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TheBrain 8 beta
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Posted by 22111
Oct 28, 2013 at 07:55 PM
Thank you, Paul, very interesting (and new for me) info. I knew - from a very far distance, i.e. I don’t know anything specific of it - that the graphics were in Java, since it was intended multi-operating-system (which certainly facilitated the cloud-going, too), but then, I assumed it had some “ordinary” database for storage - now what you say explains a lot of the difficulties people have got with TB (I had, in my tries, and you can read many paying users complaining about it).
In fact, yours is very bad news since it indicates - as you rightly assume - that there will be no real progress with this, and this means that for serious data storage, even long-term, and even if they greatly enhance the gui for that, i.e. introduce better outlining, as for an alternative view, TB will never be “ideal”, to say the least.
This being said, I know that it’s the most sophisticated link manager out there (in its paid versions at least which permit link grouping), and as a pm and collaboration tool, it might indeed be of great use, and last but not least, it’s an ingenious alternative to mind mapping, lesser in some aspects, better in some others, and perhaps we’ll see developments in all these fields that make it something really outstanding and “unavoidable”.
Fact is, I would have installed the free version years ago, for extensive trialling of all these aspects (as far as they are available within the free version that is), if such a setup did not exclude me from then really trialling the new paid versions when they come out.
This means TB is one of those tools, within the group of tools offering free versions, too, that COMBINE the paid and the free version, a trial of the paid one then becoming the “free” one, and this implies blocking your system from any further possible trials - or then, just in order to use the free version, you would have to rewrite an “image” of your system back to your hdd every 30 days.
Perhaps they will discover one day that this way, their free version is an obstacle to sales, instead of encouraging them, and change this set-up, i.e. offer a distinct free version, as some others do.
This is quite an important especially for this program, since using the free version over some time would perhaps convince people that yes, such a “graphical” outliner can be of real outliner use, too, i.e. gain some confidence in its very special gui, even for quite regular tasks.
As it is, I’m not quite sure of this latter point, not having (had) a real chance to get acquainted to it. And forget 30 days for such a task, especially since this is one of those programs where import of your “former work” is almost impossible - well, you could run a rather elaborate script night and day, for days, and proceeding by control-c and control-v, i.e. in the least elegant possible manner… and this only after writing this script to begin with.
Of course, what you say about its architecture, also explains a lot of this import problem (and why) they never bothered to resolve for new customers coming from other outliners/PIMs: probably too much work, from their point of view, for just a few new customers.
Or then - but here my pov becomes slightly cynical - they know so well about problems with large data storage in TB that they don’t deliver to prospects an easy way to see for themselves how “unhandy” TB becomes when you’ve got quite a lot of material into it - which, if you start fresh, will not become a problem after some time… and not become evident within the 30-days trial period.
This being said, a constant use of the free version might make people up their mind about some real good alternative uses, where you’d leave out most of your material but just access it from within TB, so this trial version then becoming the crippled free one is certainly not so smart a smart move on their side, since some free version users might decide then to buy the paid version, in order to enhance this “management” use.
(In theory only, there would be a chance of trialling a new version even if the previous version has reverted to its free=crippled status, but in practice, I’ve got several such “free” programs on my system, deleted afterwards or not, and of which the “trial period 30 days only” residuals hinder my trialling now their updated versions, so if TB does this better, they should say so.)
Sorry to get off-topic, but this is an important point many developers handle very wrongly.
Posted by Dominik Holenstein
Oct 29, 2013 at 07:44 AM
Steve Z. wrote:
“(...) My guess is that more and more users are doing the Combo license, which is basically an annual subscription. This is what I have. It is a bit pricey, but I rely so much on it that I pay for it. Therefore, this upgrade will be “free.” As such, the magnitude of the improvements are less important, because they in themselves are not an incentive to renew my subscription. It’s enough that there is annual improvement. That said, these are all nice, thoughtful additions to the TheBrain. Although the Twitter search function seems a stretch.”
I have the Pro Combo licence as well. Yes, it is pricy but the service provided is very good. The sync feature and the online availability is reliable and can be a life saver. Further, there are continuous improvements on the online version during the year and if you send an email to the support you get a reply within a few hours. You can text chat with the support directly during the office hours. I once had a problem starting up TheBrain and I started a chat online. The problem was resolved within a few minutes.
The new features in TheBrain 8 are not huge but the combination of all them gives me the impression of a well thought and planned upgrade. I am using the TheBrain 8 Beta at work already and it is very stable.
Regarding Java/XML etc.: I don’t see this as an issue. Sure, Java and XML are not considered as high performance but the speed in TheBrain is very good. The size of the database doesn’t matter. Further, because TheBrain is based on Java you can use it on OSX, Win and Linux. This is key for me as I have a Mac at home and a Win notbook at work.
Dominik
Posted by Paul Korm
Nov 3, 2013 at 09:26 PM
I’ve upgraded my stand-alone license for TheBrain 7 to the Pro Combo product so I can take advantage of the final version of TheBrain 8 when it comes along. I was impressed by the web brain implementation—it seems more functional and solidly implemented than the last time I trailed it a few years ago. I also like that it plays well with Safari on iPad. (iPhone would be a little too tight.) I’ve invested a lot of time in my brains and have gone through a long arc of CRIMPing investigation trying out the “competition” (used loosely, since there’s really no similar product to TheBrain)—just to return to TheBrain because of its massive linking ability.
It’s interesting that TheBrain plays well with Safari on iOS because with every browser I’ve tried on Mavericks (including Safari 7) web exports with SiteBrain HTML are broken. Backgrounds display but no Thoughts.
I’ve resurrected an old project to write various clippers to grab links and content from apps I frequently use and package them up as Brain XML for imports as Thought hierarchies. I’m in the process of cleaning up my DEVONthink clipper, which was strangely broken by Mavericks AppleScript mods that seem related to sandboxing. My Evernote clipper is also dead, and will get fixed next, then on to a Mail clipper. I’ll post links to some of these as they get fixed.