
Ask HN: Anyone Here Using Flutter? - fakedang
I just got started with making apps using Flutter, sort of as a tutorial to the app-building process, yet searching online, the resources are far too few, and its presence on HN jobs almost negligible. Correct me if I&#x27;m wrong, but as I understand, React Native&#x2F;Expo is the most popular cross-platform app-building framework, while Xamarin is steadily increasing its share among bigger firms who can spare the buck. Which leaves flutter, the more convenient of the three for MVP (strictly my opinion), between a rock and a hard place. Do you think Flutter has a future in app building, or is it going to go the way of other Google relics into the abyss?
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isoos
HN can be hostile against Dart and Flutter (and Java, C# and other non-hipster
languages), but there is no technical reason for it. JavaScript is a mediocre
tool for software development, but for some reason people think they will be
using it until the end of times.

If Flutter works for you, keep using it. It is open source (!= Google
service), it is productive, and there are no signs that Google is abandoning
it; on the contrary, it seems that more efforts are put behind: Dart language
and tooling improved a lot since 2.0 (+ non-nullable types coming soon),
Flutter getting support for Web, Mac and potentially other platforms...

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sudo_kaizen
As far as I know, Flutter dev evangelists are trying trying their best to push
it into massive adoption. One thing you may fail to see is the reason for RN's
massive adoption, and those are

1\. It was released before Flutter, 2015 compared to Flutter's 2017

2\. No need to learn a new language. JavaScript is JavaScript. The initial
thought of having to learn Dart (which is very similar to JavaScript and Java,
but who'll know till they use it?) is a push back

3\. RN's similarity to React. It is easier for devs who'd been using React to
jump into it, and React has more adoption than Angular

In the end, users don't really care whatever you use. Does your app do what
they want/expect?

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_bxg1
Yeah, JavaScript and even React have such a critical mass of developer
familiarity at this point that I don't see how they could be unseated without
some really killer new advantage. Flutter's advantage is... it's a bit faster?
Maybe? Maybe the warts when it comes to spanning the platform gap aren't quite
as bad? I think it's going to take more than that.

One opportunity could be desktop. If Flutter can beat React Native to that
(doesn't really look like it will so far), that could be a killer app. Right
now people use Electron, which carries a couple of significant downsides.

