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> I work on spaceflight mission planning software... Yeahhhhhh. The thing is, though, I see two classes of desktop GUI applications: 1. The kind that are sim

> I work on spaceflight mission planning software... Yeahhhhhh. The thing is, though, I see two classes of desktop GUI applications: 1. The kind that are simple and casual enough to build around a web-based framework. In which case, I'd rather rely on the system native browser rather than ship my own entire browser in my distributable. Because I'm not doing anything complex enough to worry about cross-compatibility issues, and I'm not concerned about people running my executable 10 years in the future with zero updates. 2. The kind which don't fit the criteria above, and therefore really just ought to be honest-to-God native desktop GUI applications. I'm rather astounded that spaceflight mission planning software doesn't fall under this category. Do you REALLY care about supporting Windows, Mac, and Linux targets? If so, then... why? I would assume that spaceflight would be dramatically more locked-down and spec-targeted. If you do not care about cross-plat, then what's the point of eschewing native frameworks since that's the main reason people go with web-based?

codelikeawolf 3y ago
> The kind which don't fit the criteria above, and therefore really just ought to be honest-to-God native desktop GUI applications. I'm rather astounded that spaceflight mission planning software doesn't fall under this category. Our team is very small, so we don't have the budget or resources to make a native version for each platform. I think this is why most companies go with Electron. The browser/Web APIs abstract a lot of the platform-specific stuff away (at the cost of missing some functionality), which means you can run pretty lean. > Do you REALLY care about supporting Windows, Mac, and Linux targets? If so, then... why? Yes, we really do care. The current version of our software only runs on Windows, just like our main competitor. We're trying to appeal to a wider audience, such as aerospace grads, most of which use MacBooks. We really only have one competitor and are pretty close to having feature parity with their product, so the ability to run our software on 3 platforms is going to be a pretty big feather in our cap. > I would assume that spaceflight would be dramatically more locked-down and spec-targeted To some extent, yes, but probably not as much as you might think.
- 59nadir 3y ago
  > We're trying to appeal to a wider audience, such as aerospace grads, most of which use MacBooks. Is this actually the case? MacOS is in a distinct minority position in desktop/laptop usage as well as areas where people (erroneously) assume it has a significant market share, such as for developers.
  - codelikeawolf 3y ago
    I know macOS doesn't have nearly as much market share as Windows, but we've been getting requests for a macOS version for a long time. Considering the current Windows-only version of the software has been around for 20 years, that's a lot of requests. Our software is very specialized and very expensive. We don't need to sell thousands (or even hundreds) of licenses to justify the effort. Maybe the aerospace grads wasn't the best example, mainly because I didn't go to school for aerospace. The private sector is full of space startups that need mission planning software. I don't know about you, but every dev job I've had in the past 7 years is full of people using MacBooks or laptops running Linux.

codelikeawolf 3y ago

> The kind which don't fit the criteria above, and therefore really just ought to be honest-to-God native desktop GUI applications. I'm rather astounded that spaceflight mission planning software doesn't fall under this category. Our team is very small, so we don't have the budget or resources to make a native version for each platform. I think this is why most companies go with Electron. The browser/Web APIs abstract a lot of the platform-specific stuff away (at the cost of missing some functionality), which means you can run pretty lean. > Do you REALLY care about supporting Windows, Mac, and Linux targets? If so, then... why? Yes, we really do care. The current version of our software only runs on Windows, just like our main competitor. We're trying to appeal to a wider audience, such as aerospace grads, most of which use MacBooks. We really only have one competitor and are pretty close to having feature parity with their product, so the ability to run our software on 3 platforms is going to be a pretty big feather in our cap. > I would assume that spaceflight would be dramatically more locked-down and spec-targeted To some extent, yes, but probably not as much as you might think.

59nadir 3y ago
> We're trying to appeal to a wider audience, such as aerospace grads, most of which use MacBooks. Is this actually the case? MacOS is in a distinct minority position in desktop/laptop usage as well as areas where people (erroneously) assume it has a significant market share, such as for developers.
- codelikeawolf 3y ago
  I know macOS doesn't have nearly as much market share as Windows, but we've been getting requests for a macOS version for a long time. Considering the current Windows-only version of the software has been around for 20 years, that's a lot of requests. Our software is very specialized and very expensive. We don't need to sell thousands (or even hundreds) of licenses to justify the effort. Maybe the aerospace grads wasn't the best example, mainly because I didn't go to school for aerospace. The private sector is full of space startups that need mission planning software. I don't know about you, but every dev job I've had in the past 7 years is full of people using MacBooks or laptops running Linux.