Inessential: Last Vesper Update, Sync Shutting Down

This latest shutdown inspired me to write a blog post[1] in response. It's a shame that developers feel compelled to adopt a scorched earth policy when they no longer wish to support their products. So-called "indie" apps are often marketed as the beautiful, wholesome alternative to grimy corporate or open-source software, but how could I possibly rely on an indie app for essential tasks like note-taking if it's just going to disappear out from under me in a few years? The idea that software has a lifespan controlled by the developer is, in my opinion, toxic to the market.

Brent: if you read this, I really hope you decide to go through with open-sourcing the app, like you mentioned on Twitter. Regardless of the age of the codebase, it would be an incredible thing to dig through (and maybe even maintain).

[1]: http://beta-blog.archagon.net/2016/08/21/tool-reliance/

The writing was on the wall.

The irony is that the premium price was marketed as a guarantee of perennity.

This must serve as a reminder that third-party cloud storages have a price as well as a maintenance price. Moreover, iOS APIs and devices evolve a lot and ask porting work with every new version. Additionally the more you implement your own custom UI elements the more you expose yourself to additional work when porting to a new device or for the next release. That's certainly why not only the syncing part is shutdown but also the app is not ported to iOS 10 and is removed from the app store.

This is actually a good reason for developers to use CloudKit. It wasn't available when Vesper was developed, but had it been they wouldn't been needing to shut sync down, and their customers could keep using all the features.

I'm saddened to see anyone's hard work disappear, but it's painfully obvious in retrospect that the "app store" model of software distribution that Apple popularized is not sustainable without long(er)-term financial support for the developer. For non-game apps, that means either subscriptions or paid upgrades. I don't think either would have saved Vesper.