<p><strong>LESSONS FOR MICRO FOCUS FROM INDIE MAC DEVELOPMENT </strong></p><p>JOHNNIE ODOM SCHOOL DISTRICT OF ESCAMBIA COUNTY </p><p><strong>ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE HAS A LOT OF HIDDEN COSTS </strong></p><p>•</p><p>Localization </p><p>•</p><p>Documentation </p><p>•</p><p>Accessibility </p><p>•</p><p>Marketing </p><p>•</p><p>QA </p><p>•</p><p>Support </p><p>•</p><p>Security </p><p>•</p><p>Legacy </p><p>•</p><p>Industrial Certification and Auditing </p><p><strong>INDIE SOFTWARE: A WORKING DEFINITION </strong></p><p>•</p><p>Small teams </p><p>•</p><p>Often one person </p><p>•</p><p>Niche markets with loyal customers </p><p>•</p><p>Both parts of this important </p><p>•</p><p>Emphasis on exploiting the unique culture and personality of a specific platform </p><p>•</p><p>While we look at the Mac, do some of these points look familiar? </p><p><strong>OUR EXAMPLES </strong></p><p>Panic </p><p>•</p><p>Fetchsoftworks </p><p>•</p><p>The Omni Group </p><p>•</p><p>Delicious Monster </p><p>•</p><p>Bare Bones Software </p><p>•</p><p>We could also discuss Red Sweater Software, Vesper, </p><p>•</p><p>Rogue Amoeba, Smile, and Marco Arment </p><p><strong>COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF EXAMPLES </strong></p><p>Longevity and profitability of business </p><p>•</p><p>Longevity of codebase </p><p>•</p><p>Best in class applications </p><p>•</p><p>Quick adoption of new platform functionality without </p><p>•</p><p>fundamental rewrites Unafraid to sell or retire applications </p><p>•</p><p>Emphasis on design and interface </p><p>•</p><p>“Serious” applications </p><p>•</p><p><strong>NOVELL’S MAC ATTITUDE </strong></p><p>Market is too small for significant focus </p><p>•</p><p>Shared Java codebase with Linux clients is a good solution (GW, iPrint, </p><p>•</p><p>Zen) Users would want too many features in a v1 client </p><p>•</p><p>Platform has no future </p><p>•</p><p>User Awareness in application is not a priority </p><p>•</p><p>(By implication) Platform-specific features too costly to implement or </p><p>•</p><p>not important You can also extend some of these attitudes towards Linux and mobile </p><p>•</p><p><strong>WHAT IS THE APPEAL OF THE MACINTOSH? </strong></p><p>Unity of Hardware and Software </p><p>•</p><p>Driver stability </p><p>•</p><p>Ability to move hardware forward (Floppies, GPT) </p><p>•</p><p>Expectation / Assumption of Functionality (iSight, Bluetooth, High-Resolution Displays) </p><p>•</p><p>Perfectionism </p><p>•</p><p>Deciding what “The Right Thing” is and implementing it. </p><p>•</p><p>Perfection on core features may mean delays on other features or simplification of entire </p><p>•</p><p>feature set. “Design is not how it looks, it is how it works.” </p><p>•</p><p>Liberal Arts </p><p>•</p><p>Software is for humans to fulfill human goals </p><p>•</p><p>Make it easy for the human user, not the machine or the developer. </p><p>•</p><p><strong>DEVELOPER APPEAL </strong></p><p>User base is willing to pay for high quality software </p><p>•</p><p>True on OS X, not iOS </p><p>•</p><p>Toolset </p><p>•</p><p>“Easy things are easy, hard things are possible” </p><p>•</p><p>Developers like being Mac users </p><p>•</p><p><strong>FEATURES (SOMEWHAT) UNIQUE TO THE PLATFORM </strong></p><p>Lots of hardware </p><p>•</p><p>Applescript / OSAScript / Automator </p><p>•</p><p>Strong visual interface with animation </p><p>•</p><p>File metadata </p><p>•</p><p>Application and preference encapsulation </p><p>•</p><p>Sandboxing