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Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

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Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#211

Post by atttali »

itisit wrote: post #194
sauravmitra wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I didn't quite get the question. Are you referring to another company copying our features?

> Are you referring to another company copying our features? Yes, Apple. All/many of your great features can (and perhaps will) find their way into Safari. Any thoughts on this? Not being pessimistic or confrontational; I'm genuinely curious. Apple has been "sherlocking" for decades, and your browser IMO is a classic target. More on "sherlocking": - https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/06/08/apple-strikes-aga... - ht…

Well – Safari UX updates only come once every few years because they have loads of users and can’t afford massive changes. Imo that’s the reason why the tab group feature won’t work (c.f. my comment to cube2222).

Smaller companies can update every week, and hence always stay ahead, until they’re big enough and then can compete more traditionally!

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#212

Post by atttali »

Bernard_Chan wrote: post #4

Sigma has been an amazing browser and has increased my productivity significantly since I started using it. Being able to split my tabs into individual workspaces means I can finally find the website that I was previously reading. They seem to push an update almost every week or so with new features and bug fixes. Really impressed and would definitely recommend trying it out.

Thanks for being a great beta user :) Keep the feedback coming!

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#213

Post by itisit »

atttali wrote: post #211
itisit wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you referring to another company copying our features? Yes, Apple. All/many of your great features can (and perhaps will) find their way into Safari. Any thoughts on this? Not being pessimistic or confrontational; I'm genuinely curious. Apple has been "sherlocking" for decades, and your browser IMO is a classic target. More on "sherlocking": - https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/06/08/apple-strikes-aga... - ht…

Well – Safari UX updates only come once every few years because they have loads of users and can’t afford massive changes. Imo that’s the reason why the tab group feature won’t work (c.f. my comment to cube2222). Smaller companies can update every week, and hence always stay ahead, until they’re big enough and then can compete more traditionally!

With all due respect, this is a bit naïve. Good luck.

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#214

Post by maccolgan »

burlesona wrote: post #206

So I watched the demo, read the pitch, and read this whole thread trying to understand why anyone would think that a subscription browser could work as a business, and I think I finally see where they could go that might be interesting. It's right there in the name. A steadily increasing fraction of work is happening in web apps - especially Electron apps that we download and run as "sort of real apps." The HN crowd,…

>But you could probably also bundle a lot of enterprise features in over time. What if the browser had SSO/SAML baked in so that when the company provisions the laptop employees are automatically logged in to all web based services with 2FA etc? Zero trust isn't easy for lower-tech users, and corporate security is worth a lot of money.

Stuff like this can't be standardized across the web, so you will end up with a new platform, essentially making people build for that platform and that platform only (depending on those features, unless you can make them optional), which is near impossible.

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#215

Post by garyrob »

sauravmitra wrote: post #177
garyrob wrote: post #170

I’ve been using SigmaOS for the last half hour for my active work, after having gone through the tutorial. I quite like it. I can imagine that I may feel it’s worth the money, but I have to spend more time with it before I could know. I do want to mention that I ran into a couple of glitches (as I would expect with any such brand-new product). Somehow in using the Find function I got a freeze where I had to Force Qui…

Heya, really appreciate the product feedback! For bugs, you can report them using the question mark at the bottom left of the app. Or join our Slack community :D Super weird that the Find is freezing. If it was working, it would show how many matches it found when you press enter. That sounds like an urgent fix. Great point regarding import! Will make sure the workspaces you import get added after the tutorial.

Hmm... hadn't tried hitting Enter on the search. I'm used to seeing feedback from search strings as I typed. Hitting Enter, it works fine, but I'd prefer to not have to hit Enter.

Sounds good re putting imported workspaces after tutorial.

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#216

Post by freeplay »

fishtoaster wrote: post #173
elpax wrote: post #14

I literally never post comments on HN but what is this product. Is this $15/month browser for MacOS ? Fancy browser with grouped tabs, split-screen and sharing but still just browser. I think I'm just too poor to understand. I hope that your product will succeed because then I will know that in this world you can sell ice to an eskimo.

It doesn't really matter whether it's a browser or not - what matters is the value it provides. I pay $15/mo for netflix even though I get some amount of free cable tv from my ISP. Google Analytics is free, but I use a paid competitor that I prefer more. There are a ton of free email clients, but I used a paid one because it has features I can't get in the free ones. None of those are "selling ice to an eskimo." Like…

Same boat. I have no problem with the price if it provides value for that price. Currently I'm paying:

$10/month for Spotify because it's easier than maintaining my own music library and syncing it across devices.

$10/month for Lightroom and Photoshop because it's vastly better than its competition

I just don't see how this is /that/ much better than the competition (Firefox + extensions) or makes my life easier in any significant way.

At current prices, for $15/month you need to provide some serious value because most people will do the direct comparison to other subscriptions they are familiar with.

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#217

Post by sauravmitra »

garyrob wrote: post #215
sauravmitra wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heya, really appreciate the product feedback! For bugs, you can report them using the question mark at the bottom left of the app. Or join our Slack community :D Super weird that the Find is freezing. If it was working, it would show how many matches it found when you press enter. That sounds like an urgent fix. Great point regarding import! Will make sure the workspaces you import get added after the tutorial.

Hmm... hadn't tried hitting Enter on the search. I'm used to seeing feedback from search strings as I typed. Hitting Enter, it works fine, but I'd prefer to not have to hit Enter. Sounds good re putting imported workspaces after tutorial.

Yup, should definitely improve that so it's automatic. Thanks for reporting!

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#218

Post by sauravmitra »

burlesona wrote: post #206

So I watched the demo, read the pitch, and read this whole thread trying to understand why anyone would think that a subscription browser could work as a business, and I think I finally see where they could go that might be interesting. It's right there in the name. A steadily increasing fraction of work is happening in web apps - especially Electron apps that we download and run as "sort of real apps." The HN crowd,…

High praise for reading through this entire thing. And even more for the detailed analysis. :D

A web-app OS is definitely part of our long-term goal here, and you've covered a bunch of our thought process.

Right now, we're targeting individuals and they recommend it to their co-workers and their colleagues, which allows us to get it to teams in a very natural way.

Of course, we're still workshopping our pricing model. We appreciate the advice :)

Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work

#219

Post by fourseventy »

vptr wrote: post #183
BlissWaves wrote: post #176

This is pretty much solving a problem that doesn't exist at all.

That's how you make $$$ in USA. 1. Invent a problem. 2. Market like crazy to make people believe that there's a problem. 3. Charge for a solution to a non-existent problem. 4. Repeat.

No its not
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