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Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

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Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#131

Post by neverartful »

sys_64738 wrote: post #96
SideQuark wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Photoshop isn’t on top simply because people know how to use it. There’s simply no better tool for most users who need that level of photo editing tool. I’ve never seen a superior product to either Photoshop or Excel. Have you? Maybe they’re on top because they really are good products.

I find Excel a clunky piece of junk so use Apple Numbers for my spreadsheet needs. The majority of people probably don't need to pay the M$ or Adobe monthly tax.

To be fair, you have to pay the Apple tax to use Apple Numbers. It's not monthly (or even a subscription), but it's not a one-time payment if you want the ability to use it over a long period of time.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#132

Post by neverartful »

cyberax wrote: post #49
sirjaz wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, a vast majority of WebApps are hot garbage and even the good ones can never be as functional or as performative as a native app. We have such powerful machines, but we relegate them to such a horrible method of using them.

WebApps (even though I hate most of them) absolutely can be as fast as native apps. E.g.: Linear, Slack. But it requires very careful engineering.

In my experience they are not nearly as fast.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#133

Post by AaronAPU »

I developed some audio software and it has been going pretty well. Difficult to market, and it’s only me, so I basically just don’t do marketing. Relies on organic spread and a few basic news/deals aggregators listing it.

Not the type of high revenue startup you see on HN usually but the craftsmanship style of custom C++ plugins has been enjoyable for me. It’s like working on old school WinAMP or something.

https://apu.software/

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#134

Post by skuxxlife »

stego-tech wrote: post #128

Just take a look at Panic - most of their stuff is perpetual license software, with really only Nova requiring a subscription if you want ongoing updates after the first year. They make this model work for them by providing compelling software that just works - no unnecessary feature creep, proper rebuilds on new architectures rather than lazy ports, understanding what customers actually need versus what the broader…

Beyond Panic, there’s even a surprisingly large community of Mac/iOS developers making their living selling “premium”software with traditional licensing models. Rogue Amoeba, Omnigroup, Flying Meat, along with a bunch of one to two person shops are still around. There’s fewer of them than there used to be (some bought some folded), and many of the bigger ones switched to subscription pricing (1Password), but they’re still out there doing their thing if you know where to look.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#135

Post by maeil »

neverartful wrote: post #131
sys_64738 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Excel a clunky piece of junk so use Apple Numbers for my spreadsheet needs. The majority of people probably don't need to pay the M$ or Adobe monthly tax.

To be fair, you have to pay the Apple tax to use Apple Numbers. It's not monthly (or even a subscription), but it's not a one-time payment if you want the ability to use it over a long period of time.

Once in >5 years is nothing like a SaaS, especially since it's such a tiny part of a product. Even with the traditional software there'd be no guarantee it would keep working for longer than that, e.g. on new OS versions, especially with more specialized software which is a lot of the market for such things.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#136

Post by cedws »

protocolture wrote: post #20

I see a lot of people get started by building an otherwise indispensable app within their extremely niche business and selling it to the other 100 entities in the same vertical.

The Golden Goose play. I’d love to do the same - the hard part is finding the goose.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#137

Post by irrational »

lylejantzi3rd wrote: post #60
irrational wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Photoshop 6 does everything I ever want Photoshop to do. I wish Adobe would continue to sell a one time purchase copy of PS6 instead of forcing everyone to SaaS. Fortunately I own a physical copy of the PS6 disks that I purchased years ago, so I don’t have a problem acquiring PS6 on any new machines by various means.

A little off topic, but, if you'll indulge me: Why do you think nobody has been able to make a successful alternative to Photoshop? Everybody I know complains about it constantly, and yet it's still the industry standard.

I have all the keyboard shortcuts for photoshop in my muscle memory. Those same keyboard shortcuts don't work in, say, Gimp.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#138

Post by dcreater »

longnguyen wrote: post #73
dcreater wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's surprising. The free version of Msty is better

I’m sure Msty is a good app. And it might be better for some users while it might be worse for others. For example, it’s not a native app and doesn’t support “inline usage”, which some users may find not appealing.

Inline usage can be achieved with BetterTouchTool (a must install app for several reasons, this being one of them).

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#139

Post by longnguyen »

dcreater wrote: post #138
longnguyen wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure Msty is a good app. And it might be better for some users while it might be worse for others. For example, it’s not a native app and doesn’t support “inline usage”, which some users may find not appealing.

Inline usage can be achieved with BetterTouchTool (a must install app for several reasons, this being one of them).

Yes, it’s just an example. And when you install 10 different tools like this, one might argue that your argument is the same as the famous Dropbox comment.

Look, this is not a contest. I’m just an indie developer trying to build something that my customers want.

They are smart and they use many different tools.

I’m sure many of them, like you, prefer Msty or other products. But some of them are really like my product because it fits them better.

A product doesn’t need to “be the best”, or to “win the entire market”.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone making money selling traditional downloadable software?

#140

Post by GoblinSlayer »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #123
GoblinSlayer wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy migrations are unheard of. If competition existed, electron apps would never exist.

You don't consider Qt to be competition to Electron ?

If you can run a webapp in Qt, then it's just a Qt wrapper around Electron.
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