Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#21

Post by troymc » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 2:54 PM UTC

tormeh wrote: post #4

In the traditional, server-independent, sense? Hard to serve advertisements that way. There's always a lot of new game studios, but I don't think they count. There's no end-game in games development, no lock-in, no network-effects, no industry-standard-status. A single bad game can ruin the studio.

Startup game studios are startups. Many game studios do get acquired or IPO, classic startup end-games. Game studios also satisfy your other criteria, but since when are those criteria for calling a company a startup?

For example, a single bad product/service can kill any startup, not just a game studio.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#22

Post by joeyspn » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 2:55 PM UTC

ohitsdom wrote: post #15

captn3m0 wrote: post #9

I can think of Dropbox, Slack, GitHub right now.

Slack's desktop client is really just a wrapper around a web browser.

Electron, specifically...

https://github.com/atom/electron/

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#23

Post by Dirlewanger » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 2:55 PM UTC

Nylas are, in addition to their open source sync engine: https://nylas.com/

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#24

Post by joshmlewis » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 2:56 PM UTC

Dirlewanger wrote: post #23

Nylas are, in addition to their open source sync engine: https://nylas.com/

We're using their Sync Engine and while it still took a good bit of time to implement, I'm sure it saved us a ton of time in the long run.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#25

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 2:57 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#26

Post by carrotleads » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 2:57 PM UTC

Medical imaging desktop app http://www.truelifeanatomy.com.au/software/software-overview... We built it 10+ yrs back and we are still waiting for the big break which I guess in the medical field will come only once the big boys die off.. too many entrenched interests.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#27

Post by egfx » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 2:57 PM UTC

troymc wrote: post #13

egfx wrote: post #5

Actually most are making native mobile apps. I'm a mobile guy making a cross compatible web app. Why anyone would make a native app in our world of ECMAScript6 and HTML5 is beyond me.

Where do you get the statistic that "most" HN folks are making native mobile apps? Are you sure it's not server-side software, or machine-independent code, or something else? i.e. [citation needed] Also, the reasons people make native mobile apps rather than hybrid apps (which run inside a mobile web-player component) are speed and reliability. Famously, Facebook switched from HTML5 to native for their iOS app: https…

Maybe less so the case with HN but certainly the case. Just look at Product Hunt where nearly half of today's posts are mobile native apps. Facebook has since built and released React. I'm willing to bet Facebook will switch away from native again.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#28

Post by tormeh » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 3:01 PM UTC

troymc wrote: post #21

tormeh wrote: post #4

In the traditional, server-independent, sense? Hard to serve advertisements that way. There's always a lot of new game studios, but I don't think they count. There's no end-game in games development, no lock-in, no network-effects, no industry-standard-status. A single bad game can ruin the studio.

Startup game studios are startups. Many game studios do get acquired or IPO, classic startup end-games. Game studios also satisfy your other criteria, but since when are those criteria for calling a company a startup? For example, a single bad product/service can kill any startup, not just a game studio.

Of course, but generally a startup grows to a certain size and becomes a safe corporation. A game studio is like a startup that can't succeed, only survive. The games industry is pretty unique in the software world in that there's no/little help in old successes. It's got more in common with consulting than it does with Google/Dropbox/Facebook.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#29

Post by HenryTheHorse » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 3:02 PM UTC

egfx wrote: post #5

Actually most are making native mobile apps. I'm a mobile guy making a cross compatible web app. Why anyone would make a native app in our world of ECMAScript6 and HTML5 is beyond me.

There are many reasons to build native apps in the enterprise IT (business software) world. For certain use cases, access to offline data and fast performance become critical requirements.

Think of a traveling sales rep who is on the road and needs access to a product catalog and pricing information to take sales orders. HTML5 doesn't quite cut it in such a scenario.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any startups making desktop apps?

#30

Post by egfx » Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 3:06 PM UTC

HenryTheHorse wrote: post #29

egfx wrote: post #5

Actually most are making native mobile apps. I'm a mobile guy making a cross compatible web app. Why anyone would make a native app in our world of ECMAScript6 and HTML5 is beyond me.

There are many reasons to build native apps in the enterprise IT (business software) world. For certain use cases, access to offline data and fast performance become critical requirements. Think of a traveling sales rep who is on the road and needs access to a product catalog and pricing information to take sales orders. HTML5 doesn't quite cut it in such a scenario.

clearly you haven't seen Breeze http://www.getbreezenow.com/