Google’s open-source UI framework for building Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows has added another platform...Linux. And with over 500,000 developers working with Flutter (and over 80,000 apps built with the framework), this could mean a boon for apps on Linux.
But that’s not all. Canonical (the creators and maintainers of Ubuntu) have dedicated developers to the task. In fact, Ken VanDine, Canonical engineering manager, said this of the move:
Canonical is making a significant investment in Flutter by dedicating a team of developers to work alongside Google’s developers to bring the best Flutter experience to the majority of Linux distributions. Canonical will continue to collaborate with Google to further improve Linux support and maintain feature parity with the other supported platforms.
From Google’s end, they’ve done extensive work to the Flutter engine, to better provide a native desktop experience, no matter the operating system.
One aspect of Flutter that makes it especially important for developers is that apps won't need to be built for specific desktops. Using Google’s Dart language, developers can code an application once and it should (thanks to Flutter) work on mobile devices and desktops. And with companies like Google, Capital One, Square, eBay, BMW, and SONOS already working with Flutter...the future certainly looks bright for the Linux desktop.
For more information, check out Canonical’s official announcement[1].
