Clibu, open beta

Posted by WSP
Nov 28, 2014 at 02:55 PM

This is a good analysis of the problem faced by developers. The Evernote management has always been in a state of deep confusion about this question. When they made the transition years ago from Windows-only to a ubiquitious app, they deliberately stripped Evernote of much of its functionality. I remember that Libin then proclaimed that he didn’t much care for power users and was quite happy to have just the “lazy slobs” of the world as his customers. Nevertheless, Evernote has been gradually adding sophisticated features ever since (including some that had been earlier thrown overboard), and nowadays it is struggling to move into the very demanding business world. At the same time, there are still odd little spasms of oversimplification: the latest Evernote updates often conceal menus and display enormous expanses of blank screen, supposedly to make it more user-friendly.

If all developers are faced with this dilemma, as you suggest, then Evernote is the supreme example of an interesting (and potentially very powerful) piece of software trapped in an endless identity crisis.