7 ms·

Notion Acquires Cron

86 points by talhof8 4y ago

williebsweet 4y ago
I'm interested to see what Notion does with it. Seems Notion + Calendar seems to target the area that Sunsama (https://sunsama.com/ https://sunsama.com/) is playing in.
kn0where 4y ago
I thought this was about Unix cron and was quite puzzled for a few seconds.
- MereInterest 4y ago
  I did a search, and apparently they also hold a trademark on "cron" within the domain of scientific and technical services [0]. That it was granted at all is absolutely ridiculous, given the history and omnipresence of "cron" as referring to Unix cron. Similar to the debacle about "Python" a decade ago [1], this raises a lot of red flags. When somebody picks a name that is already widely known in their field, I assume that they are either inexperienced enough not to know the term, or deceitful enough to try to profit from it. [0] https://trademarks.justia.com/900/03/cron-90003841.html https://trademarks.justia.com/900/03/cron-90003841.html [1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/python-wins-trademark-dispute-rival-stops-calling-itself-python/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/pytho...
  - sentientslug 4y ago
    Your link 0 there indicates the trademark was suspended or is in the process of being suspended. Their other attempt at registering a trademark [0] also seems to have failed (status "Final Refusal - Mailed") [0] https://trademarks.justia.com/900/03/it-s-about-90003004.html https://trademarks.justia.com/900/03/it-s-about-90003004.htm...
    - MereInterest 4y ago
      Whoops, thank you and I stand corrected. This increaaes my opinion of the trademark registration process, as it was rightfully rejected. My opinion of the applicant is lower with the correction, because it means that they kept the same name for two years after being rejected, removing ignorance as an explanation and making me think that it is intentional deceit.
mnholt 4y ago
Exciting news. Sounds like Cron will remain separate while they work out a way to integrate into Notion. Off topic: Does anyone else have trouble using Notion because of the .so domain? We've had a number of corporate firewalls wholesale block the .so TLD and Notion is a casualty. Hopefully they switch over to .com soon.
- dfee 4y ago
  i often times wonder if it's still "too early" to use an uncommon TLD. i guess Notion's success is evidence .com's may be overrated. (sure, an alternate reading is that they're successful despite the TLD).
- optimuspaul 4y ago
  Is Notion based in Somolia?
  - pandemicsoul 4y ago
    No, it's based in SF.
- wlesieutre 4y ago
  You aren't the only one, and they were planning to switch to .com "as soon as their engineering team has the bandwidth", but that was two years ago so who knows https://www.reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/f6x9mk/why_the_so_domain/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/f6x9mk/why_the_so_d...
- vorpalhex 4y ago
  > We've had a number of corporate firewalls wholesale block the .so TLD Your firewall is incorrect.
alexarena 4y ago
Recently started using Cron, happy to hear they plan to continue to develop it as a separate app + excited to see Notion take on more of the traditional office suite.
joelrunyon 4y ago
Been a long time user of Cron. Hope Notion lets them run it as a separate app. I found Notion launched amazing out of the gate and has gotten progressively slower over time. I hope they don't do that to Cron :(
- raphaelschaad 4y ago
  Yes, au contraire — we want to help in making Notion as snappy as Cron!
- alephnan 4y ago
  > amazing out of the gate and has gotten progressively slower over time Feel the same. This is one scenario where the founders who originally built the app turn their attention to fundraising and add a bunch more engineers
- vorpalhex 4y ago
  Notion went from one of my critical apps to an app I try to avoid using because of this. Also their apps are genuinely terrible, which hurts.
solarkraft 4y ago
Has anyone here used cron? What makes it "next generation"? What are the platforms it supports, what's the business model? The website doesn't tell much.
- skyleradams 4y ago
  It’s if Superhuman made a calendar app to go along with email. It’s super fast and has good keyboard shortcuts, and implements advanced features like sharing availability Calendly-style.
  - bzxcvbn 4y ago
    These are all nice features, but hardly deserve the qualification "next generation".
    - downriver 4y ago
      Do you disagree with Coca Cola calling coke “the real thing”, too? It’s marketing. Read the qualification as “good”, and trust it as much as any marketing.
      - bzxcvbn 4y ago
        >Do you disagree with Coca Cola calling coke “the real thing”, too? Yes.
  - dvtrn 4y ago
    I have to ask because people here keep talking about cron’s speed: What functionality of a calendar is speed dependent? Genuine ask and not trying to be snarky, speed just hasn’t ever been something I’ve ever had to worry about with a calendar tool so the notion (pun not intended) is merely a foreign to me personally. Is it opening events? Creating a new calendar item? Syncing, or something else? Where is the speed gained in from compared to Calendar.app?
    - 4y ago
