Ask HN: Are people still writing commercial software for desktop PCs? It seems that the vast majority of software I'm hearing about is targeting iOS, Android or embedded systems. Is anyone working on a software product that (a) targets a non-mobile, non-server device and (b) is for sale, as opposed to Open-source? |
I myself build software in this space and generally its productivity-ish-tools.
Here's a list of 70 macOS apps that received updates _today_ https://macupdater.com/app_updates/index-2025-01-27.html
My question was more geared towards the seeming lack of a robust software ecosystem (i.e., there appears to be at most one leading product in each category, with one or two alternatives), to whit: - there's Xcode/VSCode. - Photoshop/GIMP. - Sublime Text - not sure about DAW software - the field has changed since I was involved
I'll have to check macupdater out, thanks for the tip.
> Photoshop/GIMP And Affinity, and Pixelmator. Gimp is not in the same league.
For high quality software, it would be strange to have more than a leading product and a couple of alternatives, wouldn't it? Like, what would be the kind of customer who would not be satisfied with neither PhotoShop or Affinity nor Pixelmator?
Linux is sort of left out in the cold unfortunately, except for reaper and bigwig, both of which are very solid choices.
That's because you are mostly interested in those things.
> Is anyone working on a software product that (a) targets a non-mobile, non-server device and (b) is for sale, as opposed to Open-source?
None of that is "opposed to Open-source". Anyway, if you use Windows or macOS, then open your platform's "app store" and take a look at literally any category but "free (as in beer)".
Yes. There is a whole world outside of your bubble.
You're quite right. Open-source vs. non-open-source is irrelevant to the question.
Music production/ synthesis
Graphics / 3D / animation
Plus untold business cases