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Comment by serf | Hacker News Reader

It occurs to me , reading these comments, that Windows/Linux are not really considered to be first class citizens by those who make publishing/authorship software.

Scrivener Windows release trails far behind the Mac release, DevonThink is unavailable elsewhere outside Mac, Vellum is Mac only.

Kind of a shame , no? I understand the whole 'Artists-skew-Apple' thing, but this type of software doesn't have a lot of valid reasons to lack portability to such an extent other than catering to specific markets.

So, if you're an authorship/publishing software person, 'We're out there, and we'd love to use your software on PC.' .

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I've been making Notebook.ai for over 6 years now, so I have a little experience with the other end of the spectrum. A standalone, downloadable Mac app is one of the most common "feature requests" I get, and I used to get a lot of support requests that basically just boiled down to "where is the mac download".

I try to treat Windows, Linux, and Mac all as first-class citizens on the web (especially since I'm close to ~40/60% Safari/Chrome usage), but ctrl+f'ing my feedback/request spreadsheets produces 4x more results for "Mac" than "Windows". I can see how other companies that are more focused on growth would be incentivized to prioritize Mac.

I definitely agree with your sentiment though. I'm a PC writer and wish more tools were available to me! (In fact, I made Fiction.Tools with an available-on-Windows filter, which might be helpful for you!)

- knock, knock

- who is it?

- Opportunity

If you know how to program validated business ideas just fell into your lap.

Make a Windows clone of DevonThink or Vellum.

Better yet, make a Scrivener, DevonThink or Vellum clone as a web app. The technology is more than capable.

But you won't do it.

Your parents didn't have emerald mine so you couldn't possibly be successful.

Also, Survivorship Bias!

> make a […] web app

I’d make a different recommendation. If you want it on Windows, make the best Windows app you can. Take advantage of all the APIs and features the platform has to offer. If you do a good job, you will make something faster and smaller that follows the platform conventions and is comfortable to use by other people like you.

Right now I think the Mac has the healthiest ecosystem of interesting software from small developers. I’m excluding games - Windows and the three big consoles rule the games space. For personal software (like the titles you mentioned) Windows feels like it’s fading and Linux is doing what Linux has always done.

I build marketing software for authors (called StoryOrigin if you want to look it up for credibility purposes), so I'm quite familiar with the space.

Exactly what you've described is already out there: https://www.atticus.io/ (released last year - I have no affiliation.)

This is the first I've heard of it. Looks neat. I do like the Front/Body/Back Matter view in the sidebar.

I wonder if this is the case because if you publish with a publisher, you'll eventually have to end up in .docx or something. I think that for a lot of people, Microsoft Word would be enough (and maybe Google Docs nowadays).

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