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It's an interesting project, clearly stemming from scratching one's personal itch. Congrats on the Show HN, always an exciting experience :) A bit of a reality

It's an interesting project, clearly stemming from scratching one's personal itch. Congrats on the Show HN, always an exciting experience :) A bit of a reality check though if you don't mind - I think you will have very hard time selling this. Windows chunk of your target audience will undoubtedly be already using Far and its many plugins, and thus have very little reason for switching. Conversely, those not familiar with Far probably won't be that interested in fman either. Mac - desktop Mac market is exactly 1/10 of that of Windows. Perhaps Mac people are more inclined to pay, but it will still be peanuts compared to what a Windows version could bring. Linux - I am frankly not familiar with a single Linux user, developer or not, who ever bought anything except for games. [1] http://www.farmanager.com http://www.farmanager.com

BeefySwain 10y ago
Anecdote, but I am a Linux user and have paid for animation software (the name escapes me, I didn't do much with it). That said I feel like if more quality software existed for Linux, I feel there would be more of a market for it. I would gladly pay for quality CAD software, as well as a decent graphical suite and video editor.
mherrmann 10y ago
I'm nearly sold out [1] so I don't see a problem selling this. Far manager is command-line only. 24% of my visitors are on Mac, Windows is 34% - hardly 1/10. [1]: https://fman.io/buy https://fman.io/buy
- huhtenberg 10y ago
  > I'm nearly sold out Can I ask what your sales goals/expectations are? Being "sold out" on software licenses certainly looks like a marketing trick rather than a meaningful demand quantifier. > 24% of my visitors are on Mac, Windows is 34% - hardly 1/10 The 1/10 is the actual rate of Mac to Windows desktop shares. The fact that you are getting 24/34 simply means that you are either not reaching Windows audience or the product doesn't resonate with it.
  - mherrmann 10y ago
    Re "sold out": I explained this in other comments [1], [2]. I believe more and more people are using Macs, especially among my (narrowest) target audience (programmers). That's why I'm seeing ratios different from the average. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777696 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778808
- orclev 10y ago
  Just for some statistics, I just purchased it but the main selling point for me is cross platform. I use Windows/Linux at home and Mac at work, so a tool that works on all of them is a real boon to me. This way I can customize and use a single tool and use it no matter where I am. Same reason I purchased a copy of Sublime Text.
  - zerr 10y ago
    Is it electron based?
    - mherrmann 10y ago
      If you mean fman then no: I thought about this long and hard but startup speed is crucial and Electron just doesn't cut it. It's based on PyQt. I wrote a blog post about this: https://fman.io/blog/picking-technologies-for-a-desktop-app-in-2016/ https://fman.io/blog/picking-technologies-for-a-desktop-app-...
      - zellyn 10y ago
        Just FYI, Go has a (currently experimental, linux-only) plugin mechanism now. Of course, it's not cross-platform… yet.
      - zerr 10y ago
        Good to hear that... It would have been even better if it was C++ Qt based.
        srssays 10y ago
        Congratulations! You exemplify the term "pathological customer"!
        zerr 10y ago
        Is this a new name for someone who wants to avoid a bloatware?
- jmcdiesel 10y ago
  How are you "sold out" of a digital license? Sounds like a very Nintendo-esque intential shortage to drive demand. Not saying its true, but it was my first thought, as well as 5 of the people in the slack room i shared the link in... all of which went from "ok, lets give this guy money" to "... nah... this doesnt feel right, now..."
  - mherrmann 10y ago
    It's a good question - I already explained this here in a comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777696
    - jmcdiesel 10y ago
      You really haven't answered it, though. It's very nonsensical. If you want to see "who's in" and develop for your paying customers, then should you not let people become paying customers so you can develop for them? Your logic seems to work if you were not allowing trials, but only paying... THEN you would have only paying customers... its your gig, but I think its been a while since i've seen something this strange in software... and its telling that you're having to post the link to your answer so often in these comments. It simply makes no sense, and seems to be serving to drive people away or make them doubt your intentions.
      - mherrmann 10y ago
        Sorry you find it so disturbing. Especially since you said in another comment that being able to pay for a piece of software makes it appealing to you. I think that's cool because I'm not a big fan of freeloaders. I didn't think fman would be so successful here. I believed that if I had told people "buy this whenever you feel like it", then they simply wouldn't have bought. At least that would be what I would do. Another reason is that I want to provide paying users with great support, want to ask "so what would you like implemented" etc., and I don't have the resources to do that for too many people. I hope it makes more sense now... :/
zerr 10y ago
Why go Far when we have Total Commander?
- mherrmann 10y ago
  TC is great but it's not available on Mac (my original motivation for starting the project [1]) or Linux. Also, it's showing its age. [1]: https://fman.io/blog/introducing-fman/ https://fman.io/blog/introducing-fman/
rasmusei 10y ago
> Linux - I am frankly not familiar with a single Linux user, developer or not, who ever bought anything except for games. I beg to differ. Grew up with Windows, but nowadays full-time Linux user. I paid some $40 for Sublime Text and it was worth every cent. Also donated to various services and projects, but maybe that does not count... And now I also just paid $13 for fman, not because I'm sure about it, but because it's cheap, looks promising, and I sometimes miss Total Commander rather badly.
therealidiot 10y ago
Linux user here, I'll buy what makes sense (e.g. Sublime Text) and is worth it. The problem is that "except for games," commercial support around Linux isn't exactly great. I'm just a developer so my needs are covered, but around me are others with different needs - decent CAD tools, Photoshop - they're not sold for Linux. And now there's probably going to be the "well there aren't enough Linux users to justify it" but then there never could be if the software is unavailable anyway. I'm aware that there used to be a Photoshop build for Solaris
unhammer 10y ago
I've "bought" a lot of free software through donations, and even bought the Windows version of LR to use through Wine. Can't afford to buy GNU Parallel yet though.

