undefined | Better HN

0 pointslatexr8mo ago0 comments

> And for anyone who’s going to say “Sketch was Mac only that’s why it failed!”

Why would anyone say that? Sketch is still alive and (presumably) well. Apple themselves continue to officially release design files for Sketch with every OS release. They share more resources for Sketch than any other app, including Figma and Photoshop.

http://developer.apple.com/design/resources/

> after they depreciated Fireworks

I’ve been seeing that word used a lot in this context, so just wanted to point out (I’d appreciate if someone did the same for me) that what you mean is “deprecated” (no “i”), as depreciating is a different thing.

0 comments

diggan8mo ago

> Why would anyone say that? Sketch is still alive and (presumably) well

When people deep into the startup-woods say "Fail" what they really mean is "Didn't take over the world". Their perspective of "winning / failing" is a bit more black and white than the average person.

With that said, Sketch certainly didn't become more popular because the macOS requirement even for viewing the files. I remember that there was some hacks to be able to at least view them on Linux, and other things like Zepplin (or similar) made it even easier, but it was still cumbersome.

Then Figma appeared, offered more or less the same features, slightly worse performance than Sketch, but worked absolutely everywhere and was easy to open and inspect things for everyone on the team. Obviously, Figma ate a lot of the Sketch user-base, which is something I saw in multiple companies myself.

latexrOP8mo ago

> When people deep into the startup-woods say "Fail" what they really mean is "Didn't take over the world". Their perspective of "winning / failing" is a bit more black and white than the average person.

Good point (also, “deep into the startup-woods” is a great way to put it). I suspect there’s a major overlap between those people and the ones who are obsessed with products “killing” another. The same kind of people who are hyped by any new shiny pebble as if it’s the second coming of Christ and immediately eschew everything which came before. The people who are so blind to context they shouted “zOMG Google is dead because of ChatGPT” because they were incapable of thinking for two seconds that Google has a ton of cash to survive in the long run, were already leading research in the field, and (of course) wouldn’t just fold their arms and stay still. In short, people not worth listening to.

F7F7F78mo ago

This is 1 part hilarious and 1 part bewildering. You wrote an entire silly imaginary novel about my life based on a poorly worded (to your standards) sentence.

Sketch dominated the landscape. Now they are a small percentage of the landscape. I characterized that as a 'fail'. Sure, maybe an inexact word but what else do you call going from 60%+ of the market share down to below 20%? And btw I currently pay Sketch $120 for a personal license (so they obviously haven't failed in that sense).

And spare me the 'context' thing. Because my context on this subject is as a individual contributor, leader of multiple large design orgs with dozens of designers all in the same tools, as an early Sketch, Figma, Invision and Framer X customer. The context is up there with the Console Wars but I don't have the room for that here.

What's your context?

Have a great day!

1 more reply

F7F7F78mo ago

People say it all of the time. Go onto any other platform discussing this topic and you'll see it as the most cited reason for Figma's dominance.

Yes, Sketch's logo has been featured in a Apple keynote before. I'm familiar with their relationship with Apple and it seems like their team is perfectly happy not being the gargantuan that Figma is.

Sometimes I feel like people just want to find any reason to disagree on here.

Lastly, maybe you should just make a depreciation (sic) bot.

pjmlp8mo ago

Of course we would say that, with the exception of my current employer, and I am approaching 50 years, no one else has used Apple gear on the office, designers working at my previous employers had to put up with Windows if they wanted a job, and I can vouch we always had plenty of candidates looking for one.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

diggan8mo ago

> Why would anyone say that? Sketch is still alive and (presumably) well

latexrOP8mo ago

F7F7F78mo ago

This is 1 part hilarious and 1 part bewildering. You wrote an entire silly imaginary novel about my life based on a poorly worded (to your standards) sentence.

What's your context?

Have a great day!

1 more reply

F7F7F78mo ago

People say it all of the time. Go onto any other platform discussing this topic and you'll see it as the most cited reason for Figma's dominance.

Yes, Sketch's logo has been featured in a Apple keynote before. I'm familiar with their relationship with Apple and it seems like their team is perfectly happy not being the gargantuan that Figma is.

Sometimes I feel like people just want to find any reason to disagree on here.

Lastly, maybe you should just make a depreciation (sic) bot.

pjmlp8mo ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse