Ask HN: What opportunities still exist in desktop software?

It is good to start with the truth: currently making money selling desktop software is really hard and, in general, doesn&#x27;t payoff the amount of work you need to be there. We have a lot of examples of companies doing herculian work beyond Sublime Text and Atom which don&#x27;t have enough revenue. Part of this is related to the web and mobile trends but also the desktop software maturity. In Microsoft Windows you can find a lot of tools but very few assume that they need to pay for them, they can be very popular (look at the most downloaded desktop software) but the profits&#x2F;users has a very low ratio. In general, the successful ones rely on a mature sales force or they are unicorns. I think it is a good start studying the current desktop ecosystem to see how hard it is.<p>Notwithstanding that, I recommend to think about a services&#x2F;product business model more than in selling &quot;millions of units&quot; only. Although a little old now, I recommend Michael Cusumano&#x27;s work on this [1]. My small company uses (complex) desktop and server software products as a marketing tool for services and support.<p>Now the question is what is the minimum profit you will accept to make. Is it $ 100k &#x2F; year, $ 200k or $ 1mm ? From that picture you can deconstruct how many units of your app&#x2F;service&#x2F;support you need to sell to be there. As a thumb rule I will say that selling few units for a higher price will be much easier than selling a lot of units for a few dollars. If you want to try, I would recommend start selling to SMB companies who have a budget for this.<p>Regarding finding ideas, talk to people who have real software problems in their companies.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ebusiness.mit.edu&#x2F;research&#x2F;papers&#x2F;197_Cusumano_ProdSrvcsBusMod.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;ebusiness.mit.edu&#x2F;research&#x2F;papers&#x2F;197_Cusumano_ProdSr...</a>

Hey, there is more than that!<p>Lots of programming isn&#x27;t very visible to outsiders, but it often provides wonderful opportunities. Web and mobile are the trendy career alternatives to the desktop, but there is a whole world beyond that. You might think from Hacker News that all the world is web and mobile, but no no no...<p>Think of the people writing software for air-to-air missiles. Well OK, it is sort of &quot;mobile&quot;, but not in the usual way. These people tend to get paid extra for any overtime and they often get to live in places where houses are affordable.<p>Think of the people writing software for industrial robots. Sometimes they get to fire lasers. Again, they get to live where houses are affordable.<p>Think of the people writing software for medical devices, engine controllers, satellite modems, printers (inside the printer), routers, telephone switches, spacecraft, UAVs, hard drives (in the drive itself), commercial HVAC, NSA tools, hospital billing, and so much more.

Managing a fleet of Windows desktops to reliably deliver an office suite and web browser to ~35 clerical workers is a gapingly unsolved problem. Seriously, it&#x27;s hilariously, soul-crushingly painful.<p>Fix it. Preferably for less money than buying Macs.

Dash <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.kapeli.com&#x2F;my-year-in-review-2014" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.kapeli.com&#x2F;my-year-in-review-2014</a> is an oft cited example.

I make a living from FileSearchEX ... the &quot;best&quot; desktop search experience for Windows. Granted ... it needs more features.

Just to pitch in at the last minute :)<p>I could make a living from my windows installable watermarking software <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.watermark-image.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.watermark-image.com</a> (I am kinda, I also run a consultancy and is bootstrapping <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;timeblock.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;timeblock.com</a> with the reveneu from those two business)<p>I have been working on it for five years and 5x the revenue after attending MicroConf in europe 2 years ago.<p>Currently I work on the software and do supports 5-10 hours a month making $4-5k i could probably grow it some more, but is using my energy on TimeBlock.

Assuming the windows store becomes popular, it does support various business models, like advertising, in-app payments and subscriptions. Those once were a large advantage of the web.<p>Also maybe deployment would become easy and secure. Another big web advantage.<p>So maybe change is coming.

Developer tools definitely.<p>Technologies aiming the enterprise also have an opportunity with desktop software, Slack is a clear example.<p>Not much opportunities in the consumer tech space for desktop apps.

Scientific software, maybe? Everything I use to control equipment in my lab is terrible and expensive. I don&#x27;t know how you&#x27;d go about getting into that without getting a contract from a manufacturer to develop their software for their devices though, since I&#x27;m sure all this stuff relies on undocumented and poorly-designed drivers to start with.

Anything that requires a lot of processing power and very low latency would be my suggestion.<p>My first thoughts would be video games and CAD.

Desktop software(inc sublime text) is cracked everywhere, you cant expect to make a living out of it. You can make it as side project and get paid by donation.<p>on the other hand, you can build your game and sell it on Steam with DRM support.<p>with that I&#x27;m sure.<p>Good Luck!

Graphics, CAD, photo and video editing programs work better as desktop apps than as web-based apps. Also, games and system utilities such as antivirus and backup.

You could make tools for up and coming technologies. The Resharper of Rust, or FindBugs of Go