best outliner you use? (2018)

Posted by jaslar
May 10, 2018 at 02:15 PM

I think there is a distinction between what this group does (CRIMP and CRIMP again) and what makes a sustainable model for a software developer. I think of something like SmartDown or Outlinely. I bought both versions of SmartDown before the developer abandoned the product to work on IAWriter. But I still have the software, and can continue to use it. It was my tip of the hat to some clever work that I admired. I don’t use Outlinely at all, mainly because I seem to work more on Windows machines at work, and a Chromebook at home these days. But I don’t mind having contributed a year’s subscription to it. I just wish I could keep it, to divert me for a day or two sometime in the future, or apply to some work project that’s a good fit for it.

I used Workflowy for about three years, on the subscription model. After I canceled, I can no longer use the product at all - although I was at least able to export and import it to another platform. The same thing will happen with Outlinely.

So it seems that the subscription model may benefit the software developer more than the user. As for how the dollars actually work out for software developers, I can’t say. But some fine products, once supported by their users, might just disappear altogether under this model. And that seems a shame.