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Ask HN: Are desktop apps dead?
Following HN and other sources on Internet, it has started giving me feeling that I should not thinking of an app that is downloadable on Desktop PCs after paying a certain amount of money. Am I right? Why most of the companies keep going for SAAS model despite of we know that it always ask us to remain connected on Internet.
- dotmanish 14y agoA lot of geeks on HN bought JetBrains' Desktop IDEs during their End-of-World Promo (going by the responses to that thread). Not Everything Yet.
- pknerd 14y agoIDE is quite a different thing. IMO web based IDEs are not as mature yet as Desktop IDEs.
- dotborg 14y agoweb based WYSIWYG document editors are mature, yet MS Office is just fine
- readme 14y agoTried cloud9? It's actually very mature. The reason it's not widespread is because it doesn't offer any significant advantage for most developers. What's the advantage? Develop in the cloud, your environment everywhere? OK, so maybe it's an advantage for developers who don't know how to use ssh/scp/sshfs. So, for most talented web developers, the additional problems being solved aren't there. It does solve: hey, I'd like to be lazy and develop with my stock chrome book. It does solve, hey, I'd like to develop without installing software (I think schools will be big customers, especially to get all the setups at once!?) but your typical good developer, is going to be very attached to vim, emacs, sublime text, or whatever he normally uses that isn't part of cloud9. For developers of more complicated software, embedded, OS, etc. Or even for mobile devs, cloud9 is a non-starter since it doesn't integrate with their physical environments (Like, their ARM board, or iOS device, nuclear reactor, or whatever) so for a wide range of things it's just not an applicable solution. I think cloud9 will see success in education markets, as well as business from developers who do lightweight web dev work who don't have a favorite editor already.
- imwhimsical 14y agoDepends on what you're making. With OS X, I don't think desktop apps are out of the scene just as yet. I see a lot of great apps on the Mac AppStore which are throttling sales. Coda, iA Writer, and Mindnode, just to name a few.
- SchizoDuckie 14y agoNo. Desktop Apps are not dead. Desktops (with a full-fledged keyboard, plenty of screen real-estate and proper multi-tasking are alive and kicking for content creation For content consumption, tablets and phones are much more convenient, especially since they are used with well-optimized GUI. This will not change until there are new and better ways of inputting (and working with) large amounts of text, audio and video on portable/touch devices.
- SchizoDuckie 14y agoI typed this response from my android phone and the experience on android 4.2 is still shitty. Typing into an overflowing textarea, Scrolling, changing a sentence, spelling correction, it's just a tedious process. On a desktop I would have been 100x faster and more accurate.
- bestham 14y agoAnd yet, what device /did/ you end up using?
- mikecane 14y agoIt depends. Consumer or commercial market? Productivity or games? Low-priced popular or high-priced niche? EDIT to add: Win, OS X, Linux? Also, I would not do any desktop program without also thinking about how it would be as a tablet app -- iOS, Android, RT.
- pknerd 14y agoAs per my knowledge Windows is still dominating in market so a windows based desktop app.
- mikecane 14y agoWindows does dominate, but how many software programs are now unused because people have found they can duplicate those functions on a tablet? Do you think a map app would be popular on the desktop when a tablet can do that better?
- ig1 14y agoYou're conflating two issues, method of delivery and method of payment. There are a number of very successful desktop app that are SaaS (Dropbox and Evernote come to mind). The reason that SaaS is so popular is that it provides a much more predictable and reliable income over one-off sales.
- pknerd 14y agoTo make things simple, when I mentioned it means a recurring model of payment.
- mooreds 14y agoAs always, the answer is "it depends". What is your market? Who are your users? It is better to start with the market and problem you want to address, then find out what kind of platforms they possess (and plan to continue to possess) and build for that platform, than to start from the technology side.
- mbreckon 14y agoSee also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5023123 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5023123 (Do you think the desktop is dead?)
- jimmmylost 14y agoWe prefer SaaS because of: 1. Data Safety (and sometimes for high risk information companies prefer a desktop app for privacy) 2. Multi-Platform 3. Access from everywhere 4. A better UX (in most cases) 5. Maintenance,Maintenance and Maintenance (a bug in your desktop app is terrible, but SaaS? you can solve in for all customers in a second) 6. Prevent hack and cracks! (That's really a huge money-loss) Really these are very serious problems. But there are some cases you should use desktop apps.
- robodale 14y agoHaving created and sold several Windows desktop apps over the last 10 years...the worst thing about them is getting updates out to users. I regularly get bug reports sent from my apps, mostly from eastern European countries, that are several YEARS worth of updates behind. I assume they are cracked versions, so I usually pay no attention.
- dear 14y agoWe can all go for a vacation if the Internet is down.
- democracy 14y agoThere are some advantages and disadvantages of desktop or web apps. Some things can be done with only desktop apps. So they are not dead any time soon. Also nothing stops you from creating a native desktop client for your web app if you need one. But it only depends on your specific app. You could probably share you app idea so we could give a better answer. cheers.