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    Apple's Shifting Differentiation

    (stratechery.com)
    292 points kaboro | 15 comments | 11 Nov 20 13:21 UTC | HN request time: 1.389s | source | bottom
    1. burlesona ◴[11 Nov 20 13:56 UTC] No.25058399[source]▶
    The point about robust collaborative editing as an API is interesting. The HN crowd generally prefers native apps and gets tired of the electron parade, but for major business software it’s increasingly table stakes that another person can see what you’re working on, live, by clicking a link.

    Apple does have relatively good live collaboration in its iWork apps. Perhaps there’s a future API there?

    replies(3): >>25058490 #>>25058830 #>>25058904 #
    2. rmorey ◴[11 Nov 20 14:08 UTC] No.25058490[source]▶
    > Apple does have relatively good live collaboration in its iWork apps

    Does it? As much as i like the iWork apps, my experience (and impression of the general sentiment) has shown that Google Docs et al continues to blow the pants off iWork in that regard

    replies(3): >>25058706 #>>25058822 #>>25059010 #
    3. yalogin ◴[11 Nov 20 14:34 UTC] No.25058706[source]▶
    Can you give me some examples where Apple's collaboration SW falls short?
    4. burlesona ◴[11 Nov 20 14:51 UTC] No.25058822[source]▶
    I did say "relatively good" :)

    I would agree that collaboration is a little smoother in G Suite, however in my experience this is mostly about ease of sharing. Once you've gotten another Apple user to understand that they can "receive a shared document from you" and work on it, then usually collaboration itself is smooth.

    5. jinjin2 ◴[11 Nov 20 14:51 UTC] No.25058830[source]▶
    I would have wished that Apple had been the ones acquiring Realm. They really had the best API for building apps with live collaboration I have ever experienced. Instead they went to MongoDB, so who knows how that will end?
    replies(2): >>25058855 #>>25059325 #
    6. joshspankit ◴[11 Nov 20 14:54 UTC] No.25058855[source]▶
    I always liked Realm but have not heard anything about them lately. Where did they go, and is the current work as powerful as the early stuff?
    replies(2): >>25067182 #>>25068030 #
    7. onion2k ◴[11 Nov 20 15:01 UTC] No.25058904[source]▶
    The HN crowd generally prefers native apps and gets tired of the electron parade...

    There's no significant preference for native; it's just that we won't tolerate bad apps. I'd guess that VSCode is the most popular editor among users here by a long way, and that Google Docs has far more users than MS Word. HN readers don't pick native apps when there's a good Electron or web-based alternative.

    replies(2): >>25059372 #>>25062986 #
    8. chrisfinazzo ◴[11 Nov 20 15:14 UTC] No.25059010[source]▶
    The collaborative editing (which I first recall seeing in Google Wave) was essentially carried into Google Docs.

    N.B, "SubEthaEdit had this for years!" - I know.

    As a whole, it could be argued that where Wave failed, Slack - and predecessors like Basecamp - succeeded.

    iWork has always seemed like it has a different user in mind with its collaborative features and never really had much traction in the market, which is already served by offerings whose entire reason for being is collaboration, not just as a general productivity suite.

    replies(1): >>25060656 #
    9. alexashka ◴[11 Nov 20 15:51 UTC] No.25059325[source]▶
    Realm was a dead end - it was based on a custom database, which was a mistake.

    Them going to Mongo is actually the best possible outcome - by replacing their dead end custom database with MongoDB, they make MongoDB into a more compelling product, making document-based databases more batteries-included than ever before, which is excellent news.

    10. vulcan01 ◴[11 Nov 20 15:55 UTC] No.25059372[source]▶
    To add on, the reason why it might seem that

    > the HN crowd generally prefers native apps

    is because it is hard to write a good Electron / web app that is actually performant + easy to use. Which is why many people here are wary of new Electron apps.

    11. reaperducer ◴[11 Nov 20 17:45 UTC] No.25060656{3}[source]▶
    N.B, "SubEthaEdit had this for years!" - I know.

    FWIW, I first saw collaborative editing over a network done on an Amiga. So I guess this has been a thing for "decades."

    replies(1): >>25124103 #
    12. alwillis ◴[11 Nov 20 21:07 UTC] No.25062986[source]▶
    >I'd guess that VSCode is the most popular editor among users here by a long way

    I don't know about that. When ever there's an article about Vim, it gets lots and lots of useful, insightful comments. If you search for Vim on HN, you'll see the catalog of Vim posts and threads.

    I haven't seen the same thing regarding VS Code.

    13. jamil7 ◴[12 Nov 20 06:51 UTC] No.25067182{3}[source]▶
    I’m not really a fan of MongoDB but the handling of Realm so far seems well done. I migrated an app to their new sync service and everything worked fine. They also offer a fairly generous free plan and are open sourcing the sync engine.
    14. dep_b ◴[12 Nov 20 09:24 UTC] No.25068030{3}[source]▶
    I tried to use it recently and it was an endless nightmare of suck. But perhaps I'm just allergic for any type of framework that tries to dictate my app structure and threading strategy.
    15. chrisfinazzo ◴[17 Nov 20 14:32 UTC] No.25124103{4}[source]▶
    If I'm reading the specs correctly, there was 10 Mb Ethernet capability on the Amiga...in 1985.

    Mind blown.

    (I was born in '86, albeit late in the year, so I find this especially hilarious.)