joelrunyon 4y ago
FWIW - here's the referenced Business Insider article on the story (https://www.businessinsider.com/notion-acquires-cron-calendar-app-linkedin-figma-2022-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/notion-acquires-cron-calenda...) (requires a subscription)
krono 4y ago
What does Cron bring? Their website[1] shows something that looks nearly identical to the MacOS default calendar app (edit: which is a good design to take inspiration from) but no list of features or much else of substance. Edit: Their docs[2] contain some more info 1: https://cron.com/ https://cron.com/ 2: https://cron.com/docs https://cron.com/docs
- mnholt 4y ago
  I thought their first product photo was the macOS calendar app with spotlight up in front of it.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- bberenberg 4y ago
  It's super fast, works great across multiple calendars, is super fast. I would say it's what I wish Apple would make the default calendar. The only downside I have to date is no iOS app. It's one of my favorite apps, unfortunately I expect Notion will ruin it.
  - qeternity 4y ago
    > It's super fast, works great across multiple calendars, is super fast. But how fast is it?
    - askafriend 4y ago
      Super
      - qeternity 4y ago
        Super and also super.
    - dberg 4y ago
iloveitaly 4y ago
I've really enjoyed Cron. Great product, high feature velocity, building the right stuff for users. Happy for them!
pandemicsoul 4y ago
Incredibly bizarre to me that the press release doesn't include a link to the product. Especially considering that Cron is already a ubiquitous name for something else entirely.
PufPufPuf 4y ago
I wondered what Cron is/does, and found the least useful landing page I have ever seen. The whole information content is "it's a calendar app". https://cron.com/ https://cron.com/
- ChrisArchitect 4y ago
  That's it tho, it is a calendar app.
- antiverse 4y ago
  Ah, I'd really like to know what goes into trying to obtain a four letter domain like that.
  - echelon 4y ago
    https://web.archive.org/web/20201022025721/https://martin.cron.com/about-the-cron-com-domain/ https://web.archive.org/web/20201022025721/https://martin.cr... Interesting history in this case - a personal domain. They probably emailed the owners with a good offer. Since this wasn't a domain broker, it was probably five figures instead of six or seven. I've managed to do this a few times.
- rmbyrro 4y ago
  Did they run out of cash? Why sell it so early? There isn't an app publicly available yet, or even pricing...
- kurupt213 4y ago
  It looks like the outlook calendar
polote 4y ago
I struggle to understand this move. Will Notion gains new paying user thanks to Cron ? probably not Will it helps Notion improve its product ? Yeah probably on the calendar part, but that's only usefull for B2C, and notion focus a lot on B2B no (They even mention the workplace of the future) ? Is it a acqui-hire ? Then why keep the products separate ?
- d_watt 4y ago
  Every B2B app I've ever worked on eventually needs some type of calendar view / integration.
ChrisArchitect 4y ago
Here's the related announcement post on Cron's side: https://cron.com/blog/2022-06-09-cron+notion https://cron.com/blog/2022-06-09-cron+notion
ctvo 4y ago
> Cron and Notion have a lot in common. We share a sense of craft and an overlapping base of passionate users. I’ve never used Notion and been impressed by the craftsmanship of the product. It works, sort of, 90% of the time, but it isn’t delightful, fast, or any other quality I’d associate with the craft / handsmade movement. Maybe I just misunderstand the word.
- Centigonal 4y ago
  Notion has genuinely great UX, it packs a lot of complexity into a very easy-to-grok interface. Performance could be better, but that's a different dimension of craft. Kind of like a formula 1 racecar versus a classic corvette.
  - gumby 4y ago
    > Notion has genuinely great UX That’s definitely in the eye of the beholder. For something so text-oriented it doesn’t use the native text primitives so lots of muscle memory doesn’t work. I have to keep resorting to the mouse to do anything.
    - ctvo 4y ago
      Exactly. I find I fight with what it wants to do more often than not when text editing. The table component is a mess. I wish it'd just drop me down to pure markdown. Searching is hit or miss for a product built around knowledge search. It's something often forced on me by others, and not something I'd reach for myself.
frozencell 4y ago
I dislike the Notion UI [0] so much that any page became unreadable for me. They could at least add easy customisation of the CSS like GitHub pages. [0] https://cronhq.notion.site/cronhq/Cron-Calendar-5625be54feac4e13a75b10271b65ddb7 https://cronhq.notion.site/cronhq/Cron-Calendar-5625be54feac...
nsonha 4y ago
No clear communication of what the plan is, meanwhile notion calendar integration is non-existent
mrobins 4y ago
Three things I love about cron: - hot keys/command palette for everything - great functions to view and schedule across my team - an app (yes, electron…) not a website It also does lots of other nifty things like creating individual calendly-style links for a specific meeting. Also the team is super responsive to feedback.

