4 ms·

Absolutely excellent article! >We could make offline-first software if we wanted. In fact, we used to do that, and we were really good at it too.

by dusted 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
phreeza 6y ago
Well, some software used to crash a lot for unknowable reasons, and if you were lucky you got a patch 6 months after release which may or may not fix your problem.
- tux 6y ago
  Any software can have an option to upload a bug report when user chooses too. But not automaticly when it want's too. (EDIT) I agree, everyone should have at leat one air-gap (so called "family garden" in the article) computer in there house when shit hits the fan. Like no internet :-) (EDIT-2) This article gives a very cool idea about "heirloom computer". The author should come up with such a product based on Raspberry Pi (maybe?). Than sell it with basic custom OS and software for the family. This software should include things like diary, notes, racipts, jokes, photos, video storage. It should be sold relatively cheap so anyone could buy it.
  - wizzwizz4 6y ago
    The Raspberry Pi, while humble, probably won't last long enough.
  - GrumpyNl 6y ago
    I have that on old ms-dos pc's.
- grishka 6y ago
  But then offline-first software was held to a higher overall standard because of this exact reason. Nowadays no one gives a crap because "we can always push an update", and so everything is an eternal beta.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  You say that like it is different today. We had a slack outage just a few days ago that affected basically everyone who uses the software, multi-year bugs still exist in cloud software, etc. The only thing the cloud fixes is the problem of convincing people to rent software.
josephg 6y ago
The problem is that people want collaborative editing, and we want our files not to be tied to a single device. If I lose my phone, I don't want to lose my files. And I want to pick up my computer when I get home and resume where I left off. We know how to implement all that technically using CRDTs and a bit of p2p discovery. But I think its still going to take some elbow grease and a few years to get a new platform working well enough that it can really compete with centralized web software.
- everdrive 6y ago
  >The problem is that people want collaborative editing, and we want our files not to be tied to a single device. People also want Pringles and reality TV. Popularity doesn't make something good.
  - spicybright 6y ago
    Lmao, you're not wrong. I'm sure some people would be content with an 80's micro computer if all they do is word processing and printing, for example.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Collaborative editing just sort of snuck into workflows. And maybe it's not useful for you, but for me it's revolutionary compared to mailing files all over the place and having to figure out merging edits. If you don't like something like Google Docs, should probably drop GitHub too.
    - samatman 6y ago
      I'm not in a position to drop GitHub, or 'Lab in our case, but I do consider them a failure of git. Yes, an email and patch based workflow is possible, and that was what git was originally developed for. But it should be flexible enough to support an issue/comment/(M|P)R based workflow that's all local, and, it isn't. Microsoft owns the de facto home of open-source software as a result of this, so it's no minor oversight.

Absolutely excellent article! >We could make offline-first software if we wanted. In fact, we used to do that, and we were really good at it too.

by dusted 6y ago

Absolutely excellent article! >We could make offline-first software if we wanted. In fact, we used to do that, and we were really good at it too.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

phreeza 6y ago

Well, some software used to crash a lot for unknowable reasons, and if you were lucky you got a patch 6 months after release which may or may not fix your problem.

tux 6y ago
Any software can have an option to upload a bug report when user chooses too. But not automaticly when it want's too. (EDIT) I agree, everyone should have at leat one air-gap (so called "family garden" in the article) computer in there house when shit hits the fan. Like no internet :-) (EDIT-2) This article gives a very cool idea about "heirloom computer". The author should come up with such a product based on Raspberry Pi (maybe?). Than sell it with basic custom OS and software for the family. This software should include things like diary, notes, racipts, jokes, photos, video storage. It should be sold relatively cheap so anyone could buy it.
- wizzwizz4 6y ago
  The Raspberry Pi, while humble, probably won't last long enough.
- GrumpyNl 6y ago
  I have that on old ms-dos pc's.
grishka 6y ago
But then offline-first software was held to a higher overall standard because of this exact reason. Nowadays no one gives a crap because "we can always push an update", and so everything is an eternal beta.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
You say that like it is different today. We had a slack outage just a few days ago that affected basically everyone who uses the software, multi-year bugs still exist in cloud software, etc. The only thing the cloud fixes is the problem of convincing people to rent software.

josephg 6y ago

The problem is that people want collaborative editing, and we want our files not to be tied to a single device. If I lose my phone, I don't want to lose my files. And I want to pick up my computer when I get home and resume where I left off. We know how to implement all that technically using CRDTs and a bit of p2p discovery. But I think its still going to take some elbow grease and a few years to get a new platform working well enough that it can really compete with centralized web software.

everdrive 6y ago
>The problem is that people want collaborative editing, and we want our files not to be tied to a single device. People also want Pringles and reality TV. Popularity doesn't make something good.
- spicybright 6y ago
  Lmao, you're not wrong. I'm sure some people would be content with an 80's micro computer if all they do is word processing and printing, for example.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Collaborative editing just sort of snuck into workflows. And maybe it's not useful for you, but for me it's revolutionary compared to mailing files all over the place and having to figure out merging edits. If you don't like something like Google Docs, should probably drop GitHub too.
  - samatman 6y ago
    I'm not in a position to drop GitHub, or 'Lab in our case, but I do consider them a failure of git. Yes, an email and patch based workflow is possible, and that was what git was originally developed for. But it should be flexible enough to support an issue/comment/(M|P)R based workflow that's all local, and, it isn't. Microsoft owns the de facto home of open-source software as a result of this, so it's no minor oversight.