# Quick Start

Electron enables you to create desktop applications with pure JavaScript by
providing a runtime with rich native (operating system) APIs. You could see it
as a variant of the Node.js runtime that is focused on desktop applications
instead of web servers.

The old "Quick Start" document that used to live here has been split up into
two documents:

* To check out how a simple Electron app is built, see
[Writing Your First Electron App][first-app]
* To check out the process architecture, see
[Main and Renderer Processes][processes].

If you just came here to learn about Electron, check out the
[official guides][readme].

[first-app]: ./first-app.md
[processes]: ./application-architecture.md#main-and-renderer-processes
[readme]: ../README.md