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    Local-first software (2019)

    (www.inkandswitch.com)
    863 points gasull | 13 comments | 05 Jul 25 14:45 UTC | HN request time: 1.3s | source | bottom
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    DataDaoDe ◴[05 Jul 25 17:02 UTC] No.44474024[source]▶
    Yes a thousand percent! I'm working on this too. I'm sick of everyone trying to come up with a use case to get all my data in everyone's cloud so I have to pay a subscription fee to just make things work. I'm working on a fitness tracking app right now that will use the sublime model - just buy it, get updates for X years, sync with all your devices and use it forever. If you want updates after X years buy the newest version again. If its good enough as is - and that's the goal - just keep using it forever.

    This is the model I want from 90% of the software out there, just give me a reasonable price to buy it, make the product good, and don't marry it to the cloud so much that its unusable w/out it.

    There are also a lot of added benefits to this model in general beyond the data privacy (most are mentioned in the article), but not all the problems are solved here. This is a big space that still needs a lot of tooling to make things really easy going but the tech to do it is there.

    Finally, the best part (IMHO) about local-first software is it brings back a much healthier incentive structure - you're not monetizing via ads or tracking users or maxing "engagement" - you're just building a product and getting paid for how good it is. To me it feels like its software that actually serves the user.

    replies(11): >>44474277 #>>44474897 #>>44475069 #>>44475094 #>>44475231 #>>44475944 #>>44477443 #>>44477944 #>>44478379 #>>44481416 #>>44483452 #
    1. charcircuit ◴[05 Jul 25 17:40 UTC] No.44474277[source]▶
    >you're not monetizing via ads

    Yes, you are. You can find tons of purely local apps that monetize themselves with ads.

    replies(2): >>44474317 #>>44474770 #
    2. DataDaoDe ◴[05 Jul 25 17:45 UTC] No.44474317[source]▶
    Sure you could. I'm not, I don't think its in the spirit of local first. And I wouldn't pay money for that, but if you or someone else wants to build that kind of software - its a free world :)
    replies(1): >>44474680 #
    3. criddell ◴[05 Jul 25 18:47 UTC] No.44474680[source]▶
    It’s easy to say you wouldn’t do that, but if it gets to the point where you have an employee helping you out and in a downturn you have to choose between laying them off or pushing an ad to keep paying them one more quarter, you might reconsider.
    replies(1): >>44475062 #
    4. thaumasiotes ◴[05 Jul 25 19:02 UTC] No.44474770[source]▶
    > You can find tons of purely local apps tha[t] monetize themselves with a[d]s.

    How do they do that without hitting the internet?

    replies(3): >>44474794 #>>44474906 #>>44475386 #
    5. kid64 ◴[05 Jul 25 19:07 UTC] No.44474794[source]▶
    It's "local first", not "local only".
    replies(1): >>44475163 #
    6. charcircuit ◴[05 Jul 25 19:23 UTC] No.44474906[source]▶
    Point 3 from the article is

    >3. The network is optional

    Ad SDKs usually allow caching ads for a period of time so that ads can still be shown while the device is temporarily offline.

    7. nofunsir ◴[05 Jul 25 19:51 UTC] No.44475062{3}[source]▶
    No, ads aren't the solution for everything, and in my opinion anything.
    replies(1): >>44478458 #
    8. thaumasiotes ◴[05 Jul 25 20:08 UTC] No.44475163{3}[source]▶
    Sorry, a "purely local app" isn't "local only"?
    replies(3): >>44475843 #>>44476384 #>>44478509 #
    9. free_bip ◴[05 Jul 25 20:41 UTC] No.44475386[source]▶
    i could be wrong but I think they're referring to the winrar model, where there are occasional "annoyances" that you can either ignore or pay to get rid of.
    10. satvikpendem ◴[05 Jul 25 21:49 UTC] No.44475843{4}[source]▶
    You can hardcode ads into each build that don't need Internet access.
    11. kid64 ◴[05 Jul 25 23:29 UTC] No.44476384{4}[source]▶
    Well if you're gonna get all accurate on me...
    12. earthnail ◴[06 Jul 25 06:58 UTC] No.44478458{4}[source]▶
    You will reconsider this argument when you start publishing your own ads to make people aware of your software.

    there are different kinds of ads, but lets be clear that even a Show HN is a form of ad. Some forms of ads are just more appreciated than others.

    13. senko ◴[06 Jul 25 07:07 UTC] No.44478509{4}[source]▶
    Not OP, but no.

    IMHO, a fully local app is an app that can run locally with all the functionality, not that it's isolated from everything else.

    Browser, email client (running locally on your device such as Mail.app, mutt, Outlook,...), Zed (text editor, runs locally but can check for updates... as can many other modern apps)...