What Electron’s Graduation to OpenJS Impact Means for Developers

In December 2019, the OpenJS Foundation announced that Electron had entered its incubation program. At the recent OpenJS World event, Electron was declared to have graduated from incubation and become an Impact project of the OpenJS Foundation.

The OpenJS Foundation was created by merging the Node.js Foundation and the JS Foundation, and it now hosts many open‑source JavaScript projects such as jQuery, Node.js, and webpack, backed by around thirty companies including GoDaddy, Google, IBM, Intel, Joyent, and Microsoft.

Electron is a cross‑platform desktop application development tool built on Node.js and Chromium, allowing developers to write desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. It powers popular applications like Discord, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Slack, and Visual Studio Code.

The foundation stated that joining OpenJS will not change how Electron is developed, released, or used, and it will not directly affect developers building apps with Electron. It emphasized that multiple organizations investing in Electron will make the project stronger, and that moving to a neutral, community‑driven foundation is a natural next step for a mature open‑source project.

OpenJS Foundation projects progress through several stages:

Impact – for large, mature projects.

Growth – for projects receiving active guidance and moving toward Impact.

At‑Large – for new projects, low‑maintenance stable projects, or those in between.

Incubation – for projects entering the OpenJS Foundation.

Emeritus – for projects that have completed their lifecycle and are retired.

Regarding the graduation, Electron said, “We are thrilled to play a larger role in the JavaScript community as an Impact project and continue our partnership with the OpenJS Foundation.”

Microsoft is also updating its cross‑platform Skype client to version 8.61, replacing the Windows 10 React Native client with an Electron‑based version and adding new features.