End-of-Life 29 July 2019 18 May 2020 76 12.4 73 4 64.2 End-of-Life 22 October 2019 25 August 2020 78 12.8 75 4 64.2 End-of-Life 4 February 2020 16 November 2020 80 12.13 76 5 65.1 End-of-Life 18 May 2020 2 March 2021 83 12.14 80 5 65.1 End-of-Life 25 August 2020 25 May 2021 85 12.16 82 5 65.1 End-of-Life 16 November 2020 30 August 2021 87 12.18 85 5 65.1 End-of-Life 2 March 2021 15 November 2021 89 14.16 87 7 68.1 End-of-Life 25 May 2021 31 January 2022 91 14.16 89 7 68.1 End-of-Life 30 August 2021 29 March 2022 92 14.17 89 8 69.1 End-of-Life 21 September 2021 24 May 2022 94 16.5 98 ? ? End-of-Life 15 November 2021 24 May 2022 96 16.9 99 ? ? End-of-Life 1 February 2022 2 August 2022 98 16.13 101 ? ? End-of-Life 29 March 2022 26 September 2022 100 16.13 103 ? ? End-of-Life 24 May 2022 29 November 2022 102 16.14 106 ? ? End-of-Life 2 August 20227 February 2023 104 16.15 ? ? ? End-of-Life 26 September 20224 April 2023 106 16.16 ? ? ? End-of-Life 30 November 202210 October 2023 108 16.17 ? ? ? End-of-Life 30 November 202215 August 2023 110 18.12 ? ? ? End-of-Life 4 April 202310 October 2023 112 18.14 ? ? ? End-of-Life 30 May 20235 December 2023 114 18.15 ? ? ? End-of-Life 15 August 202320 February 2024 116 18.16 ? ? ? End-of-Life 10 October 202316 April 2024 118 18.17 ? ? ? End-of-Life 5 December 202311 June 2024 120 18.18 ? ? ? End-of-Life 20 February 2024 20 August 2024 122 20.9 ? ? ? End-of-Life 16 April 2024 15 October 2024 124 20.11 ? ? ? End-of-Life 11 June 2024 7 January 2025 126 20.14 ? ? ? End-of-Life 20 August 2024 4 March 2025 128 20.16 ? ? ? End-of-Life 15 October 2024 29 April 2025 130 20.18 ? ? ? End-of-Life 14 January 2025 24 June 2025 132 20.18 ? ? ? End-of-Life 4 March 2025 2 September 2025 134 22.14 ? ? ? End-of-Life 29 April 2025 28 October 2025 136 22.14 ? ? ? End-of-Life24 June 2025 13 January 2026 138.0.7204.251 22.21.1 ? ? ? End-of-Life 2 September 2025 10 March 2026 140.0.7339.249 22.21.1 ? ? ? End-of-Life 28 October 2025 5 May 2026 142.0.7444.235 22.21.1 ? ? ? End-of-Life 13 January 2026 30 June 2026 144.0.7547.0 24.11.1 ? ? ? Active 10 March 2026 25 August 2026 146.0.7650.0 24.14.0 ? ? ? Active 5 May 2026 20 October 2026 148.0.7778.96 24.15.0 ? ? ? Current 30 June 2026 5 January 2027 150.0.7871.46 24.17.0 ? ? ? Alpha 25 August 2026 2 March 2027 151.0.7900.0 24.18.0 ? ? ? Nightly 25 August 2026 2 March 2027 151.0.7900.0 24.18.0 ? ? ?
Usage
Desktop applications built with Electron include Atom, balenaEtcher, Discord, Slack, and Visual Studio Code. The Brave browser was based on Electron before it was rewritten to use Chromium directly, while Microsoft Teams used Electron before 2.0.
Reception The most common criticism of Electron is that it necessitates software bloat when used for simple programs. As a result, Michael Larabel has referred to the framework as "notorious among most Linux desktop users for being resource heavy, not integrating well with most desktops, and generally being despised". Researchers have shown that Electron's large feature set can be hijacked by bad actors with write access to the source JavaScript files. This requires root access on Unix-like systems and is not considered to be a vulnerability by the Electron developers. Those who are concerned that Electron is not always based on the newest version of Chromium have recommended progressive web applications as an alternative.
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