TheBrain 10 released

Posted by Dr Andus
Nov 5, 2018 at 12:25 AM

I have started to trial TheBrain 10: the Windows version, the web version (in Chrome on a Chromebook), and the Android (v. 9) version (on a Chromebook).

The initial experience has been very disappointing, even though I love the concept and I’m in desperate need of a tool like this one.

I’m having major problems with the Windows version. I’m running it on a 3-yr old Windows 7 mobile workstation with a core i7 processor and 16GB RAM. In the three years I have not come across a software that I wasn’t able to run due to resource constraints.

Just last week I upgraded my Dragon Naturallyspeaking from Pro v. 14 to v.15, and it’s running perfectly.

Yet TheBrain 10 is running so slowly that it is practically unusable. After every click on anything I have to wait 4-5 seconds for anything to happen, often wondering if my click was even registered. At the same time the fans are spinning at full speed non-stop while TheBrain is running, suggesting that it’s a major drain on resources.

The installation itself was painfully slow. When I tried to update the software the next day (as a new version came out), I waited 6 hrs for the “Updating TheBrain” dialog box to finish before giving up and cancelling. I tried three times, it’s impossible to update the software from within itself. I may have to uninstall it and then reinstall the new version.

I haven’t had this sort of trouble installing a software for over a decade. It felt like time travel into the past. The interface also feels dated.

Is this primarily a Mac software and the Windows version an afterthought?

The web version worked a bit better, but it’s missing some essential features, and even the ones it has don’t always work. It also takes a long time for some of the features to kick in sometimes (and I have a decent broadband connection).

For a while I didn’t think I was able to add any notes because the interface just wouldn’t activate. Or there seems to be an option to set a link type, but when you set it up, it is not saved and disappears.

The sync between the various clients also feels archaic and seems to be rather slow. Having gotten used to working in web apps in recent years, this one just feels like an unfinished beta from some years ago.

Interestingly the Android app was the most responsive one of the lot, but unfortunately it has even fewer features than the web version.

This has been a very frustrating experience, especially considering how much money they are asking for this. Having seen what this software could do in theory, I would be willing to consider paying for it. But how can I do that when the performance is so poor and there are such gaps in features among the various platforms?

As I was trialling the software, I was thinking that there is a good concept here, but terrible execution, in terms of product quality (I ran across some bugs in the web version as well).

My next thought was: how come no one has tried to emulate this idea but producing it better, with leaner code, using faster servers etc., in a package that would actually work?

Then I came across this post, so other people have also asked this question. It seems that there is some kind of a patent preventing the replication of this idea:

http://forums.thebrain.com/post/thebrain-on-mac-incredibly-slow-9822809

This is a pity because the idea itself doesn’t seem that revolutionary: essentially it’s Tim Berners-Lee’s idea of hypertext and hyperlinks, so I don’t get how that could be even patented.

Is there anything out there that emulates this model and is more useable, or is this a monopoly “take it or leave it” situation?