86 points by talhof8 4y ago

I'm interested to see what Notion does with it. Seems Notion + Calendar seems to target the area that Sunsama (https://sunsama.com/ https://sunsama.com/) is playing in.

kn0where 4y ago

I thought this was about Unix cron and was quite puzzled for a few seconds.

MereInterest 4y ago
I did a search, and apparently they also hold a trademark on "cron" within the domain of scientific and technical services [0]. That it was granted at all is absolutely ridiculous, given the history and omnipresence of "cron" as referring to Unix cron. Similar to the debacle about "Python" a decade ago [1], this raises a lot of red flags. When somebody picks a name that is already widely known in their field, I assume that they are either inexperienced enough not to know the term, or deceitful enough to try to profit from it. [0] https://trademarks.justia.com/900/03/cron-90003841.html https://trademarks.justia.com/900/03/cron-90003841.html [1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/python-wins-trademark-dispute-rival-stops-calling-itself-python/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/pytho...
- sentientslug 4y ago
  Your link 0 there indicates the trademark was suspended or is in the process of being suspended. Their other attempt at registering a trademark [0] also seems to have failed (status "Final Refusal - Mailed") [0] https://trademarks.justia.com/900/03/it-s-about-90003004.html https://trademarks.justia.com/900/03/it-s-about-90003004.htm...
  - MereInterest 4y ago
    Whoops, thank you and I stand corrected. This increaaes my opinion of the trademark registration process, as it was rightfully rejected. My opinion of the applicant is lower with the correction, because it means that they kept the same name for two years after being rejected, removing ignorance as an explanation and making me think that it is intentional deceit.

mnholt 4y ago

Exciting news. Sounds like Cron will remain separate while they work out a way to integrate into Notion. Off topic: Does anyone else have trouble using Notion because of the .so domain? We've had a number of corporate firewalls wholesale block the .so TLD and Notion is a casualty. Hopefully they switch over to .com soon.

dfee 4y ago
i often times wonder if it's still "too early" to use an uncommon TLD. i guess Notion's success is evidence .com's may be overrated. (sure, an alternate reading is that they're successful despite the TLD).
optimuspaul 4y ago
Is Notion based in Somolia?
- pandemicsoul 4y ago
  No, it's based in SF.
wlesieutre 4y ago
You aren't the only one, and they were planning to switch to .com "as soon as their engineering team has the bandwidth", but that was two years ago so who knows https://www.reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/f6x9mk/why_the_so_domain/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/f6x9mk/why_the_so_d...
vorpalhex 4y ago
> We've had a number of corporate firewalls wholesale block the .so TLD Your firewall is incorrect.

alexarena 4y ago

Recently started using Cron, happy to hear they plan to continue to develop it as a separate app + excited to see Notion take on more of the traditional office suite.

joelrunyon 4y ago

Been a long time user of Cron. Hope Notion lets them run it as a separate app. I found Notion launched amazing out of the gate and has gotten progressively slower over time. I hope they don't do that to Cron :(

raphaelschaad 4y ago
Yes, au contraire — we want to help in making Notion as snappy as Cron!
alephnan 4y ago
> amazing out of the gate and has gotten progressively slower over time Feel the same. This is one scenario where the founders who originally built the app turn their attention to fundraising and add a bunch more engineers
vorpalhex 4y ago
Notion went from one of my critical apps to an app I try to avoid using because of this. Also their apps are genuinely terrible, which hurts.

solarkraft 4y ago

Has anyone here used cron? What makes it "next generation"? What are the platforms it supports, what's the business model? The website doesn't tell much.

skyleradams 4y ago
It’s if Superhuman made a calendar app to go along with email. It’s super fast and has good keyboard shortcuts, and implements advanced features like sharing availability Calendly-style.
- bzxcvbn 4y ago
  These are all nice features, but hardly deserve the qualification "next generation".
  - downriver 4y ago
    Do you disagree with Coca Cola calling coke “the real thing”, too? It’s marketing. Read the qualification as “good”, and trust it as much as any marketing.
    - bzxcvbn 4y ago
      >Do you disagree with Coca Cola calling coke “the real thing”, too? Yes.
- dvtrn 4y ago
  I have to ask because people here keep talking about cron’s speed: What functionality of a calendar is speed dependent? Genuine ask and not trying to be snarky, speed just hasn’t ever been something I’ve ever had to worry about with a calendar tool so the notion (pun not intended) is merely a foreign to me personally. Is it opening events? Creating a new calendar item? Syncing, or something else? Where is the speed gained in from compared to Calendar.app?
  - 4y ago

