Hi, app developer here. I hope some of you may like my little app. To prevent too much ranting here are some quick answers to possible questions:
Q: The Hacker News website provides much more functionality than your app.
A: That's right. The app isn't made to replace the Hacker News website. It's made for frequent readers like me who want a quick and friendly-on-the-eye way to access the stories.
Q: I want your app but I don't want to pay for it.
A: No problem, Hacky is open source! Just get a copy of the source on GitHub and build it on your machine.
Q: Why are you then charging money for it in the first place?
A: Personally I like getting my apps via Mac App Store. It means easy updating and restoring. Unfortunately providing an app in the MAS isn't free for the developer as he has to purchase a Developer Certificate from Apple. (Additionally a developer likes to buy a beer from time to time)
In a perfect world you wouldn't have to explain that this isn't meant to replace the site or justify charging money for it, but we don't live in a perfect world. I'm on a Windows machine here at work but as soon as I get home I'm going to get this. And thanks for making it open source. I honestly could never understand how anything open source could make money (besides charging for support) but your app finally drove the point home for me. I know how to get your source and compile it myself but I just don't want to go through the hassle so I'm going to buy it.
Anyway, thanks for this. I've been hoping someone would make this exact app for a long time now.
Yes, it's a good idea and I like it too. It's OSS but you may pay for the convenience of getting the app perfectly packaged for your OS.
Other OSS projects use that model (I can think of Todo.txt Android app, for example).
But I'm not sure that it works exactly like "can you build it? It's free if you don't want to pay for it". OSS is about distribution. Anybody can build your app and distribute it legally (in this case Hacky is LGPL, it wouldn't be too difficult to comply with the license), even do it for a fee.
It's more paying for "the extras" straight to the developers. Call it support, iTunes, packaging, or just making things easier for people that don't want or don't have the time to get the hands dirty.
I like the model too and you got me thinking. Is there any standard licence model where you allow people to have and use the source but not to redistribute it "as is"?
I'm aware of that example, it was on my mind when I made the comment.
I suppose the only way it could work is if there is a special incentive to buy it. Some video game companies do this, they have the engine open-source, but all the assets are proprietary.
I just wanted to say good for you for charging for your app! Good work should be rewarded. Users of this developer centric website should understand this most of all!
Nice! I really like the minimalistic GUI of the app. In addition to joren's comment below it would be great if Vim/Gmail navigation key bindings (or just configurable navigation key bindings) would be available. Navigation with j/k, marking something as read with e/y, ...
Haven't tried it, but from the screenshots, it seems you need to open the url in the browser.
If your goal is so the app allows users a quick view of the stories, having a built in viewer would be nice. Personally I hate switching between apps a lot, and I'm guessing using this would mean - Open story; Switch to Safari to read story; Switch back to Hacky to see next story which if you read more than 1-2 articles would get boring quickly. Just an idea for a future version.
Comments
Hi, app developer here. I hope some of you may like my little app. To prevent too much ranting here are some quick answers to possible questions:
Q: The Hacker News website provides much more functionality than your app.
A: That's right. The app isn't made to replace the Hacker News website. It's made for frequent readers like me who want a quick and friendly-on-the-eye way to access the stories.
Q: I want your app but I don't want to pay for it.
A: No problem, Hacky is open source! Just get a copy of the source on GitHub and build it on your machine.
Q: Why are you then charging money for it in the first place?
A: Personally I like getting my apps via Mac App Store. It means easy updating and restoring. Unfortunately providing an app in the MAS isn't free for the developer as he has to purchase a Developer Certificate from Apple. (Additionally a developer likes to buy a beer from time to time)
Relevant Links:
Website: http://www.hackyapp.com
Mac App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hacky/id584949645?ls=1&m...
GitHub: https://github.com/eliaskg/Hacky
Edit: Here, have some Promo Codes:
Don't feel bad about charging for your app. Imagine you are opening a new restaurant.
Q: The food plucked from the ground tastes better than yours.
