December 19, 2025
Bye, web—hello weird!
Ask HN: Who here is not working on web apps/server code?
From 3D spreadsheets to audio engines, the anti-web crew speaks out
TLDR: A dev is building a 3D spreadsheet desktop app with Unreal and Python, stirring a chorus of non-web pride. Commenters celebrate deeper, behind-the-scenes work—security tools, audio engines, graphics drivers, legacy modernization, and microVMs—sparking debate over whether web work is churn while the “real” engineering happens elsewhere.
A dev rolled into Hacker News with a curveball: a desktop app for 3D spreadsheets built with Unreal Engine and Python, complete with a visualizer for geometry math and a video demo. They swear 3D UI is the “final form” of interfaces, and despite slow build times, everything “feels right.” The comments lit up—not with CSS woes, but with people proudly admitting they don’t touch websites anymore.
One security engineer bragged that “the feedback loop is slower” but the puzzles are deeper. An audio dev was buzzing about instant gratification—new sounds, upgraded Amiga MOD music, and retro vibes. A graphics nerd confessed they haven’t made a website since their late-90s GeoCities fan page and now wrangle graphics drivers—“hard to write, harder to debug.” A former web dev said they burned out and now modernize dusty legacy platforms. And to cap it off, someone’s shipping tiny super-fast virtual machines, with a full reboot of ERA.
The mood? A mix of anti-web pride and nostalgia. Drama flared around whether web dev is “churn” while systems work feels “real.” Jokes flew about “not another to-do app,” GPU gang vs CSS gang, and the glow-up from 8-bit audio to silky playback. This thread is a love letter to tech beyond the browser.
Key Points
- •A desktop application for 3D spreadsheets is under development.
- •An early version is shown in a YouTube demo video (rJuRTZOE99g).
- •The new version includes native Unreal Engine use via Python and lets users launch a dedicated server.
- •Development is slowed by compiling and cooking steps, while Python code remains simple and readable.
- •A renderer using the Kingdon geometric algebra package enables visualization of lines, points, planes, and shapes in 3D.