and code-signing </p><p>•</p><p><strong>AND NOW, A WALK THROUGH SOME INDIE DEVS </strong></p><p><strong>FETCHSOFTWORKS </strong></p><p>One major product: Fetch FTP Client </p><p>•</p><p>Compare to FileZilla, SCP </p><p>•</p><p>Surely such a niche platform only has one good commercial file transfer client </p><p>•</p><p>Came out of Dartmouth (Academia) </p><p>•</p><p>First release 1989 </p><p>•</p><p>Remember when universities made software? </p><p>•</p><p>Free for educational use </p><p>•</p><p>Who Wants to be a Millionaire? </p><p>•</p><p>The Vax Challenge </p><p>•</p><p>Who is Fetchsoftworks? </p><p>•</p><p>Jim Matthews </p><p>•</p><p><strong>PANIC (THE SOFTWARE) PART 1 </strong></p><p>The Audion Story </p><p>•</p><p>So, these guys make toys, right? </p><p>•</p><p>Transmit </p><p>•</p><p>The other great, commercial Mac file transfer program </p><p>•</p><p>Unison </p><p>•</p><p>The best NNTP / Usenet client ever made </p><p>•</p><p>Recently retired and <em>free </em></p><p>•</p><p>Take a look at the Novell forums </p><p>•</p><p>Can you imagine putting that much care in a Usenet client in 2014? </p><p>•</p><p><strong>PANIC (THE SOFTWARE) PART 2 </strong></p><p>Coda </p><p>•</p><p>All-In-One Web Development </p><p>•</p><p>But not like Dreamweaver </p><p>•</p><p>Piecemeal, like web designers actually work </p><p>•</p><p>Lots of functionality only in GUI </p><p>•</p><p>Bespoke GUI elements </p><p>•</p><p>And much, much more </p><p>•</p><p><strong>PANIC (THE COMPANY) </strong></p><p>Caleb Sasser and Steven Frank </p><p>•</p><p>Offices in Portland, Oregon </p><p>•</p><p>Profitable, No Debt, Growing </p><p>•</p><p>Support via Twitter amongst others </p><p>•</p><p>Blog with year-end reports </p><p>•</p><p>iOS vs. Mac stats </p><p>•</p><p><strong>THE OMNI GROUP (THE COMPANY) </strong></p><p>Began as NeXT Consultants, not Mac Developers </p><p>•</p><p>Even More Serious Software (with prices to match) </p><p>•</p><p>Track suits yes, Fish tank walls no </p><p>•</p><p>Consulting to software (sound familiar) </p><p>•</p><p>OSX, iPhone, iPad products all separate components of distinct </p><p>•</p><p>lines Regular and Pro versions </p><p>•</p><p>Mac Development Mailing Lists </p><p>•</p><p><strong>THE OMNI GROUP (THE SOFTWARE) </strong></p><p>Make some products directly mapping to Microsoft products </p><p>•</p><p>Omnigraffle - Visio </p><p>•</p><p>OmniPlan - Project </p><p>•</p><p>Omniweb (retired) - IE </p><p>•</p><p>Omnifocus </p><p>•</p><p>Omnioutliner </p><p>•</p><p>Presence </p><p>•</p><p><strong>DELICIOUS MONSTER </strong></p><p>Wil Shipley </p><p>•</p><p>Prodigal Son of Omni </p><p>•</p><p><sup style="top: 0.0121em;">• </sup>Writes in coffee shops </p><p>Delicious Library </p><p>•</p><p>A Bog-Standard App </p><p>•</p><p>With one great feature </p><p>•</p><p>“Pimp My Code” </p><p>•</p><p>The Delicious Generation </p><p>•</p><p><strong>BARE BONES SOFTWARE </strong></p><p>BBEdit </p><p>•</p><p>Released in 1992 for System 6. </p><p>•</p><p>Entire books have been written on it. </p><p>•</p><p>Free version is TextWrangler. </p><p>•</p><p>Yojimbo </p><p>•</p><p>The craziest notes application you will ever use. </p><p>•</p><p><strong>SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN IN THE END? </strong></p><p>Why did the chicken cross the road? </p><p>•</p><p>To show the armadillo what could be done. </p><p>•</p><p>It is possible to build serious, beloved Mac </p><p>•</p><p>software with small teams and profitability. Any Questions? </p><p>•</p>