The root problem is this: 1Password, originally a Mac-forward software developer, has simply decided that the Mac isn’t important enough. What’s really causing all this consternation, I think, isn’t 1Password moving to Electron. I hope they’re listening and will adjust accordingly. I’m going to withhold judgment of 1Password 8’s interface, mostly because it’s still in beta and I’m sure AgileBits is going to get plenty of feedback about all the ways it fails to measure up to the standards of Mac users. And AgileBits has pointed out that it’s using Rust, a robust programming language, to power everything except the user interface, so performance should be more than you’d expect from “just a web app.” I’m sure that the very best Electron app isn’t as good a Mac app as one written using Apple’s AppKit frameworks-but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be good. Just as there are good and bad Catalyst apps, there are good and bad Electron apps. But using a system like Electron does have consequences: Electron apps have a reputation for being slow, eating up a lot of system memory, and-perhaps most offensively-failing to behave like proper, “native” apps on whatever platform they operate. I think it’s fair to say that most users don’t care about the tools that a developer uses to write the apps we use. You see, AgileBits chose to build the new version of its Mac app using Electron, a system based on web technologies that’s used by numerous cross-platform apps, including Slack, Skype, and Discord. Which brings us to this week, when AgileBits announced the beta version of 1Password 8 for the Mac-and walked into a storm of criticism from Mac users. That said, 1Password offers many features Apple doesn’t, and the company has become increasingly active in competing in the enterprise space, with an influx of investment to help it grow rapidly. Over time, password management has become more common, and this fall’s operating-system updates will improve Apple’s built-in password management so much that it’s all most people will ever need. I’ve recommended it to friends and family alike. I’ve used AgileBits’s 1Password for more than a decade. If you can’t move the preferences window because it’s fake, you might be running an Electron app like 1Password 8. Not important enough: 1Password abandons its native Mac app
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