BeefySwain 10y ago

Anecdote, but I am a Linux user and have paid for animation software (the name escapes me, I didn't do much with it). That said I feel like if more quality software existed for Linux, I feel there would be more of a market for it. I would gladly pay for quality CAD software, as well as a decent graphical suite and video editor.

mherrmann 10y ago

I'm nearly sold out [1] so I don't see a problem selling this. Far manager is command-line only. 24% of my visitors are on Mac, Windows is 34% - hardly 1/10. [1]: https://fman.io/buy https://fman.io/buy

huhtenberg 10y ago
> I'm nearly sold out Can I ask what your sales goals/expectations are? Being "sold out" on software licenses certainly looks like a marketing trick rather than a meaningful demand quantifier. > 24% of my visitors are on Mac, Windows is 34% - hardly 1/10 The 1/10 is the actual rate of Mac to Windows desktop shares. The fact that you are getting 24/34 simply means that you are either not reaching Windows audience or the product doesn't resonate with it.
- mherrmann 10y ago
  Re "sold out": I explained this in other comments [1], [2]. I believe more and more people are using Macs, especially among my (narrowest) target audience (programmers). That's why I'm seeing ratios different from the average. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777696 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13778808
orclev 10y ago
Just for some statistics, I just purchased it but the main selling point for me is cross platform. I use Windows/Linux at home and Mac at work, so a tool that works on all of them is a real boon to me. This way I can customize and use a single tool and use it no matter where I am. Same reason I purchased a copy of Sublime Text.
- zerr 10y ago
  Is it electron based?
  - mherrmann 10y ago
    If you mean fman then no: I thought about this long and hard but startup speed is crucial and Electron just doesn't cut it. It's based on PyQt. I wrote a blog post about this: https://fman.io/blog/picking-technologies-for-a-desktop-app-in-2016/ https://fman.io/blog/picking-technologies-for-a-desktop-app-...
    - zellyn 10y ago
      Just FYI, Go has a (currently experimental, linux-only) plugin mechanism now. Of course, it's not cross-platform… yet.
    - zerr 10y ago
      Good to hear that... It would have been even better if it was C++ Qt based.
      - srssays 10y ago
        Congratulations! You exemplify the term "pathological customer"!
        zerr 10y ago
        Is this a new name for someone who wants to avoid a bloatware?
jmcdiesel 10y ago
How are you "sold out" of a digital license? Sounds like a very Nintendo-esque intential shortage to drive demand. Not saying its true, but it was my first thought, as well as 5 of the people in the slack room i shared the link in... all of which went from "ok, lets give this guy money" to "... nah... this doesnt feel right, now..."
- mherrmann 10y ago
  It's a good question - I already explained this here in a comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777696
  - jmcdiesel 10y ago
    You really haven't answered it, though. It's very nonsensical. If you want to see "who's in" and develop for your paying customers, then should you not let people become paying customers so you can develop for them? Your logic seems to work if you were not allowing trials, but only paying... THEN you would have only paying customers... its your gig, but I think its been a while since i've seen something this strange in software... and its telling that you're having to post the link to your answer so often in these comments. It simply makes no sense, and seems to be serving to drive people away or make them doubt your intentions.
    - mherrmann 10y ago
      Sorry you find it so disturbing. Especially since you said in another comment that being able to pay for a piece of software makes it appealing to you. I think that's cool because I'm not a big fan of freeloaders. I didn't think fman would be so successful here. I believed that if I had told people "buy this whenever you feel like it", then they simply wouldn't have bought. At least that would be what I would do. Another reason is that I want to provide paying users with great support, want to ask "so what would you like implemented" etc., and I don't have the resources to do that for too many people. I hope it makes more sense now... :/

zerr 10y ago

Why go Far when we have Total Commander?

mherrmann 10y ago
TC is great but it's not available on Mac (my original motivation for starting the project [1]) or Linux. Also, it's showing its age. [1]: https://fman.io/blog/introducing-fman/ https://fman.io/blog/introducing-fman/

rasmusei 10y ago

> Linux - I am frankly not familiar with a single Linux user, developer or not, who ever bought anything except for games. I beg to differ. Grew up with Windows, but nowadays full-time Linux user. I paid some $40 for Sublime Text and it was worth every cent. Also donated to various services and projects, but maybe that does not count... And now I also just paid $13 for fman, not because I'm sure about it, but because it's cheap, looks promising, and I sometimes miss Total Commander rather badly.

therealidiot 10y ago

Linux user here, I'll buy what makes sense (e.g. Sublime Text) and is worth it. The problem is that "except for games," commercial support around Linux isn't exactly great. I'm just a developer so my needs are covered, but around me are others with different needs - decent CAD tools, Photoshop - they're not sold for Linux. And now there's probably going to be the "well there aren't enough Linux users to justify it" but then there never could be if the software is unavailable anyway. I'm aware that there used to be a Photoshop build for Solaris

unhammer 10y ago

I've "bought" a lot of free software through donations, and even bought the Windows version of LR to use through Wine. Can't afford to buy GNU Parallel yet though.