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I'm done making desktop applications (2009)

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Re: I'm done making desktop applications (2009)

#41

Post by werdnapk »

xp84 wrote: post #32
QuantumNomad_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please pick up a few bitcoins for me too when you go there

Realizing I could frickin mine enough bitcoins overnight back then to probably be set for life (maybe for multiple generations) now, is one of my biggest life regrets. I assume it’s shared with all other people who were into tech back then but dismissed bitcoin as stupid, as I did.

You simply can't get hung up on what could have been. Same applies to trying to time the stock market... should have bought, should have sold. Best thing is to know there's nothing that can be done about the past and move along and deal with what you can do now instead.

Re: I'm done making desktop applications (2009)

#42

Post by fragmede »

steve1977 wrote: post #31
neilv wrote: post #26

> However, the existence of pirates is a stitch in my craw, particularly when any schoolmarm typing the name of my software into Google is prompted to try stealing it instead: I wonder whether Google, in its Don't Be Evil era, ever considered what they should do about software piracy, and what they decided. I'd guess they would've decided to either discourage piracy, or at least not encourage it. In the screenshot, t…

Did Google ever have a real Don't be Evil era?

'99 to 2004. You had to have been there, maaaan...

Re: I'm done making desktop applications (2009)

#45

Post by data-ottawa »

xp84 wrote: post #27
qq66 wrote: post #24

Nothing in this article is wrong , but worth noting that pre-AI, the companies that most significantly transformed the way we use our computers (Slack, Spotify, VS Code, etc.) did ship desktop apps.

“Desktop Apps”? I’d say pre-Electron, the ones that existed that far back shipped desktop apps, but for the past 10-15 years it’s all been Electron slop, which hardly qualify as “desktop apps” in my book. If anything, it’s my very faint hope that AI would give companies - especially non-software companies - the bandwidth to release two real native apps instead of just 2 builds of a shitty Electron app. Fat chance tho…

For what it’s worth, I tried making a GTK4 app. I got started, created a window, created a header bar, then went to add a url/path entry widget and everything fell apart.

Entry suggestions/completions are formally deprecated with no replacement since 2022. When I did get them working on the deprecated API there was an empty completion option that would segfault if clicked. The default behaviour didn’t hide completions on window unfocus, so my completions would hover over any other open window. There was seemingly no way to disambiguate tab vs enter events… it just sucked.

So after adding one widget I abandoned the project. It felt like the early releases of SwiftUI where you could add a list view but then would run into weird issues as soon as you tried adding stuff to it.

Similarly trying to build an app for macOS practically depends on Swift by Sundell Hacking with Swift or others to make up for Apple’s lack of documentation in many areas. For years stuff like NSColor vs Color and similar API boundaries added friction, and the native macOS SwiftUI components just never felt normal while I tried making apps.

As heavy as web libraries and electron are, at least work mostly out of the box.

Re: I'm done making desktop applications (2009)

#46

Post by sudb »

hermitcrab wrote: post #10
sudb wrote: post #6

I wonder what the numbers say about desktop applications now, and how much the arrival of Electron changed things up here. Nowadays, it seems to be that mobile apps have the "best metrics" for b2c software. I'd be interested to read a contemporary version of this article.

What 'best metrics'?

Anecdotally, conversion - from free to trial, trial to paid, one-off purchases, etc.

Re: I'm done making desktop applications (2009)

#47

Post by Minor49er »

steve1977 wrote: post #31
neilv wrote: post #26

> However, the existence of pirates is a stitch in my craw, particularly when any schoolmarm typing the name of my software into Google is prompted to try stealing it instead: I wonder whether Google, in its Don't Be Evil era, ever considered what they should do about software piracy, and what they decided. I'd guess they would've decided to either discourage piracy, or at least not encourage it. In the screenshot, t…

Did Google ever have a real Don't be Evil era?

If you need to sloganize a reminder to yourself to not be evil, that's not a promising sign

Re: I'm done making desktop applications (2009)

#48

Post by AngryData »

xp84 wrote: post #32
QuantumNomad_ wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please pick up a few bitcoins for me too when you go there

Realizing I could frickin mine enough bitcoins overnight back then to probably be set for life (maybe for multiple generations) now, is one of my biggest life regrets. I assume it’s shared with all other people who were into tech back then but dismissed bitcoin as stupid, as I did.

I put my compute in those days to help do some kind of protein folding simulation, definitely should of been bitcoin.

Re: I'm done making desktop applications (2009)

#49

Post by binaryturtle »

autonomousErwin wrote: post #14

Grass always looks greener on the other side, mainly because it's been fertilised.

No, "grass always looks greener on the other side" is a perspective thing. If you stand on your own grass then you look down onto it and see the dirt, but if you look over to the other side you see the gras from the side which makes it look more dense and hides the dirt. But it's the same boring grass everywhere. :)
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