Lots of negativity in the thread, but I just want to say I think it looks great. Really interesting design choices, and the screenshots of the browser look awesome.
Thanks!
Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
321–330 of 336 posts
Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
#322It wouldn't be hard to make an Electron clone of this. The only real selling point I see is the privacy aspect?
We find Electron lacking on performance compared to native.
Try out the product, tell us how to improve it, and we will :)
Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
#323thanks, but I'm not paying for any browser. The browser should be free imho ;) maybe try to monetise through donations or something of this sorts
Fair enough. If you're fixed on that, we're not trying to change your mind (yet :p).
It's a different business model for browsers, we know, but we do think it will be best for the development of the product in the short-term and the long-term.
Hopefully eventually, you'll reconsider when it looks even more awesome :)
Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
#324""Oh… and we don’t sell your data." I have conflicting feelings about this. Closed source codebase; but even if I trust you, what if you get acquired? In fact, because the risks are unknown this seems even riskier than a regular browser (for privacy conscious people). What's being captured, how safely is it stored, can you read it, etc.
I think something like acquisition is a really fair concern.
Someone here has recommended tying our values down into some form of legal agreement which prevents the company from straying from them. That would also work for acquisition (though I'm not sure how to go about something like that)
Someone else has suggested not talking about privacy at all, since those who care about it will want open-source browsers.
We're still figuring out how to talk about this. All we want to say is we want to build an awesome product, we try to handle as little user data as possible but handle it appropriately, and we will be doing more to resolve privacy issues in browsers.
If I can assuage any concerns (not the major one of it being closed-source though. I can only say trust us for that :p), no session data is captured when you use the app. We don't know what tabs are open. Now if you choose to sync your data across devices, your session data will then be uploaded to our server, stored encrypted. The only user data we have otherwise is from the sign up form.
Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha, no intention to build a social network here. Just a way to send pages to people, targeted for work. And to be frank, SigmaOS does not and will never allow advertising to our users through the app.
Yes, but you could just sell the data to Facebook for a few billion per year. Make it free and do that, it’ll be much more successful…
Yeah, but honestly fuck selling data.
Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
#326Congrats on the launch, the vision to create something different, to lead with Mac, to base it on WebKit, and to charge for it. Not many companies dare do that. My first advice will be to market this as a productivity tool and not a browser. This is much closer in nature to something like Sidekick or Workona vs something like Safari. Writing a browser from scratch (even if you have a good rendering engine for 'free')…
> Writing a browser from scratch (even if you have a good rendering engine for 'free') is unbelievably hard Other than the rendering engine, what is so hard about writing a browser?
> Other than the rendering engine, what is so hard about writing a browser?
Other than THAT, how was the play, Mrs Lincoln?
Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good point. Currently though, if you "z" a page you've closed, it preserves your input. The system isn't perfect, but it prevents any fear of accidental closing.
Can't comment on your browser specifically, just that single key shortcuts which are normal input values is not a good idea. People are used to shortcuts with meta keys proceeding them. It's an established behavior and expectation beyond any one system or tool.
Yeah, it's something we thought about a lot before implementing the current system.
We think apps like Superhuman have brought the idea of single-key shortcuts into the forefront, and we really like how much more memorable they are for most users.
We'll definitely learn from our users' feedback though, and we'll work on a solution with them if they have issues with it :)
Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Writing a browser from scratch (even if you have a good rendering engine for 'free') is unbelievably hard Other than the rendering engine, what is so hard about writing a browser?
> Other than the rendering engine, what is so hard about writing a browser? Other than THAT, how was the play, Mrs Lincoln?
They didn't write the rendering engine. They used WebKit.
Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
#329Earlier quoted context omitted.
The comment all this is under is not just "subscriptions are the devil!". Some responses seem more "reflexively negative" (against any criticism) than the comments they respond to. you don't seem to offer much value over free competitors and why should we trust you might be hard points to address, but are important.
"you don't seem to offer much value over free competitors and why should we trust you might be hard points to address, but are important." I agree with you on those points. But dismissing improved UI/UX as "makeup" is not helpful.
> But dismissing improved UI/UX as "makeup" is not helpful.
It would be if the UI/UX is presented as a feature. I agree with you about the style but I disagree that this is dismissive, it's constructive but coarse.
Re: Launch HN: SigmaOS (YC S21) – A MacOS web browser designed for faster work
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Writing a browser from scratch (even if you have a good rendering engine for 'free') is unbelievably hard Other than the rendering engine, what is so hard about writing a browser?
> Other than the rendering engine, what is so hard about writing a browser? Other than THAT, how was the play, Mrs Lincoln?
They obviously didn’t write a brand new rendering engine