EccoPro: Why has nobody developed a clone so far?

Posted by Chris Thompson
Aug 26, 2007 at 09:50 PM

I absolutely agree with you. Ecco is one of a kind.

For what it’s worth, SQLnotes is an Ecco replacement. There have been a couple of other vaporware attempts over the years (Cold Mountain neXpect, Chandler, etc.), but SQLnotes is 1) not vaporware, though beta, and 2) has a superset of the Ecco functionality, not a subset, except for some features which have been farmed off to Outlook integration. Chandler is basically never-ending vaporware and the data model is silly; they would have been better off with the Ecco model.

TinderBox on the Mac is also an Ecco replacement. It’s in version 4.0 and has an enormous feature set, again a superset of Ecco, but the learning curve is steep and its approach is different. But all the goods, including a data model of comparable power combined with outlining are there. It’s a good product if you think visually.

The things that make Ecco special are the simple data model combined with outlining everywhere. If you’re willing to sacrifice the data model but want to keep powerful columnar outlining with filters, etc., there are several good choices on the Mac (TAO, OmniOutliner, etc.). The market for this kind of software on Windows seems to be moribund.