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If you were to ask Mac-focussed companies like Panic or Rogue Amoeba I am certain they would tell you it's because they as individuals enjoy the Mac platform, a

If you were to ask Mac-focussed companies like Panic or Rogue Amoeba I am certain they would tell you it's because they as individuals enjoy the Mac platform, and the user base is large enough to make it work despite being a niche of a niche. I think as a society we often focus too much on growth and maximising. It's okay to keep steady and focus on the things you like. Personally, I'm very glad that there are still companies out there targeting one platform, even for the platforms I don't use. Unless there are enough resources to focus on native versions for each platform, multi-platform software is often full of compromises IMO.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
> It's okay to keep steady and focus on the things you like. Absolutely, would never have it any other way. Personally, I just want to believe in what I do, and if I believe in it, I don't want it restricted by platform. YMMV and that's cool.
- deergomoo 5y ago
  Sure, I can totally appreciate that. FWIW I think there’ll always be a place for cross-platform frameworks, and that there’s still a lot of room for improvement in the space. Things like Electron have undoubtedly resulted in tons of valuable software that simply would not have existed otherwise—now we just need to address the caveats.
aparticulate 5y ago
Panic, Rogue (Bare Bones, Omni Group too) have built-in audience from ~3 decades of classic -> modern Mac development. I feel like it would be a lot different for a newcomer.
klabb3 5y ago
I love some of the Mac only apps, but it's undeniable that this 2010-like dream of building a native Apple software and the monetization model (selling it on the App Store) is almost entirely gone. I honestly think this was a first-movers pipe dream. Once the competition caught up and the industry matured, interoperability was going to dominate all other arguments. Today we live in an entirely different world, and the big corps are still funneling money into keeping these ecosystems alive (heck, there's no other way). Yet, no developer want to learn 6 stacks, not even the big corps do this for their own apps for gods sake. I will bet my left thumb that eventually GUIs will be predominantly made with web technologies, will run on all platforms, and will have native proprietary extensions. The web today even has a path to become language agnostic with wasm.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago

> It's okay to keep steady and focus on the things you like. Absolutely, would never have it any other way. Personally, I just want to believe in what I do, and if I believe in it, I don't want it restricted by platform. YMMV and that's cool.

deergomoo 5y ago
Sure, I can totally appreciate that. FWIW I think there’ll always be a place for cross-platform frameworks, and that there’s still a lot of room for improvement in the space. Things like Electron have undoubtedly resulted in tons of valuable software that simply would not have existed otherwise—now we just need to address the caveats.

aparticulate 5y ago

Panic, Rogue (Bare Bones, Omni Group too) have built-in audience from ~3 decades of classic -> modern Mac development. I feel like it would be a lot different for a newcomer.

klabb3 5y ago

I love some of the Mac only apps, but it's undeniable that this 2010-like dream of building a native Apple software and the monetization model (selling it on the App Store) is almost entirely gone. I honestly think this was a first-movers pipe dream. Once the competition caught up and the industry matured, interoperability was going to dominate all other arguments. Today we live in an entirely different world, and the big corps are still funneling money into keeping these ecosystems alive (heck, there's no other way). Yet, no developer want to learn 6 stacks, not even the big corps do this for their own apps for gods sake. I will bet my left thumb that eventually GUIs will be predominantly made with web technologies, will run on all platforms, and will have native proprietary extensions. The web today even has a path to become language agnostic with wasm.