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Ask HN: What opportunities still exist in desktop software?

15 points by curiousgeek ↗ HN
In the last few years, the software industry has moved to deliver stuff over the Web or mobile, with the desktop slowly getting hollowed out.

Reading the recent threads about Sublime Text and Atom is making me wonder if there's a blind spot amongst us programmers: What kind of desktop software can one still build and expect to make a living? (It could be for the casual user or tailored for professional use cases).

22 comments

[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 53.4 ms ] thread
baristaGeek
Developer tools definitely.

Technologies aiming the enterprise also have an opportunity with desktop software, Slack is a clear example.

Not much opportunities in the consumer tech space for desktop apps.

curiousgeek
I thought developer tools would be the toughest to make money off. Developers always believe there is a free, open source alternative out there somewhere, and if not, someone's sure to start one soon.
WaltPurvis
All developers don't always pursue free tools; I suspect you can make a very nice living selling tools to a small percentage of developers.

Personally, I've paid money for the WebStorm IDE, the PyCharm IDE, Sublime, Dash, Paw, Balsamiq, and more. I've bought ready-made UI components, database drivers, etc., and I'm about to start shelling out $4,000+/year for a commercial Qt license even though I could probably get by with Qt's free LGPL version.

And that's just me as an individual; companies are even more willing to spend money on developer tools.

jsnider3
It's interesting that you as an individual would want to buy a $4,000/year Qt License. Are you trying to found a startup that uses it or do you have some other reason?
WaltPurvis
Yes, I am developing a product to sell, and I hope it will become a profitable venture. I would not pay for Qt's commercial license if it was just for hobby projects. (For clarity, it's not necessary to buy a commercial license for Qt just because I want to sell Qt-based products, I could do that under the terms of the free LGPL license, but there are a few nice extras that come with the commercial license and I consider them worth the expense.)
taprun
Anything that requires a lot of processing power and very low latency would be my suggestion.

My first thoughts would be video games and CAD.

CoC
Desktop software(inc sublime text) is cracked everywhere, you cant expect to make a living out of it. You can make it as side project and get paid by donation.

on the other hand, you can build your game and sell it on Steam with DRM support.

with that I'm sure.

Good Luck!

pcunite
I make a living from FileSearchEX ... the "best" desktop search experience for Windows. Granted ... it needs more features.
cmdrfred
You support yourself off that entirely? I have a similar idea (not search, but improving existing windows features) and I was thinking of selling it. Is it possible to make an income (over the cost of hosting the website)
pcunite
My site has been around a long time. Not sure how a "new" site would do that attempted to sell desktop software. No, I can't live off of FileSearchEX alone. Too many pirated copies floating around. If you have the cycles, I say go for it.
minthd
Assuming the windows store becomes popular, it does support various business models, like advertising, in-app payments and subscriptions. Those once were a large advantage of the web.

Also maybe deployment would become easy and secure. Another big web advantage.

So maybe change is coming.

echeese
You could make tools for up and coming technologies. The Resharper of Rust, or FindBugs of Go
88e282102ae2e5b
Scientific software, maybe? Everything I use to control equipment in my lab is terrible and expensive. I don't know how you'd go about getting into that without getting a contract from a manufacturer to develop their software for their devices though, since I'm sure all this stuff relies on undocumented and poorly-designed drivers to start with.
petilon
Graphics, CAD, photo and video editing programs work better as desktop apps than as web-based apps. Also, games and system utilities such as antivirus and backup.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
superuser2
Managing a fleet of Windows desktops to reliably deliver an office suite and web browser to ~35 clerical workers is a gapingly unsolved problem. Seriously, it's hilariously, soul-crushingly painful.

Fix it. Preferably for less money than buying Macs.

thenomad
Interesting. What's the specific pain point there? I would have assumed that running 2 installers on 35 machines was pretty much all there is to it, but clearly that's not the case.

(Note: definitely not saying you're wrong! More saying "hmm, my assumptions are obviously wrong. More info would be very interesting".)

superuser2
- Machines get verifiably "slow" for no apparent reason. This is sometimes fixed by a reinstall, sometimes isn't.