joelrunyon 4y ago

FWIW - here's the referenced Business Insider article on the story (https://www.businessinsider.com/notion-acquires-cron-calendar-app-linkedin-figma-2022-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/notion-acquires-cron-calenda...) (requires a subscription)

krono 4y ago

What does Cron bring? Their website[1] shows something that looks nearly identical to the MacOS default calendar app (edit: which is a good design to take inspiration from) but no list of features or much else of substance. Edit: Their docs[2] contain some more info 1: https://cron.com/ https://cron.com/ 2: https://cron.com/docs https://cron.com/docs

mnholt 4y ago
I thought their first product photo was the macOS calendar app with spotlight up in front of it.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
bberenberg 4y ago
It's super fast, works great across multiple calendars, is super fast. I would say it's what I wish Apple would make the default calendar. The only downside I have to date is no iOS app. It's one of my favorite apps, unfortunately I expect Notion will ruin it.
- qeternity 4y ago
  > It's super fast, works great across multiple calendars, is super fast. But how fast is it?
  - askafriend 4y ago
    Super
    - qeternity 4y ago
      Super and also super.
  - dberg 4y ago

iloveitaly 4y ago

I've really enjoyed Cron. Great product, high feature velocity, building the right stuff for users. Happy for them!

pandemicsoul 4y ago

Incredibly bizarre to me that the press release doesn't include a link to the product. Especially considering that Cron is already a ubiquitous name for something else entirely.

PufPufPuf 4y ago

I wondered what Cron is/does, and found the least useful landing page I have ever seen. The whole information content is "it's a calendar app". https://cron.com/ https://cron.com/

ChrisArchitect 4y ago
That's it tho, it is a calendar app.
antiverse 4y ago
Ah, I'd really like to know what goes into trying to obtain a four letter domain like that.
- echelon 4y ago
  https://web.archive.org/web/20201022025721/https://martin.cron.com/about-the-cron-com-domain/ https://web.archive.org/web/20201022025721/https://martin.cr... Interesting history in this case - a personal domain. They probably emailed the owners with a good offer. Since this wasn't a domain broker, it was probably five figures instead of six or seven. I've managed to do this a few times.
rmbyrro 4y ago
Did they run out of cash? Why sell it so early? There isn't an app publicly available yet, or even pricing...
kurupt213 4y ago
It looks like the outlook calendar

polote 4y ago

I struggle to understand this move. Will Notion gains new paying user thanks to Cron ? probably not Will it helps Notion improve its product ? Yeah probably on the calendar part, but that's only usefull for B2C, and notion focus a lot on B2B no (They even mention the workplace of the future) ? Is it a acqui-hire ? Then why keep the products separate ?

d_watt 4y ago
Every B2B app I've ever worked on eventually needs some type of calendar view / integration.

ChrisArchitect 4y ago

Here's the related announcement post on Cron's side: https://cron.com/blog/2022-06-09-cron+notion https://cron.com/blog/2022-06-09-cron+notion

ctvo 4y ago

> Cron and Notion have a lot in common. We share a sense of craft and an overlapping base of passionate users. I’ve never used Notion and been impressed by the craftsmanship of the product. It works, sort of, 90% of the time, but it isn’t delightful, fast, or any other quality I’d associate with the craft / handsmade movement. Maybe I just misunderstand the word.

Centigonal 4y ago
Notion has genuinely great UX, it packs a lot of complexity into a very easy-to-grok interface. Performance could be better, but that's a different dimension of craft. Kind of like a formula 1 racecar versus a classic corvette.
- gumby 4y ago
  > Notion has genuinely great UX That’s definitely in the eye of the beholder. For something so text-oriented it doesn’t use the native text primitives so lots of muscle memory doesn’t work. I have to keep resorting to the mouse to do anything.
  - ctvo 4y ago
    Exactly. I find I fight with what it wants to do more often than not when text editing. The table component is a mess. I wish it'd just drop me down to pure markdown. Searching is hit or miss for a product built around knowledge search. It's something often forced on me by others, and not something I'd reach for myself.

frozencell 4y ago

I dislike the Notion UI [0] so much that any page became unreadable for me. They could at least add easy customisation of the CSS like GitHub pages. [0] https://cronhq.notion.site/cronhq/Cron-Calendar-5625be54feac4e13a75b10271b65ddb7 https://cronhq.notion.site/cronhq/Cron-Calendar-5625be54feac...

nsonha 4y ago

No clear communication of what the plan is, meanwhile notion calendar integration is non-existent

mrobins 4y ago

Three things I love about cron: - hot keys/command palette for everything - great functions to view and schedule across my team - an app (yes, electron…) not a website It also does lots of other nifty things like creating individual calendly-style links for a specific meeting. Also the team is super responsive to feedback.