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Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021)

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111–120 of 175 posts

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021)

#111
post #50

I'll add a shout out to Paint.NET here. Couldn't live without it.

Not sure what's your use case, but for me photopea.com made paint.net redundant. Definitely worth checking out.

Thanks for the reminder - I just switched to OSX and had been looking unsuccessfully for a Paint.NET equivalent for the Mac. Photopea.com should do it.

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021)

#112
post #106
post #60

SumatraPDF author here. Glad people like the software for the reasons I thought the would (small, fast). If you haven't already: use Ctrl + K (Command Palette), a better way to operate the program than menus etc. Also I'll plug my latest project: I "ported" notepad2 to web: https://onlinetool.io/notepad2/ It's 85% done i.e. some functions are not implemented. On Chrome / Edge it can even read / write files from your…

What do you do for a living? Do your open source projects help with getting new gigs?

Retired thanks to TSLA.

> Do your open source projects help with getting new gigs?

I think it did a bit but not as much as I think it should.

You would think seeing a proof someone can deliver a complex app by themselves would be enough to skip the coding part of the interview, but then you would be wrong.

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021)

#113
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the killer audio player was Winamp. I could hide the window and control everything via keyboard shortcuts. It was the perfect program: completely invisible and yet completely functional.

i think this applies to every audio player software that has ever been developed

I mean, iTunes exists.

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021)

#114
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Notably, the roll-your-own parts do not include core PDF parsing and rendering, which are outsourced to (possibly a fork of?) mupdf.

Mupdf is the key. Sadly there's no user-friendly mupdf wrapper like Sumatra on Linux.

What about zathura mentioned upthread?

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021)

#116

I agree with his points about treating it like commercial software (in terms of having a website/screenshots/etc) but paradoxically the more professional an open source site looks, the more I assume there's going to be a catch. When you find a utility which has a site that looks like Richard Stallman's website you breathe easily because it's unlikely there's going to be any time-limited trial version, subscription mo…

On the contrary. As a user, if I cannot see that the software makers are either a big, well backed project OR at least they are able to sustain themselves by selling premium versions etc, I avoid using it. Most of the projects that cannot fund themselves eventually get abandoned, leaving you, as the user, hanging. After getting burned by that a few times, I learned that the only way to deal with it was to ensure that…

I share this sentiment. First I try to figure out their monetization strategy. Not finding it is a red flag unless it is obviously a small side project. Then I try to figure out where I am in their funnel. How hard are they likely to try to force me to get the paid version? Finally, I ask myself if I see myself eventually paying for the product if I need to. For example, is it a company I respect and is the product priced fairly?

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021)

#118

I agree with his points about treating it like commercial software (in terms of having a website/screenshots/etc) but paradoxically the more professional an open source site looks, the more I assume there's going to be a catch. When you find a utility which has a site that looks like Richard Stallman's website you breathe easily because it's unlikely there's going to be any time-limited trial version, subscription mo…

Yup, if I use a software that looks like a shareware site from the early 2000s, I use it knowing it's been reliable for a long long time.

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021)

#119
post #60

SumatraPDF author here. Glad people like the software for the reasons I thought the would (small, fast). If you haven't already: use Ctrl + K (Command Palette), a better way to operate the program than menus etc. Also I'll plug my latest project: I "ported" notepad2 to web: https://onlinetool.io/notepad2/ It's 85% done i.e. some functions are not implemented. On Chrome / Edge it can even read / write files from your…

SumatraPDF is one of the few reasons why I still use Windows. Glad to hear the relentless focus on speed.

Re: Lessons learned from 15 years of SumatraPDF, an open source Windows app (2021)

#120
post #60

SumatraPDF author here. Glad people like the software for the reasons I thought the would (small, fast). If you haven't already: use Ctrl + K (Command Palette), a better way to operate the program than menus etc. Also I'll plug my latest project: I "ported" notepad2 to web: https://onlinetool.io/notepad2/ It's 85% done i.e. some functions are not implemented. On Chrome / Edge it can even read / write files from your…

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