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Indeed, our user interface (UI) shares similarities with Linear’s. We, too, are fans of Linear and appreciate its user experience (UX). After speaking with a lo

Indeed, our user interface (UI) shares similarities with Linear’s. We, too, are fans of Linear and appreciate its user experience (UX). After speaking with a lot of people, we concluded that it’s top-notch. Consequently, we wanted to give that experience rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel. Despite drawing inspiration from Linear, we built everything from scratch. Our primary focus is the AI and task prioritization, which consumes most of our effort. We anticipate that our product will evolve and change over time. Our aim was not to duplicate Linear, but to build a great product, and incorporating elements of Linear’s UX was a part of that process.

barrell 2y ago
This feels disingenuous. You may have coded everything from scratch, but I couldn’t tell if this was a linear plugin or separate app from the first few seconds. To say linear was just a source of inspiration is just not true. Call a spade a spade - linear’s ui is the best in the business so you copied it outright, down to the icons.
- harshithmul 2y ago
  Makes sense. Sure we will start working there more.
BenderV 2y ago
First, congrats for the launch. Copying the interface is not what I would call "not reinventing the wheel". Not that you shouldn't have inspiration, but really I couldn't tell it was not linear... Futhermore, I think it tell that your product lack AI-first design.
- harshithmul 2y ago
  It's only been a few months into development, but yeah as our early folks started to use the product and test it out we now started to focus more there.
steve1977 2y ago
> Despite drawing inspiration from Linear, we built everything from scratch. If I was to reimplement Excel from scratch but make it look like Excel, Microsoft would still sue the shit out of me.
- huygens6363 2y ago
  On what grounds? Do they have a patent on spreadsheet-looking interfaces? It leaves a bit of a bad taste IMO to blatantly copy a startup that’s working its ass off to create a good product and then releasing it as open source, but I have a hard time imagining you can make this legal. Not a lawyer though.
  - piterrro 2y ago
    Copyright infringement based on Copyright law.
- KronisLV 2y ago
  LibreOffice exists, doesn't it? In particular, Calc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice_Calc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice_Calc WPS Office is even more similar in some ways: https://www.wps.com/office/spreadsheet/ https://www.wps.com/office/spreadsheet/ FreeOffice is also pretty much like Excel: https://www.freeoffice.com/en/features/freeoffice-planmaker https://www.freeoffice.com/en/features/freeoffice-planmaker OfficeSuite feels like a carbon copy: https://officesuite.com/en/sheets https://officesuite.com/en/sheets There's also a variety of online offerings, yet someone every single one of them isn't sued into oblivion. Note: I can personally only endorse LibreOffice, but either way, there's many similar products and that's not necessarily a bad thing either.
  - piterrro 2y ago
    Those are not exact copies of the interface we're discussing here. You're basically saying that all of the work on https://dribble.com/ https://dribble.com/ for example, is royalty free and I can copy whatever I see there and make it my own? In what world are you living in? Similarities in the layout, flow and overall architecture are fine, this is how you build directions in design. But you take the concept and you tweak it so that there are visible differences. Let's take Slack and Discord for example - I don't know who was first but you can see similarities, however one is not a rip off another. Same with Linear, I think it was inspired by Jira but you definitely cannot say they took it as an example. The case discussed here is that Tegon copied Linear's interface design (colors, icons, spacings, layout, widgets, etc) almost in a pixel perfect manner, they didn't even bother with introducing their own tweaks found through user feedback. It's a copy and added >we're focusing on AI aspect and don't want to reinvent the wheel< This is not right.
torartc 2y ago
Your aim was to duplicate Linear because that's what you did. Shame on you. This is disgusting.

barrell 2y ago

This feels disingenuous. You may have coded everything from scratch, but I couldn’t tell if this was a linear plugin or separate app from the first few seconds. To say linear was just a source of inspiration is just not true. Call a spade a spade - linear’s ui is the best in the business so you copied it outright, down to the icons.

harshithmul 2y ago
Makes sense. Sure we will start working there more.

BenderV 2y ago

First, congrats for the launch. Copying the interface is not what I would call "not reinventing the wheel". Not that you shouldn't have inspiration, but really I couldn't tell it was not linear... Futhermore, I think it tell that your product lack AI-first design.

harshithmul 2y ago
It's only been a few months into development, but yeah as our early folks started to use the product and test it out we now started to focus more there.

steve1977 2y ago

> Despite drawing inspiration from Linear, we built everything from scratch. If I was to reimplement Excel from scratch but make it look like Excel, Microsoft would still sue the shit out of me.

huygens6363 2y ago
On what grounds? Do they have a patent on spreadsheet-looking interfaces? It leaves a bit of a bad taste IMO to blatantly copy a startup that’s working its ass off to create a good product and then releasing it as open source, but I have a hard time imagining you can make this legal. Not a lawyer though.
- piterrro 2y ago
  Copyright infringement based on Copyright law.
KronisLV 2y ago
LibreOffice exists, doesn't it? In particular, Calc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice_Calc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice_Calc WPS Office is even more similar in some ways: https://www.wps.com/office/spreadsheet/ https://www.wps.com/office/spreadsheet/ FreeOffice is also pretty much like Excel: https://www.freeoffice.com/en/features/freeoffice-planmaker https://www.freeoffice.com/en/features/freeoffice-planmaker OfficeSuite feels like a carbon copy: https://officesuite.com/en/sheets https://officesuite.com/en/sheets There's also a variety of online offerings, yet someone every single one of them isn't sued into oblivion. Note: I can personally only endorse LibreOffice, but either way, there's many similar products and that's not necessarily a bad thing either.
- piterrro 2y ago
  Those are not exact copies of the interface we're discussing here. You're basically saying that all of the work on https://dribble.com/ https://dribble.com/ for example, is royalty free and I can copy whatever I see there and make it my own? In what world are you living in? Similarities in the layout, flow and overall architecture are fine, this is how you build directions in design. But you take the concept and you tweak it so that there are visible differences. Let's take Slack and Discord for example - I don't know who was first but you can see similarities, however one is not a rip off another. Same with Linear, I think it was inspired by Jira but you definitely cannot say they took it as an example. The case discussed here is that Tegon copied Linear's interface design (colors, icons, spacings, layout, widgets, etc) almost in a pixel perfect manner, they didn't even bother with introducing their own tweaks found through user feedback. It's a copy and added >we're focusing on AI aspect and don't want to reinvent the wheel< This is not right.

torartc 2y ago

Your aim was to duplicate Linear because that's what you did. Shame on you. This is disgusting.