I enjoyed reading this write-up. Used this technique in the past and have seen similar improvements as they mentioned in this article. [1] This was pre the FCP, LCP, CLS metrics so it considers the onload timings. Would be interesting to know on which percentiles this increase is seen and if this is measured with real user metrics (RUM) or captured by a synthetic tool such as lighthouse or web page test.
What are reasons to use bower over NPM? I know that bower mainly focusses on front-end libraries (such as jQuery or Bootstrap). But does it offer functionality NPM doesn't have?
While I can't speak for the author, one benefit of packaging your app with node-webkit[1]; is that your app is always used inside this container, that bundles a very recent version of Chromium and has a node.js backend with file system access.
Besides the argument about JS, the thing that is holding me back the most is their "cloud service".
"The Relay connects WigWag and third party devices to our cloud service, which allows your stuff to interact with many Internet services, such as email, Dropbox and Twitter. It also makes your sensors work together, so they and the rules they activate are smarter."
I can't really understand why this cloud connectivity is required? But personally I feel quite some reservation towards storing this kind of data remote.
[1]: https://techlab.bol.com/en/blog/our-ride-to-peak-season-fron...