A: Great! Pluck away. I offer convenience.
Q: I want your meal but don't want to pay for it.
A: Uh... ok. Here's the recipe. Cook away.
Q: Why are you charging money for your food in the first place?
A: I need to pay for knives, forks, and the macronutrients that keep my body alive. I hope that's ok with you.
A one-time purchase of a few dollars is well worth saving a HN reader minutes a day.
In a perfect world you wouldn't have to explain that this isn't meant to replace the site or justify charging money for it, but we don't live in a perfect world. I'm on a Windows machine here at work but as soon as I get home I'm going to get this. And thanks for making it open source. I honestly could never understand how anything open source could make money (besides charging for support) but your app finally drove the point home for me. I know how to get your source and compile it myself but I just don't want to go through the hassle so I'm going to buy it.
Anyway, thanks for this. I've been hoping someone would make this exact app for a long time now.
I love the application. The thing I love most is your "license".
I thought to distribute some app in the same way too: "can you build it? It's free if you don't want to pay for it."
Yes, it's a good idea and I like it too. It's OSS but you may pay for the convenience of getting the app perfectly packaged for your OS.
Other OSS projects use that model (I can think of Todo.txt Android app, for example).
But I'm not sure that it works exactly like "can you build it? It's free if you don't want to pay for it". OSS is about distribution. Anybody can build your app and distribute it legally (in this case Hacky is LGPL, it wouldn't be too difficult to comply with the license), even do it for a fee.
It's more paying for "the extras" straight to the developers. Call it support, iTunes, packaging, or just making things easier for people that don't want or don't have the time to get the hands dirty.
I like the model too and you got me thinking. Is there any standard licence model where you allow people to have and use the source but not to redistribute it "as is"?
That sounds like what Microsoft did (and got slammed for) with their Shared Source license.
The one thing with doing that myself that would worry me, is some community project releasing free pre-built versions would spring up.
That's essentially what happened when XChat (IRC program) started to charge for windows builds.
I'm aware of that example, it was on my mind when I made the comment.
I suppose the only way it could work is if there is a special incentive to buy it. Some video game companies do this, they have the engine open-source, but all the assets are proprietary.
Hey there, awesome work!
I just wanted to say good for you for charging for your app! Good work should be rewarded. Users of this developer centric website should understand this most of all!
Kudos to you! Keep up the good work.
Nice! I really like the minimalistic GUI of the app. In addition to joren's comment below it would be great if Vim/Gmail navigation key bindings (or just configurable navigation key bindings) would be available. Navigation with j/k, marking something as read with e/y, ...
But thanks for this great first version!
I second that. c for comments and o for open.
I will investigate key bindings! Thanks for the feedback!
Haven't tried it, but from the screenshots, it seems you need to open the url in the browser.
If your goal is so the app allows users a quick view of the stories, having a built in viewer would be nice. Personally I hate switching between apps a lot, and I'm guessing using this would mean - Open story; Switch to Safari to read story; Switch back to Hacky to see next story which if you read more than 1-2 articles would get boring quickly. Just an idea for a future version.
Aside from that, good luck and good job.
Bruno
Opposite viewpoint: my browser has much more functionality than any embedded browser-view could ever deliver (save to kippt, send to instapaper etc).
So I guess this should really be an option (the classic "do you want an external browser? If yes, which browser?" kinda thing).
If I had a Mac, I would buy this in an instant. Would you consider developing a version to put on the Ubuntu Software Centre?
Great work! Which Hacker News API do you use?
I wanted to use http://api.ihackernews.com but I found that it was very unreliable. So I built my own.
Interesting – Have you checked cheeaun's node-hnapi?
https://github.com/cheeaun/node-hnapi
He just showed it to me a few hours ago. But I had fun building my own ;)
by HTML scrapping?
Does/can it update automatically at all?
Yes, it reloads every three minutes.
That feels a little aggressive. Should be a configurable option somewhere in preferences.
It's configurable in the source code.
I appreciate your efforts. Have half a pint of mediocre beer.