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Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

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Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

#81

Post by thenomad »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #33
therealmarv wrote: post #9

Desktop is for sure at the end of the hype cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle but that does not mean that you cannot make money or not be successful when you write a very good software or you hit a particular niche. And I would not fear Google or Apple, I cannot remember when Google did the last time a rich and good desktop app for end consumers (was it Picasa, the last one?) and the only big professional…

I hope desktop software will make a comeback, because the current situation with web-based applications is ridiculous - you pay on a monthly basis, but at the same time it can disappear the next month and you'll be left with nothing. With desktop software at least you pay once and can use it forever - just because an app is old doesn't mean it's suddenly "bad", if it serves your purpose and you mastered it over the y…

Speaking as a user of Adobe and Autodesk software, I wish this was still the case with desktop products...

Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

#82

Post by Lordarminius »

Great topic!

Short answer: 'No'

The idea of software development for the desktop is one of the reasons why I got into learning to code in the first place.

FWIW I think a developer should look outside the tech community (and I define tech loosely to include artists,illustrators and such.) There are, as has been pointed out, many industries that are neglected,pharma,finance(!),education,religion,home-users. In addition I think it is useful to turn ones attention from the West to huge swathes of territory and consumers that remain unconquered in Africa, Asia, Latin America. Even within North America many niches exist. Last year an I almost struck up a partnership with a North American pharmacist who had an idea for a desktop application that would aid in reviewing patients. Turns out that the pharmacy review process for patients is ripe for 'digitization'. Our back-of-the-envelope calculations showed a potential income in the millions of dollars if we captured just 10% of the market (sadly the partnership did not work out.) I am currently working on a CRM(!of all things) desktop/mobile app for use in an under served market. I strongly feel that many such niches still exist. But you have to look deeply beyond current customers and traditional markets.

Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

#83

Post by Lordarminius »

crispytx wrote: post #78

At the mortgage company I worked at after college, the entire company was using "command line style" "ms-dos" looking software that ran the entire company. This software completely dominates the entire mortgage market! Makes some boring ass mortgage software with a GUI and some bug fixes and you might make yourself a millionaire. And the software was not "rock solid". It had all kinds of bugs that screwed up customer…

what software would that be :) :)

Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

#84

Post by mlvljr »

isxek wrote: post #59
mlvljr wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily, Google [itself] has discountinued its "desktop search engine", which is a great pity, as there have been no decent alternatives and then, what do you do when you need to search, say, a document database, consisting of some .xlsx and .docx files (which are essentially compressed XML files, as I get it)?

For finding files within Windows, there's Everything[0], which is pretty fast and small (just one .EXE file). [0]: http://voidtools.com/

Does not search the files' contents, sadly. Name caching is good, though :-)

Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

#85

Post by PeterisP »

cJ0th wrote: post #45
therealmarv wrote: post #9

Desktop is for sure at the end of the hype cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle but that does not mean that you cannot make money or not be successful when you write a very good software or you hit a particular niche. And I would not fear Google or Apple, I cannot remember when Google did the last time a rich and good desktop app for end consumers (was it Picasa, the last one?) and the only big professional…

> TL;DR Desktop will not die and there will never be a time were you can say "Everything is done". Generally I'd agree with that. However, from a business point of view I am not sure whether writing desktop software is still generating good profits. I guess there is room for industry specific software. But I doubt there is much money in the end consumer market. Especially since piracy is probably still a big problem.…

Since industry specific software is (and has always been) a much larger business than the end consumer market, the health of the off-shelf software market is not a big indication.

The majority of software engineers work on industry-specific internal software. Parts of it are also switching from desktop to web or mobile solutions, but it's important to note that most of the development would not be affected even if sales of consumer-aimed software approach zero.

Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

#86

Post by dfex »

"Can you think of any worthwhile/interesting software that is desktop-specific (Windows/Linux/Mac) and that does not already have in-production offerings by at least two competing teams?"

I would say Microsoft Visio on Windows, and Omnigraffle on Mac OS X would be good examples. Both software packages that command a premium price, have virtually no competition on their respective platforms and are very specific to the Desktop.

While writing a clone of either might not be a license to print money, perhaps focussing on a diagramming tool specific to a niche market might be interesting?

Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

#87

Post by shanehoban »

Has all the interesting art already been created?

There is likely enough art to keep any one person entertained for a lifetime, sure.

In the case of software, there is likely enough desktop software to keep users content for their lifetime use of computing too - but that doesn't mean that all useful/interesting art or desktop software has been created, or written.

The question is rather of necessity rather than interesting I think.

Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

#89

Post by austinjp »

cossatot wrote: post #22
dragonbonheur wrote: post #2

NO. All the interesting desktop software has NOT already been written. Short example: there aren't many - if any - desktop word processing software with word or phrase completion, so that's one thing you could still do and sell if you wanted to. Another example: you could port the majority of desktop software from Windows to Linux and sell that to companies who want to lower their costs with Linux. Even if windows wa…

I like the idea of a word processor with many of the features we expect in text editors. I've figured out how to make Vim (+pandoc) do what I want, mostly, but I don't expect non-programmers to do that. Word completion, version control, better image integration than Word or Latex...

Yup, I occasionally use text files plus pandoc. This allows me to keep plain-text files (actually markdown) in version control, sync'd across multiple devices, and to generate Word docs, PDFs, etc for those who want them.

I've yet to hit the snag-point when I start getting feedback in the form of "track changes" in a Word doc -- shudder -- but I'll clear that hurdle when I come to it. Perhaps I'm fighting a losing battle there.

Top tip for anyone else thinking of doing this: I generate Word docs using pandoc, then generate PDFs by "save as" from Word. This keeps the formatting the same, and my pandoc batch-script remains simple.

So... OP... A cross-platform Word-like editor with a non-tech-friendly interface to version control repositories. Or that last bit as a plug-in for Word.

Aaand googling "git plugin for ms word" reveals plenty of interesting reading material.

Re: Ask HN: Has all interesting desktop software already been written?

#90

Post by newtype »

Lordarminius wrote: post #80
newtype wrote: post #13

I am doing just that. A hugely ambitious project, with a very wide potential user base, but I have lost all hope in finding funding at a reasonable rate. I am consulting during the day to pay for what I need, and working on the product at night.

Tell me about your project too!

Send me an email. Aaron at newtype dot com
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