Show HN: SkyAlt – Accessible database and analytics | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: SkyAlt – Accessible database and analytics

skyalt.com

65 pointsmilansuk14 comments

Hi, author here.

This is the 2nd release for SkyAlt. I did previous Show HN here[0]. There is a new website. The latest version runs on Linux(previously only on Windows). I fixed many bugs and make UX way better. Also, there are new Charts and Map views and many new Column types. You can connect and read-only(for now) from remote databases(through ODBC). The changelog[1] is surprisingly long for only ~2months of work.

For the next release, I wanna focus on usability, stability and make documentation.

Feel free to send me feedback(here or e-mail) and ask questions anytime, thank you!

-Milan

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21536477 [1] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MilanSuk/SkyAlt/master/CHA...

Before I download, is this like mix between access and OneNote? As in a local database/notekeeping program with the ability to access outside DBs? If so, it looks interesting!

Yes, It is. You can create tables in SkyAlt and you can read tables from outside databases as well. You can even mix it up, for example: add a new column to the outside/remote table, but the column will be store in SkyAlt. Also, it's easy to create links between tables, so you can link between multiple remote tables(links are store in SkyAlt) and so on.

Any plans to make this available on OSX?

Also: Thanks for making this. Looks great!

Thanks, OSX is the next operating system on the roadmap. Porting from Linux to Windows took me around a week(including testing). The problem is that I've tried to run MacOS Mojave in VirtualBox and It doesn't boot up and I don't have much money left, so I don't wanna spend it on HW. Right now, I don't know when I will port and release it.

Interesting, thanks for posting! I like how people start trying out new license models while still trying to keep their products as open as possible.

Since this is a desktop application, not a Saas, and you opted for a subscription model: would you mind sharing your thinking behind this? Traditionally desktop apps like this were sold on a 'version' basis (i.e. you get this major version as well as any minor updates for a one-time fee).

I can understand how a subscription model is desirable, as it sorta provides a predictable income stream. But in your case, where you try to reduce the risk for customers by promising to release the code as GPL after a few years anyway, wouldn't the traditional model make more sense, where users would 'own' one version of your product (esp. since you don't provide an ongoing service like hosting, apart from updates)? As a customer, my costs would be more predictable with less risks, and you could always have a mixed model (like for example Jetbrains has with it's IDEs), where you could still charge 'per seat', and have a subscription-like model where people get cheaper mayor upgrades and maybe support if they pay annually.

As I said, I can understand choosing a pure subscription based model. But, personally, I'd be more inclined to spend money on something like this (or recommend your product as a consultant) if I could outright buy the latest version, or at least have the option (at a higher price, of course). I'm not sure at all that this is a common sentiment, so I might very well be in the minority here. But I'd still be interested why you choose that model...

Thanks for the question.

The project started with privacy. The only way how to provide privacy for data is to do computing on-premise. But on-premise creates the problem that when you run the binary file, it's a black box and the best way to prove security is to publish source code. Since everyone can see source code, it's on-premise and it's simple to compile, it creates the problem with piracy, so I made it free/full-featured/unlimited for non-commercial(consumers) use. Commercial companies don't steal software(probably, they are afraid of penalties), at least in developed countries, so that's the place where I make money. It also my sales funnel. Users start using SkyAlt at home for free and at some point, they realize It can solve some problems at work. Luckily, they are many use-cases in both markets(consumers and B2B).

I thought about Perpetual Pricing(use it forever, but updates are for the first year only), but at least for first few years, there will be significant progress, so everyone should update. License converts code to GPL 5years after it has been published. Running 5years old version is a really bad idea(security, etc.). We will see how well this will work, I may change it in the future.

How does your project differ from Metabase[0]?

[0] https://www.metabase.com

I've never heard of Metabase. From the GitHub page, I can see it's very popular and looks great!

I'm watching videos on their website and it looks like, that Metabase uses browser as a front end, SkyAlt is native. I'm not sure If you can create/edit tables/columns in Metabase, it looks more like a "import data and create dashboards". SkyAlt is more like Airtable meets Tableau.

Correct metabase is readonly. And i think thats a good thing. For BI tools such as these you have many types of users and generally want it to be strictly readonly.

Yes. But you have some users that want writetoo. Nice to have the option.

Right now, SkyAlt can't write to the remote databases and in the future, it will be able to write only data, not change a structure(create/remove columns, etc.).

This will lead to the option to build internal tools. Adding dashboards and writing to remote databases should be easy to program, but right now I focus on stability, usability and documentation for current features.

This is like a modern day Access right?

Yes. Overall SkyAlt architecture is vertical. This means, that when I'm adding a new feature I try to add it in form of new View or Column type. You can see the current lists in this picture[0].

This leads, you can start using SkyAlt very quickly. You need to know only Table view and Text and Number columns, that's it. You can learn Charts, Map, etc. views and Date, Link, etc. columns later or ignore them. I hope that this "vertical design" will keep SkyAlt organize for new users, but power users will get advanced features. In short, it's not there if you don't need it.

[0] https://www.dropbox.com/s/i14c67o8x1vxuub/vertical_design.pn...

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