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Comment by cropcirclbureau

24 days ago

Folks have been espousing the quality, stock software that macOS and iOS sports as the final word on this conversation since a while now. (And almost always, focusing on the epub readers). I'll admit that it's a general leg up for the getting started UX and makes it easier to recommend to grandma but it's not really that big of a deal as you make it out to be. And yes, I also hate having to configure shit.

Sure, you have to spend some time to find the best tools at first but it's not really something you have to do regularly. This goes for Windows, Linux and Android, I've been using the same few apps for basic computing tasks for a decade now on all of these platforms and I can confidently most are still the community's choice in their niche. Truly, aren't SumatraPDF, Calibere and MoonReader a web search away?

And sure, the app stores on these platforms are a relative mess but it sure does seem the larger useebase they're serving is getting along fine. And not to mention the many other cases where you'll actually have to pay for some basic utility on macOS. Apple products are generally the best in class, don't get me wrong but this is hardly the differentiator the way I look at it.

> Truly, aren't SumatraPDF, Calibere and MoonReader a web search away?

I already knew about them, but just take a look. Their interface are, to say the least, ugly and no consistency ever. UI is not just about the look, it also helps a user understand quickly and efficiently how to do things.

> And not to mention the many other cases where you'll actually have to pay for some basic utility on macOS.

It's better to have paid app than nothing or lackluster. If forklift for instance was available on windows I would definitely pay for it. Instead you have file Zilla and winscp, that are free, but damn it's a pain going from one elegant software to an ugly, not really thought, one.