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Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#91

Post by DizzyDoo »

I make video games like this one [0] or this one [1]. It's pretty simple, you can buy the game and then download and play it. Are games 'desktop apps'? It's not the language I would normally use but I think it applies.

Having been out of the web app development bubble for about seven years now, there's whole industries that work entirely in the pay-for-it-and-then-download model, and while games-as-a-service is more popular now than ever before there's still plenty of the old-school way of doing things going on.

I really like the simplicity. You can buy the thing, maybe from Steam or maybe from a DRM-free store like Humble, download it, play it. You can get a refund if you don't like it, or buy another copy and gift it to a friend if you do.

[0] - https://store.steampowered.com/app/386900/The_Cat_Machine/

[1] - https://store.steampowered.com/app/654960/The_Eldritch_Zooke...

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#92

Post by OJFord »

semireg wrote: post #68

This is my 3rd (or is it 4th?) year of developing and selling Label LIVE, an electron app for designing and printing labels. Originally it only worked with USB thermal printers, but over the last few years it's grown into a multi-function image-rendering pipeline that integrates data import (via spreadsheet, CSV or API) with barcodes, text, image output. My app revenue eclipsed my iOS/NodeJS consulting in 2021 and I…

Does it definitely not 'just work' on Linux, and the only people to email were those who saw 'on Mac & Windows' without realising it was Electron?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#93

Post by zupo »

After 15 years of SaaS-ing, myself and two collegues, everyone part-time, are trying to see if we can make a profitable macOS app: https://paretosecurity.com/. Revenue in last 30 days is $3000+, we started working on it back in July. So, it's something?

That said, long-term, we expect to earn more from subscriptions for businesses, than we do from single-user lifetime licenses. But again, ATM, it's the single user licenses that sell well.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#94

Post by jb1991 »

zupo wrote: post #93

After 15 years of SaaS-ing, myself and two collegues, everyone part-time, are trying to see if we can make a profitable macOS app: https://paretosecurity.com/ . Revenue in last 30 days is $3000+, we started working on it back in July. So, it's something? That said, long-term, we expect to earn more from subscriptions for businesses, than we do from single-user lifetime licenses. But again, ATM, it's the single user l…

That looks like a rather useful app.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#95

Post by zupo »

jb1991 wrote: post #94
zupo wrote: post #93

After 15 years of SaaS-ing, myself and two collegues, everyone part-time, are trying to see if we can make a profitable macOS app: https://paretosecurity.com/ . Revenue in last 30 days is $3000+, we started working on it back in July. So, it's something? That said, long-term, we expect to earn more from subscriptions for businesses, than we do from single-user lifetime licenses. But again, ATM, it's the single user l…

That looks like a rather useful app.

Thanks! And it's open source: https://github.com/paretoSecurity/pareto-mac/

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#96

Post by seb1204 »

bmj wrote: post #81
fxtentacle wrote: post #61

Yes and no. I'm an employee so it doesn't really matter, but my side-project desktop apps pay well enough that I could live off them if I go for a student lifestyle (no pricey events, no restaurants, cooking yourself, cleaning yourself). It was a long way. I started in the Pro Audio niche and initially supported Windows, Linux, Mac. Over time, I learned the hard way that supporting Apple's constantly changing OS is v…

cleaning yourself I did not realize this was a mark of the student life. Who knew I was still a student at age 49?

Had to smile

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#97

Post by jb1991 »

fxtentacle wrote: post #61

Yes and no. I'm an employee so it doesn't really matter, but my side-project desktop apps pay well enough that I could live off them if I go for a student lifestyle (no pricey events, no restaurants, cooking yourself, cleaning yourself). It was a long way. I started in the Pro Audio niche and initially supported Windows, Linux, Mac. Over time, I learned the hard way that supporting Apple's constantly changing OS is v…

As a developer mainly on Mac, which windows APIs are you referring to that are new, and how do you normally distribute your app, is it through a Windows store or independently?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#98

Post by phkahler »

zupo wrote: post #95
jb1991 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That looks like a rather useful app.

Thanks! And it's open source: https://github.com/paretoSecurity/pareto-mac/

Interesting that you're selling a GPL licensed app. I think that's actually quite viable in many cases. I'd rather pay a low price and get something in the app store than have to build it myself.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#99

Post by MangoCoffee »

fxtentacle wrote: post #61

Yes and no. I'm an employee so it doesn't really matter, but my side-project desktop apps pay well enough that I could live off them if I go for a student lifestyle (no pricey events, no restaurants, cooking yourself, cleaning yourself). It was a long way. I started in the Pro Audio niche and initially supported Windows, Linux, Mac. Over time, I learned the hard way that supporting Apple's constantly changing OS is v…

what Microsoft fat client technology are you using?

the current problem for me with Microsoft fat client is there are too much options and no clear one that Microsoft will support long term.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#100

Post by chrisandchris »

zupo wrote: post #93

After 15 years of SaaS-ing, myself and two collegues, everyone part-time, are trying to see if we can make a profitable macOS app: https://paretosecurity.com/ . Revenue in last 30 days is $3000+, we started working on it back in July. So, it's something? That said, long-term, we expect to earn more from subscriptions for businesses, than we do from single-user lifetime licenses. But again, ATM, it's the single user l…

I don't have a Mac do I'm not your target customer.

However I really like your approach having a pay-once personal edition and a subscription team/business edition. It's something different from the subscription-everywhere trend.

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