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ozarker

I think it’s commendable to be pushing native purpose-built apps in this day and age.

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Commendable..? Or short-sighted?

I exclusively use Linux and Windows; I see something like this and ... it's a disappointment.

I think what's "commendable" is cross-platform development, breaking out of walled gardens to support everyone.

Eh. There are plenty of tools and programs that are windows only and that will never change. There will always be vendor lock in as long as vendors exist.

I’d rather have teams start with high quality apps and branch out when it makes sense for them. Maybe it never will make sense for them and that’s okay!

There might be an oversaturation of Mac native apps on the HN front page relative to Linux/Windows native apps. I, too, feel a bit disappointed when they are posted for the same reason as SomeCallMeTim (especially if it's not clear from the post's title that it's Mac exclusive and it only becomes apparent deep into the linked page), but I also know there are tons of native tools for Windows and Linux — they're just not discussed here as often. Though this could also be confirmation bias on my part.

Almost every tool in my current weekly use is cross-platform, with the one exception being Visual Studio (and that only when I'm working on a C# app and I don't really have a choice in the matter).

And I use a ton of proprietary tools: SmartGit, Beyond Compare, DataGrip, Postman, Word/Excel, Sublime, Docker Desktop, Blender, Slack, Discord...

The only thing I can find that's Windows-only are the two tools that make up for the shortcomings of Windows shells: MSYS2 and ConEmu.

Seriously; cross-platform (or at least multi-platform) is the future. The frequent posting of Mac-exclusive apps seems to be more about Mac-snobs trying to brag about (and justify) their decision to rely on Macs.

As I said in my grand-child reply, I don't use almost any Windows-only tools on a daily basis.

As to strategy: If they want people to buy their app, and they're getting all of this great publicity, then "branching out" later will have missed an opportunity to market to Windows users. Heck, Windows users will likely be turned off by their heavy "Can a native Mac code editor really be that much better?" marketing message...

I know I won't be likely to try out their app ever. I mean, if I wanted to go with a well-supported, fast, and clean editor, I'd just use Sublime.

Nova seems to be specifically targeting the Mac-snob crowd as their main selling point, and I don't think that deserves the front page of HN.

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