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Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

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Re: Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

#61

Post by rl3 »

VladimirGolovin wrote: post #13

Damn, now I need to move faster. My app must be ready by the time they close Wunderlist. I expected an eventual closure, but not that soon. I've spent the last two years developing a todo app that would be a good replacement for Wunderlist (and Astrid, if anyone still remembers that). The app will include with some major / critical features both those apps lacked: proper hierarchies / first-class subtasks, automatica…

>I went full waterfall on it, the spec is 266 pages long and took half a year just to write.

Wow. It's nice to see extensive planning like that. I usually just throw anything that seems like an important idea into a text file on the assumption that it'll be fully hashed out during production at a later time. That method entails far less work, with the caveat of occasionally wondering if you're delusional from time to time.

In any case, good luck. I hope you kick ass. If Microsoft employs their usual design aesthetic, doing so should be very possible.

Re: Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

#62

Post by mpweiher »

marbletiles wrote: post #22

Oh, this is disappointing. Any app launched as a result of killing a long-running service now carries the added risk of "when are you going to kill this, too?". Won't be touching this, have a lot of history in Wunderlist I'll now need to figure out how to move elsewhere.

There's an importer...

Re: Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

#63

Post by _pmf_ »

damandloi wrote: post #59

On the sidenote: The new app from Microsoft does not follow its design methodology if bright colors and big icons but seems to go for skeuomorphism.

What would the design people at Microsoft or Apple do all day once they have defined a guideline? The only thing that guarantees them jobs is changing the goalposts constantly.

Re: Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

#64

Post by Etheryte »

arikfr wrote: post #56

If anyone is looking for an alternative that will probably be around for a long time, check out Todoist [1]: they are bootstrapped and profitable and been around for 10 years. In terms of product - it's as simple to use as Wunderlist, but does have a few extra features. And they are cross platform like Wunderlist. (I'm not affiliated with them. Just a happy user.) [1] https://todoist.com

The Todoist sign-up page now has a migration tool: "Coming from Wunderlist? Import your tasks." If that isn't timely reaction to a market need then I don't know what is.

Re: Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

#65

Post by kuerbel »

roel_v wrote: post #58
stymaar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I went full waterfall on it, the spec is 266 pages long and took half a year just to write. Why would you write a ~9k “loc” long spec over 6 month instead of coding it directly ? The only reason I can think of, is if you want to out-source the development. Is there any good reason to work this way on a one-man project ?

Not OP, but once you have a spec, it's much easier to code up. If you're designing while you're coding, you have to switch all the time between 'how should this work' and 'how do I build this'. Thinking and writing down how something should work, should always be the first step - regardless of whether you're on your own or in a big team. (before the obvious objection: exceptions are toy programs which you write to fi…

It was a hard lesson to learn, but "Weeks of programming can save you hours of planning" holds true in almost all cases.

Re: Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

#66

Post by thuruv »

dgrabla wrote: post #41

Taskwarrior on Desktop and Taskwarrior + Termux on Android is the most flexible, private, open and lightweight TODO manager I've ever used. No eye candy whatsoever, just pure power. I've been using the combo for a few years now, give it a look.

Help in getting it setup?

Re: Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

#67

Post by tptacek »

skrebbel wrote: post #32

Does anyone here understand the rationale of buying a To-do app company for $100 million and then killing it?

Wunderlist is perhaps the only shared to-do list application that actually works. I don't know about 100MM, but it's an important application --- which is why there's a pretty substantial thread here about MSFT killing it off.

Re: Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

#68

Post by bostand »

_pmf_ wrote: post #63
damandloi wrote: post #59

On the sidenote: The new app from Microsoft does not follow its design methodology if bright colors and big icons but seems to go for skeuomorphism.

What would the design people at Microsoft or Apple do all day once they have defined a guideline? The only thing that guarantees them jobs is changing the goalposts constantly.

Add Google to that list.

They break so many of their own rules i sometimes wonder if that was what made Duarte leave

Re: Microsoft to shut down Wunderlist in favor of its new app, To-Do

#70

Post by charlesdm »

gtf21 wrote: post #35

Sparrow, Sunrise, Wunderlist... all the good apps just get bought and killed.

Can you blame the developers, though? These acquisitions are life changing. I mean, heck, if someone offered me crazy money for an app, yes please!
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