161–170 of 201 posts
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Just to keep your expectations in check - I work for a major games company in the UK as a C++ programmer and make 25k pounds/year($36k USD). US salaries are an abnormality.
My first job when I graduated outside of London was 30k. You are seriously underpaid.
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As a web developer I frequently get offers for 50k+ in UK you are seriously underpaid
I only see 50k+ offers in London though, and I have no intentions of moving to London. I also don't think it's entirely fair to be comparing web developers to C++, I would say I'm an advanced C++ programmer but I would need to learn how to do web development from scratch, it's not like I can pick up a web development job and just get on with it.
I would suggest a desktop app on the JVM - C# possibly if you have access to that and your customers care - but nail down the upgrade story. Web Apps immediately invoke an entire side set of knowledge of sysadmin and management that, unless you're comfortable doing that - are a pain. There are reasons to do web apps, but I don't think ease of operating or development are one of them.
> I would suggest a desktop app on the JVM Is this a joke? Or possibly a comment somehow posted from 8 years ago? Unless you're doing what Jetbrains do (and ship an embedded JRE) relying on Java is adding a barrier to entry on top of "wtf, java? it's 2016 not 1999". In my career i've had reason to use a small handful of jvm desktop applications. In every case, it was because there is no good alternative, and they wer…
I have had good experiences developing JVM apps and then using them. Age of technology has nothing to do prima facie with quality.
If you're interested in shipping a reliable desktop application, you'll take the time to handle the runtime and the associated dependency chain. Similarly to the web, you have to understand your system to do the job well. Unlike the web, you don't immediately confront distributed system operation and maintenance problems.
And, finally, I'd actually suggest Clojure/seesaw for the mode of desktop GUI development, not Java/Swing. And, of course, the customer doesn't care whether you hand-crafted it with magnetic tweezers or used Node 9 Ember Rock Stars. They just want it to work, and work reliably.
I have been making a good living selling desktop software as a solo developer for the last 11 years. I think reports of the death of desktop software are exaggerated: https://successfulsoftware.net/2013/10/28/is-desktop-softwar...
Thanks for replying! Your blog was one of the "triggers" that made me decided to ask if more people have been having success with the solo developer/desktop developer strategy. I just wish more people shared their experiences on their blogs, because here where I live it is pretty hard to find someone working for themselves..
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> I would suggest a desktop app on the JVM Is this a joke? Or possibly a comment somehow posted from 8 years ago? Unless you're doing what Jetbrains do (and ship an embedded JRE) relying on Java is adding a barrier to entry on top of "wtf, java? it's 2016 not 1999". In my career i've had reason to use a small handful of jvm desktop applications. In every case, it was because there is no good alternative, and they wer…
No. I have had good experiences developing JVM apps and then using them. Age of technology has nothing to do prima facie with quality. If you're interested in shipping a reliable desktop application, you'll take the time to handle the runtime and the associated dependency chain. Similarly to the web, you have to understand your system to do the job well. Unlike the web, you don't immediately confront distributed syst…
Anyhow, my strategy was to make both the web app and the desktop app.
The web app is free, which drives users to the site, a small percentage of which buy the desktop app. The strategy works well, in the sense that I can run everything on autopilot for a few months at a time if I need to.
On the other hand, I sometimes feel like the relative profits are kind of low for the number of users that I have.
I make living off desktop app in construction industry. The app is 21 years old and is still written in Delphi 5. I still actively maintaining it and it runs fairly well on modern Windows OSes, but there were some low level problems in recent years. We are team of two: I am sole developer and there is another person doing sales, support, training and all the rest of stuff.
First, of course you can make a living out of desktop applications. In the echo chamber of HN you could maybe get the idea that they are no longer relevant, but out in the real world millions of people need to do real work, but don't have a stable connection to the Internet. Second, If you decide to create a desktop application, then make it native. I must strongly advise against using any of these "web frameworks" e…