The Brain version 8 versus version 6

Posted by Paul Korm
Oct 3, 2015 at 03:45 PM

If would wait before buying v8 unless you really need it today. Their website explains the differences in versions—I found v7 more of an upgrade from v6 than v8 was from v7. The basic features all all there in all three versions, but v8 added better handling of attachments, sync calendars to Google calendar, and a lot of tweaks with labels, tags and links.

The reason to wait is that TheBrain is once again going down their usually extraordinarily dragged-out process of teasing customers about the new version - TheBrain 9—which of course has been in development for years. The big change in TheBrain 9 is abandoning Java and creating platform-specific “native code on each platform”. That could mean a lot of things, but the screen shots they published a few days ago do not look like much is changing in the UI except removing the Java-style controls.

(See the last portion—as of today—of this thread http://forums.thebrain.com/post/thebrain-development-update-7385918?&trail=15)

I’m annoyed at myself for spending a wad of cash over the past 4 years with this company and getting almost nothing in return in the form of a useful string of feature improvements and innovations. There’s a lot of innovation possible; but not from the current team over there. I love the product and would have been happy and well-served never upgrading from 6 to 7 to 8 and maybe to 9. But I don’t like the company, and their snarky public persona. TheBrain fits into the meme that so-called “artisanal software” (i.e., cynically, software that not many people buy) should command a premium because it is, well, “artisanal”.