The Arduino IDE is great in that with a single download on any PC platform, new users can start writing code and see immediate results. The same simplicity though, limits some of the more “advanced” features found in modern editors. Also one of the IDE’s greatest strengths is cross-platform through Java. This is also one of its weaknesses. Java is outdated and it’s time to move on.
There’s a slew of other Arduino development environments out there, but most of them are limited to 1 or 2 platforms. Electron is a novel idea because it is based on Node.js, meaning it runs in Google’s Chrome.
The initial implementation even includes a Serial monitor!