This is why a lot of people are upset. AgileBit was that dedicated developer that developed top-tier macOS apps (like OmniGroup). Many people have poured hundreds of dollars into their product because it was such a great Mac app.

And now that people are locked into cloud storage and a subscription [1] and AgileBits suddenly morphs from an independent Mac developer into a VC-funded Electron developer, a lot of people feel betrayed. Of course, perhaps people shouldn't be surprised, AgileBits is a business after all. But the AgileBits founders always projected this image of being a community and of them cherishing their users.

Who knows, maybe they still care and genuinely think this is the best choice for their Mac users, in which case there is a serious disconnect. Or perhaps, they are not that nice, warm company anymore and this is just a cold business choice.

[1] Which adds to the irony, because one of the main arguments for subscriptions is always that it brings in continuous funding for development, allowing continuous roll-out of new features to users.

Turns out that before subscriptions, Mac users would just not buy the new Electron version and it would hurt AgileBits. With subscriptions, Mac users can hate the Electron version and they will pay for it anyway.

Which is why hybrid is so popular. It’s not a good idea, generally, to have one developer, working native, on all platforms. You need a team. A fairly expensive team.

I ran a team that provided “engine” code (C++) for native apps (on a couple of platforms) for decades.

I’m fairly familiar with the trade-offs.