Ask HN: Why aren't there more local PC apps? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why aren't there more local PC apps?

1 pointXCSme11 comments

Almost everyone plays games locally on their PC. Companies keep trying to provide cloud-gaming services, but people don't really like it. You rely on your internet connection, you don't own the games, you don't own your data, etc.

Why isn't software the same? Why are most services/apps "cloud-based"?

I think that the next iOS/Android app revolution will be AI applications that run locally.

Not only that, but also other apps, like games, will be enhanced with dynamic, locally-generated content. Without on-device, edge-processing, game devs can not afford to provide dynamically generated content for each player. But, if players can run the models on their device, game developers can simply provide the models, prompts and run them locally.

So, given that local devices are getting more and more powerful, why aren't there more tools/apps released that run locally?

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> Why are most services/apps "cloud-based"?

Follow the money... $X/month, over Y months, is worth a lot more than a one time payment of $Z.

> why aren't there more tools/apps released that run locally?

There are plenty, but you have to make the choice to use them. Every app on my android phone runs locally with no "cloud" anything for any of them. But few users care enough to "just say no" to the 'cloud apps'.

Also, more sinister, they can actually take functionality away and increase pricing over time.

Sweet sweet recurring revenue is a dream for companies and a huge challenge for users

Do you own a smart phone? Those are why. Part of the total surveillance state. They send everything you do to the government to make sure it is permissible. Just today microsoft was announcing that same feature for PCs in the guise of the current AI hype.

Also games are already saddled with always online requirements.

No, it’s just much easier to update cloud apps/apis vs distributing thick client software.

Publishing a new source tarball is hard?

If the software works entirely locally, updating is usually just a matter of downloading/replacing the files.

If an app requires an internet connection to actually work then it might as well be a web app, especially for things like news and social media, where half the time you are following links to articles/media on websites anyway. I really hate those "download our app" banners.

One reason is the ease with which a company can update software and keep the userbase on a consistent version. iirc, this was the driving force behind Salesforce doing this, who was the first to do this (iirc again)

+1 major win for security updates.

Remember when everyone had a thick-client adobe reader installed and updates weren’t automatic?

I have so many things I use daily that is local, huh?

One example, that made me ask this question are tools like https://riverside.fm (I do use Davinci Resolve locally, but I would also like an AI video editor like riverside or https://descript.com that runs locally, so I can use my local model/Ollama installation).

Another example is all the media distribution/scheduling tools (e.g. buffer). I would be a lot more comfortable to connect all my social media accounts to a local platform, instead of a cloud service. I don't even need scheduling, I just want to share a post to all my social accounts at once.

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