- Even on supposedly "locked down" machines, you'll come around for a support call and find 15 IE toolbars sometimes. It apparently requires a genuine domain expert (which some $100/hour enterprise network consulting firms in the Midwest don't have) to accomplish a seemingly common goal on a Windows domain with Group Policy: only run the software we preinstall for you.

- The infrastructure to automate installation of your Windows image via netboot technically exists, but is expensive (requiring salespeople and resellers) and difficult. Large corporations tend to have it, small-medium ones tend not to. I spent most summers of my adolescence clicking through Windows installers.

- People install (and are exploited by) malware pretty regularly.

- Windows Server and particularly Exchange are dominated by quirky, undocumented behavior on the sysadmin side. You cannot do what seems natural or what it says in the manual - you need a subject matter expert who is experienced in all the ways common admin tasks will break things and how to fix them. Not 1/1000th of the time, more like 1/5th of the time. It also generally requires a business partnership with Microsoft so you have access to real support people. Even they aren't always helpful.

Managing a healthy Windows domain is certainly possible, and lots of big companies do it more or less, but it requires a whole lot of effort, highly experienced people who can "eat" the quirkiness and complexity, and a special relationship with Microsoft.

This might be reasonable for a very large, complex deployment, but it's also required for the simple case of "deliver an office suite and web browser to ~35 computer-illiterate people." I think any modern SaaS company would be appalled to deliver something with UX as poor as Windows for small-medium companies.

wslh
It is good to start with the truth: currently making money selling desktop software is really hard and, in general, doesn't payoff the amount of work you need to be there. We have a lot of examples of companies doing herculian work beyond Sublime Text and Atom which don't have enough revenue. Part of this is related to the web and mobile trends but also the desktop software maturity. In Microsoft Windows you can find a lot of tools but very few assume that they need to pay for them, they can be very popular (look at the most downloaded desktop software) but the profits/users has a very low ratio. In general, the successful ones rely on a mature sales force or they are unicorns. I think it is a good start studying the current desktop ecosystem to see how hard it is.

Notwithstanding that, I recommend to think about a services/product business model more than in selling "millions of units" only. Although a little old now, I recommend Michael Cusumano's work on this [1]. My small company uses (complex) desktop and server software products as a marketing tool for services and support.

Now the question is what is the minimum profit you will accept to make. Is it $ 100k / year, $ 200k or $ 1mm ? From that picture you can deconstruct how many units of your app/service/support you need to sell to be there. As a thumb rule I will say that selling few units for a higher price will be much easier than selling a lot of units for a few dollars. If you want to try, I would recommend start selling to SMB companies who have a budget for this.

Regarding finding ideas, talk to people who have real software problems in their companies.

[1] http://ebusiness.mit.edu/research/papers/197_Cusumano_ProdSr...

milspec
Hey, there is more than that!

Lots of programming isn't very visible to outsiders, but it often provides wonderful opportunities. Web and mobile are the trendy career alternatives to the desktop, but there is a whole world beyond that. You might think from Hacker News that all the world is web and mobile, but no no no...

Think of the people writing software for air-to-air missiles. Well OK, it is sort of "mobile", but not in the usual way. These people tend to get paid extra for any overtime and they often get to live in places where houses are affordable.

Think of the people writing software for industrial robots. Sometimes they get to fire lasers. Again, they get to live where houses are affordable.

Think of the people writing software for medical devices, engine controllers, satellite modems, printers (inside the printer), routers, telephone switches, spacecraft, UAVs, hard drives (in the drive itself), commercial HVAC, NSA tools, hospital billing, and so much more.

andersthue
Just to pitch in at the last minute :)

I could make a living from my windows installable watermarking software http://www.watermark-image.com (I am kinda, I also run a consultancy and is bootstrapping http://timeblock.com with the reveneu from those two business)

I have been working on it for five years and 5x the revenue after attending MicroConf in europe 2 years ago.

Currently I work on the software and do supports 5-10 hours a month making $4-5k i could probably grow it some more, but is using my energy on TimeBlock.