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I also switched from Mac back to Windows recently, and am curious what you're missing. Scrivener is available for Windows (though I use Hemingway.) OmniFocus

I also switched from Mac back to Windows recently, and am curious what you're missing. Scrivener is available for Windows (though I use Hemingway.) OmniFocus has many web-based alternatives...I use Trello, personally. (It's also a Windows app now!) Coda -- well, there's Sublime Text, VS Code, or JetBrains' universe of IDEs. This isn't a critique of what you said, by the way. I do think more info about what you're looking for would be great insight for the folks who read Hacker News -- some of whom might be willing to develop paid Windows apps if there's true demand in those areas.

rayiner 7y ago
Scrivener is a second class citizen on Windows (e.g. no version 3 yet.) The money is clearly on Mac. There is really no good OmniFocus alternative on Windows. Most are too simple, or more focused on coordinating teams than having lots of tools for an individual juggling lots of things. E.g. Todoist (and many other web apps) doesn’t have proper sub-tasks. Almost none has a proper review mode. MyLifeOrganized is really good, but it lacks the polish of OnniFocus. (Likely because it has a much smaller team than Omni, because Windows users aren’t willing to pay.) Trello is great for what it does, but its calendar integration is an afterthought. Stuff is a little better on the developer tool side, where there is still a willingness to pay for stuff like Jetbrains. VS Code though is a good example of how free products are worse (less features, Electron, etc.) than paid software (Visual Studio).
- justin66 7y ago
  > Scrivener is a second class citizen on Windows (e.g. no version 3 yet.) The money is clearly on Mac. I wonder if they've ever published a breakdown on Mac vs. Windows users or if you're just making that up? They've stated they spend more on Windows development, although they evidently aren't getting enough out of it.
- Hackbraten 7y ago
  OmniFocus for Web has recently gone publicly beta: https://www.omnigroup.com/releasenotes/omnifocus-web https://www.omnigroup.com/releasenotes/omnifocus-web
SyneRyder 7y ago
My 2c having switched from Mac to Windows and also lamenting some of the software: * The closest I've found to Coda on Windows is HTMLPad 2018 - though it took a while for me to discover "mappings" so I could get the in-app browser preview working. It doesn't have the polish Coda does - eg lots of icons are too tiny in HiDPI mode. * Cyberduck is the closest I've found to Panic Transmit, but it's also blurry in HiDPI modes, and has a nasty bug where large files over 100MB uploaded to Backblaze B2 won't complete & terminate as corrupted. * Windows start menu sort've replaces Alfred App, but it's not as easy to do things like type quick math equations (it sends them out to Bing instead of calculating locally, so it's much slower) * I really, really miss Cathode by Secret Geometry. It costs $5 but I'd easily pay $20. If I have to use the terminal I'd like to do it in style. Cathode is a terminal app that emulates CRT displays, including flicker, jitter, static & curvature. Cool Retro Term is closest, but there's no Windows version, and certainly not without lots of hacks to try and make the Linux version work through Windows Subsystem For Linux. (I'm sure there's others I've missed, but that's the first that leaps to mind.)
- h1d 7y ago
  Windows app GUI is a joke. After people widely used Windows for over 20 years, their cluttered interface never got any better having 10 menus, 20 buttons shown at once where many of Mac apps got that right with simpler and effective interface. If I have the option to choose between WinSCP and Transmit, Transmit is the obvious choice. CyberDuck interface isn't as bad as those Windows only ones but not as polished.
- jirir 7y ago
  Hi, could you please expand the list of cool mac tools? Thanks:)
Terretta 7y ago
I was puzzled by Scrivener vs. Hemingway, had to look up Hemingway: http://www.techtoolsforwriters.com/hemingway-app-a-proofreading-tool-for-writers/ http://www.techtoolsforwriters.com/hemingway-app-a-proofread... Assuming that’s the tool you meant.
jen729w 7y ago
> OmniFocus has many web-based alternatives...I use Trello, personally I love Trello, but it’s an OF ‘alternative’ at best. It is no way a replacement. OmniFocus is an order of magnitude more powerful. Even an app like Things doesn’t get close; I use both, and while I’d like to maintain an OF=home/Things=work separation, there are a bunch of things that I do that Things just can’t handle. On the subject of quality software more generally, this is one of the major frustrations I have when forced to use Windows. On my Mac, if I need a bit of software to do a job there is generally – not always, of course, but generally – something well written, well supported, and beautiful. I find it, give the developer $5-$50, and enjoy a long and fruitful relationship. If I need software on Windows, it’s a hot mess. I mean it’s just a fucking disaster. You Google what you want and get all sorts of shite. You risk your neck and download some file from Sourceforge. You ‘install’ it and have to reboot. Reboot? To install software? Wow. Okay. So you reboot then you launch the software and guess what? It’s a fucking turd. I hate it. Viscerally hate it.
- Crinus 7y ago
  > I find it, give the developer $5-$50, and enjoy a long and fruitful relationship. > You Google what you want and get all sorts of shite. You risk your neck and download some file from Sourceforge. You are comparing buying an application from a commercial developer who - if nothing else - has at least an incentive to provide a good experience and downloading an application for free written by someone who may or may not care further about the program than dumping it in a shared hosting service and you are surprised that the former is better? How about 'finding' equivalent commercial software for Windows? > You ‘install’ it and have to reboot. Reboot? To install software? Unless the program targets Windows 95/98, this is not necessary and the largest majority of programs designed for Windows 2000 and later should not need reboot (even during Windows 9x it was unnecessary most of the time and was there 'just in case'). > I hate it. Viscerally hate it. Then do something about it: support the developers who write quality software.
  - jen729w 7y ago
    > You are comparing buying an application from a commercial developer... My point was that it’s much, much easier to find good software for the Mac. The pattern tends to be search, find, buy, enjoy, vs. Windows search, get frustrated, download some shite, hate life.

