Gingko Desktop

Posted by dan7000
Mar 28, 2018 at 09:40 PM

Actual Ginkgo user here.

Just chiming in in case Adrian is following the thread and looking for additional experiences with his site.

I love the web version. There is not much new under the sun these days wrt software - it’s incredibly unusual to see a new UI concept and this is one. In response to the comment saying we should not treat developers as always deserve praise:

1. Anybody developing and actually *releasing* software who does not have investment backing *does* deserve praise!! It’s damn hard and to do it without money coming in is worthy of praise if only for the effort. I spent over a decade in the commercial software industry and had teams of up to 20 people working for me at one point just get a new release out once a year. Anybody doing it by themselves at night after their day jobs and getting it released to the public is basically Rocky Balboa running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in my book.

2. Still, I refrain from praising software on here that I don’t find useful. But I don’t tell them they suck, for the same reason I don’t boo local bands who I see in local bars even if they suck. They are putting themselves out there for next to no money and are puttiing in hard work to try to please ME. Booing them is totally classless whether in a club or on an online forum.

3. But in this case, Ginkgo is like a band I think is super innovative and has a really modern sound that I haven’t heard before. The web UI is very skillfully done but from what I hear the Desktop version is like the band decided to play a new song they haven’t quite learned yet. In that case, I’d give them a pass because I love their other music, and hope the new song is better when I see them next month.

4. The out of touch dad who comes over after the gig to give the lead singer some “business advice” is hilarious. There are so many other factors they have to consider before that even matters. I pay $2 a month for Ginkgo which is about what I’d pay for cover charges for my favorite local band. Yeah, somebody might steal their innovative sound - that’s a risk but there is literally no way to avoid it. Microsoft stole its way through the entire 1990s and nobody could ever call them on it. That’s another reason that anyone doing something unique is even more worthy of praise and gratitude—because they do it despite the fact they know some behemoth will probably steal their idea and drive them out of business—at best hopefully they’ll get a VP job out of it at the behemoth.

5. Finally, Stripe is 100% reputable and safe and if you want to buy things from small online web retailers you need to click “next” before determining their payment solution is only on their private domain. That’s just the way the web works these days - the payment processor is very often after you click “next.” If you just want to shop at Amazon that’s cool - enjoy the Kanye West stadium show. But if you want to go to the local bar you might have to pass by a sketchy bouncer before you hear the innovative sound. It makes 100% “business” sense to use whatever is the cheapest option both in direct costs and development costs, which is what it sounds like Adrian is doing.

Nevertheless and possibly contrary to everything above: some hopefully constructive criticism: $45 is too much. And single-license desktop software is dead. The subscription model is way more palatable for customers and way more profitable for developers; and something like Ginkgo on the desktop needs to sync with the web or very few will use it. I’m sure Adrian already knows all that. He’ll get the sync working and then charge $4.99 a month for the subscription regardless which clients are being used. At that point Ginkgo will be worth the higher cover charge :)