I am curious why you are asking the question this way. I would ask what are the most interesting new markets for software. Then you can see if desktop software seems a relevant part of the solution.
Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
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Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
#32I don't think all the interesting stuff has been written. But more importantly, I think a lot of the existing software is just terrible. Big old monsters that can be time consuming to learn, and which kinda lock you in for numerous reasons. Horribly inefficient cluttered user interfaces, with old paradigms that aren't necessarily a great way to interact with the computer... I think there's a lot of innovation to be made.
Money? That's harder, unfortunately. It's hard to innovate when people want to cling on to what they already know. Make an image processing & digital painting utility, and people would only complain that it's not photoshop. Make a word processor, people complain that it's not MS Office.
Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
#33Desktop is for sure at the end of the hype cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle but that does not mean that you cannot make money or not be successful when you write a very good software or you hit a particular niche. And I would not fear Google or Apple, I cannot remember when Google did the last time a rich and good desktop app for end consumers (was it Picasa, the last one?) and the only big professional…
I hope desktop software will make a comeback, because the current situation with web-based applications is ridiculous - you pay on a monthly basis, but at the same time it can disappear the next month and you'll be left with nothing. With desktop software at least you pay once and can use it forever - just because an app is old doesn't mean it's suddenly "bad", if it serves your purpose and you mastered it over the years than why should you change it every few years?
Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
#34VR, AR, AI. Three two letter buzzwords. All of them have massive unexplored potential on the desktop. > It's actually shocking how difficult I'm finding it to answer this question. You are asking the wrong question, because you are looking at the existing market. You need to analyze trends, news and cutting edge science, have imagination, vision and forward thinking. That's obviously also hard, but it's not like look…
Augmented reality has potential on the desktop? It kind of depends on being able to move around and look at arbitrary things in arbitrary directions and places.
Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
#35I don't think all the interesting stuff has been written. But more importantly, I think a lot of the existing software is just terrible. Big old monsters that can be time consuming to learn, and which kinda lock you in for numerous reasons. Horribly inefficient cluttered user interfaces, with old paradigms that aren't necessarily a great way to interact with the computer... I think there's a lot of innovation to be m…
> Money? That's harder, unfortunately. It's hard to innovate when people want to cling on to what they already know.
This is a core element of my questions that other answers are unfortunately not addressing. Even if you make software that's less clunky than legacy-grade Adobe Kamatsu-tractor like offerings, how do you make make switching lucrative to the point of achieving self-sustainability?
Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
#36All the interesting cutlery has also already been made, but people still design new forks and knives. It would be pretty unpleasant if there were only two fork manufacturers in existence.
Surely there's a market somewhere for a mix between chopsticks and a spoon.
Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
#37The answer to this is a resounding NO.
Browser graphics is in the stone age compared to Desktop graphics. And that's just to name one thing.
Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
#38VR, AR, AI. Three two letter buzzwords. All of them have massive unexplored potential on the desktop. > It's actually shocking how difficult I'm finding it to answer this question. You are asking the wrong question, because you are looking at the existing market. You need to analyze trends, news and cutting edge science, have imagination, vision and forward thinking. That's obviously also hard, but it's not like look…
Augmented reality has potential on the desktop? It kind of depends on being able to move around and look at arbitrary things in arbitrary directions and places.
And needs authoring and testing tools. And for many apps a (maybe wirelessly) tethered headset is fine.
Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now I'm pondering what a trivial/obvious/easy book is... ;)
Goodnight Moon combines very short length, repetitive format, relatively straight-forward subject matter choice, and a cross-cultural emotional goal. Maybe the book that would have been written wouldn't be word-for-word the same, but if there wasn't Goodnight Moon someone would have written something nearly indistinguishable.
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe...
"If there wasn't Goodnight Night, someone would have written something nearly indistinguishable."
Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple really, really wants you to use iTunes for this. (Well, eventually, they decided that iTunes manages everything but books, so now we have iBooks, which doesn't even let you manage your own library.) In case you haven't used it, take my word for it that it's a disaster and you probably don't really want that.
Hahahaha yeah. I've tried a lot of different systems and tools and combinations, but I've never even gone near iTunes. I'm not sure why, I think I just have a subconscious intuition that it would be terrible. Goodreads is surprisingly frustrating to use, I wonder why nobody's made a better version yet.
All of the book sites seem to have really bad notifications that an author you like has released a new book.
They heavily spam you with 'recommendations' to read books that you explicitly dont want to read, but never even a peep about authors you told them you like.