.NET MAUI is coming to Linux and the browser

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Serious desktop apps vs “phone-style” UIs

  • Multiple commenters want a toolkit suitable for “Photoshop/CAD-class” apps: dense information, many controls, multi‑window, huge data sets, not touch‑first layouts.
  • There’s frustration with modern, padded, animation‑heavy UIs; some praise older or Japanese-style dense interfaces.
  • Avalonia itself is seen as reasonably capable of serious apps; the extra MAUI layer is viewed by some as less suitable.

MAUI’s role and maturity

  • Several people describe MAUI as barebones, buggy, and rough even for basic tasks (styling, triggers, performance, tooling).
  • Some see the Xamarin → MAUI rewrite as a “things you should never do” reset that discarded a lot of battle‑tested code and ecosystem.
  • Many emphasize MAUI is mobile‑first; desktop (Windows/macOS) is mainly a side benefit. You’d pick it when iOS/Android are primary targets.

Avalonia backend & platform coverage

  • This work is understood as: keep MAUI UI code, replace the rendering stack with Avalonia, thereby gaining Linux and WASM targets.
  • Linux desktop is widely seen as the big practical win; MAUI previously lacked any Linux story.
  • For web, this is framed as “MAUI on Avalonia on WASM” — more a Silverlight‑style plugin replacement than a first‑class web framework.

Web/WASM, canvas, and “real web”

  • Strong criticism that canvas‑rendered apps “don’t feel like the web”: no Ctrl+F, text selection, link copying, browser back integration, devtools DOM, extensions, or standard a11y.
  • Many compare this to Java applets / Flash / Silverlight: rich but opaque “islands” inside a page.
  • Some argue cross‑platform UI on the web should target the DOM (React‑Native‑style, Blazor, Uno, Rust UI frameworks) instead of pure canvas.

Accessibility and standards

  • Multiple comments call out likely severe accessibility problems: screen readers can’t see canvas content, no semantic elements, keyboard navigation issues.
  • ARIA and the Accessibility Object Model are mentioned as partial solutions, but mapping canvas to invisible DOM is viewed as complex and fragile.
  • Some argue that without proper text/a11y integration, it’s “by definition” not acceptable as web UX.

Performance, demos, and user experience

  • Several people report the online demos loading very slowly, freezing tabs, or breaking navigation (e.g., back arrow in the puzzle, browser back).
  • Controls (time/date pickers, puzzle interactions, calculators) are described as visually rough or finicky.
  • This reinforces skepticism that the stack is ready for serious web deployment.

Microsoft, ecosystem, and trust

  • Longstanding worry that Microsoft repeatedly churns UI stacks (WinForms, WPF, UWP, WinUI, Xamarin, MAUI, Silverlight), so developers fear MAUI will be underfunded or abandoned.
  • Lack of MAUI dogfooding for flagship apps (Teams using WebView/Electron, Windows using WinUI/React‑Native‑XAML) is cited as a red flag.
  • Some defend .NET overall as having excellent long‑term code reuse and cross‑platform reach, but agree MAUI is not a web framework and should mostly be seen as mobile/desktop tech.