rayiner 7y ago

Scrivener is a second class citizen on Windows (e.g. no version 3 yet.) The money is clearly on Mac. There is really no good OmniFocus alternative on Windows. Most are too simple, or more focused on coordinating teams than having lots of tools for an individual juggling lots of things. E.g. Todoist (and many other web apps) doesn’t have proper sub-tasks. Almost none has a proper review mode. MyLifeOrganized is really good, but it lacks the polish of OnniFocus. (Likely because it has a much smaller team than Omni, because Windows users aren’t willing to pay.) Trello is great for what it does, but its calendar integration is an afterthought. Stuff is a little better on the developer tool side, where there is still a willingness to pay for stuff like Jetbrains. VS Code though is a good example of how free products are worse (less features, Electron, etc.) than paid software (Visual Studio).

justin66 7y ago
> Scrivener is a second class citizen on Windows (e.g. no version 3 yet.) The money is clearly on Mac. I wonder if they've ever published a breakdown on Mac vs. Windows users or if you're just making that up? They've stated they spend more on Windows development, although they evidently aren't getting enough out of it.
Hackbraten 7y ago
OmniFocus for Web has recently gone publicly beta: https://www.omnigroup.com/releasenotes/omnifocus-web https://www.omnigroup.com/releasenotes/omnifocus-web

SyneRyder 7y ago

My 2c having switched from Mac to Windows and also lamenting some of the software: * The closest I've found to Coda on Windows is HTMLPad 2018 - though it took a while for me to discover "mappings" so I could get the in-app browser preview working. It doesn't have the polish Coda does - eg lots of icons are too tiny in HiDPI mode. * Cyberduck is the closest I've found to Panic Transmit, but it's also blurry in HiDPI modes, and has a nasty bug where large files over 100MB uploaded to Backblaze B2 won't complete & terminate as corrupted. * Windows start menu sort've replaces Alfred App, but it's not as easy to do things like type quick math equations (it sends them out to Bing instead of calculating locally, so it's much slower) * I really, really miss Cathode by Secret Geometry. It costs $5 but I'd easily pay $20. If I have to use the terminal I'd like to do it in style. Cathode is a terminal app that emulates CRT displays, including flicker, jitter, static & curvature. Cool Retro Term is closest, but there's no Windows version, and certainly not without lots of hacks to try and make the Linux version work through Windows Subsystem For Linux. (I'm sure there's others I've missed, but that's the first that leaps to mind.)

h1d 7y ago
Windows app GUI is a joke. After people widely used Windows for over 20 years, their cluttered interface never got any better having 10 menus, 20 buttons shown at once where many of Mac apps got that right with simpler and effective interface. If I have the option to choose between WinSCP and Transmit, Transmit is the obvious choice. CyberDuck interface isn't as bad as those Windows only ones but not as polished.
jirir 7y ago
Hi, could you please expand the list of cool mac tools? Thanks:)

Terretta 7y ago

I was puzzled by Scrivener vs. Hemingway, had to look up Hemingway: http://www.techtoolsforwriters.com/hemingway-app-a-proofreading-tool-for-writers/ http://www.techtoolsforwriters.com/hemingway-app-a-proofread... Assuming that’s the tool you meant.

jen729w 7y ago

> OmniFocus has many web-based alternatives...I use Trello, personally I love Trello, but it’s an OF ‘alternative’ at best. It is no way a replacement. OmniFocus is an order of magnitude more powerful. Even an app like Things doesn’t get close; I use both, and while I’d like to maintain an OF=home/Things=work separation, there are a bunch of things that I do that Things just can’t handle. On the subject of quality software more generally, this is one of the major frustrations I have when forced to use Windows. On my Mac, if I need a bit of software to do a job there is generally – not always, of course, but generally – something well written, well supported, and beautiful. I find it, give the developer $5-$50, and enjoy a long and fruitful relationship. If I need software on Windows, it’s a hot mess. I mean it’s just a fucking disaster. You Google what you want and get all sorts of shite. You risk your neck and download some file from Sourceforge. You ‘install’ it and have to reboot. Reboot? To install software? Wow. Okay. So you reboot then you launch the software and guess what? It’s a fucking turd. I hate it. Viscerally hate it.

Crinus 7y ago
> I find it, give the developer $5-$50, and enjoy a long and fruitful relationship. > You Google what you want and get all sorts of shite. You risk your neck and download some file from Sourceforge. You are comparing buying an application from a commercial developer who - if nothing else - has at least an incentive to provide a good experience and downloading an application for free written by someone who may or may not care further about the program than dumping it in a shared hosting service and you are surprised that the former is better? How about 'finding' equivalent commercial software for Windows? > You ‘install’ it and have to reboot. Reboot? To install software? Unless the program targets Windows 95/98, this is not necessary and the largest majority of programs designed for Windows 2000 and later should not need reboot (even during Windows 9x it was unnecessary most of the time and was there 'just in case'). > I hate it. Viscerally hate it. Then do something about it: support the developers who write quality software.
- jen729w 7y ago
  > You are comparing buying an application from a commercial developer... My point was that it’s much, much easier to find good software for the Mac. The pattern tends to be search, find, buy, enjoy, vs. Windows search, get frustrated, download some shite, hate life.