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Comment by ensiferum | Hacker News Reader

"I did some research, but I couldn’t find an alternative to Google Docs where I’d have complete control over my documents and couldn’t be locked out. So I said, fuck it. I’ll build it. "

Umh..how about I dunno just using your computer and a Microsoft word or Libre office and storing the data locally on your computer or usb stick. Weird.

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Because then you wouldn’t get to use the blockchain /s

——

I read this article for far too long trying to find some more detail on how, or why, the blockchain enabled him to create a privacy centered document writing service but found nothing. Another solution looking for a problem I suppose

Google Docs (and modern versions of Microsoft 365) offers a much nicer experience for a lot of writing work, so I can see why the author would prefer it to an offline solution—especially for creative writing. I like being able to write on my phone in the Google Docs app while on the subway or somewhere where using a laptop is inconvenient. I like being able to share a document and collaborate on it without emailing a copy back and forth. I also like Google Apps Script when I need to extend Google Sheets; I never learned VBA, but JavaScript is a much more normal programming language.

Zoho Writer isn't that popular I guess - https://www.zoho.com/writer/

Word isn't really an alternative to Google Docs. There's no multi-user collaboration mode without an Office365 account, you can't really share a document with someone who doesn't have Word, you don't always have access to the latest version wherever (with other people's edits), etc. There definitely is a market for a Google docs alternative.

There is. Atlassian’s Conflunce can be self-hosted on your own VPS. It is more of a Wiki-like knowledge sharing tool, but it also has collaborative editing modes. It’s definitely no Google Office Suite since there is no support for sheets, but you can share and display them there and auto-upload office-files from the desktop to Confluence.

It’s not perfect but it is an alternative.

There probably is some value, and demand, for cloud products which reduces dependency/control by a single company.

The model seems very hard to execute on though; Diaspora comes to mind.

I think there's a mismatch between what people say they want ("I care about owning my data") vs how they behave ("I'll go with whatever is most convenient").

I'd like to self-host lots of things, but doing it properly costs time, money, and effort. Just the software to do it is not enough when you would like 99.99% availability, data backup, security, and disaster recovery. If you can find a way to provide this in a box with encrypted backup, you have a billion dollar business. Or at least a few hundred dollars from me.

Even Adobe at some point tried to compete with Word/Excel. Word processing sounds like it would be one of the most crowded markets.

I think the author meant a privacy-focused online editor which allows collaborative editing, etc

Offline LaTeX mode? Inconceivable!

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