Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#51

Post by vax » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 10:20 PM UTC

Yahoo Pipes was an excellent tool for mashing up RSS feeds.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#52

Post by maxxxxx » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 10:30 PM UTC

yodon wrote: post #47

maxxxxx wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WPF is still pretty much the standard on Windows but it definitely could be much better. They just abandoned it and then went on these weird detours with Silverlight, WinRT and now UWP.

I suspect the actual standard on Windows today, as hated as it is here on HN, is now Electron. The HTML based UI ecosystem is just so much richer and better supported than WPF that any theoretical advantages WPF might have are dwarfed by the practical considerations of just build it in Electron and be done with it.

"I suspect the actual standard on Windows today, as hated as it is here on HN, is now Electron."

You may be right :-)

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#53

Post by jdougan » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 10:40 PM UTC

Newton MessagePad 2000 and 2100

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#54

Post by Yetanfou » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 10:49 PM UTC

The promise of a decentralised internet where the distinction between producer and consumer is entirely up to the person at the keyboard.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#55

Post by karmakaze » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 10:55 PM UTC

jelling wrote: post #49

OS/2

Well OS/2 v3.0 became Windows NT so sort of succeeded, just not for IBM or in name (unless you count cash registers).

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#56

Post by karmakaze » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 10:57 PM UTC

JavaFX

Silverlight

Adobe AIR

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#57

Post by purplezooey » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 11:04 PM UTC

Tesla

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#58

Post by gtf21 » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 11:07 PM UTC

Pebble smart-watches. I had them from the original kickstarter, and eventually had a Pebble Time Round which I loved. Whilst I now would never buy a smartwatch, I think that theirs were by far the best. Slimline, with a great UI, and nice functionality, and also not locked into either mobile ecosystem.

I'm not entirely sure what caused their death, but my personal view is that they tried to become too big, and I don't think the wearables market is really that valuable. They could have remained a small house which maintained a great product for a segment of the market that really appreciated it. I'm sure that's a simplistic view, and definitely ill-informed since I wasn't on the inside.

I still think they are far better than the Apple Watch or any of the Android Wear devices I've seen.

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#59

Post by kebert » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 11:43 PM UTC

gnuarch wrote: post #20

Usenet, IRC, RSS, XMPP, ... Well, still rockin'

Really enjoying TheLounge for IRC lately. FreshRSS as well.

Any recommendations for self hosted XMPP stuff?

Re: Ask HN: Which great products didn't succeed?

#60

Post by ksaj » Sat, Apr 06, 2019, 11:59 PM UTC

ikeboy wrote: post #30

mephitix wrote: post #24

Google Inbox. And I don’t “find my favorite Inbox features in Gmail”. If you can’t tell I’m still bitter about it :(

Also Google (reader/fiber/insert several dozen other cancelled Google programs)

Like Google+ that shuttered just days ago. I loved the Lisp and Raspberry Pi communities there. It was surprisingly productive, and probably entirely because of the features (and missing features) that scared people away from even trying it.