Hacker News Reader

Comment by whatyearisit | Hacker News Reader

I really wanted to like Onivim 2, but went back to Visual Studio code after supporting the creator on Patreon for a while. The last build and creator update was provided months ago for supporters.

I also wanted to vote against the pricing model, because I think it should be a one time purchase. The creator and his company behind the editor tries to create a serious FOMO on likely customers. I considered it to be a red flag on a potential abandonment. Additionally, I felt it would be easier for Visual Studio code become faster than Onivim 2 can have support for all Visual Studio code extensions.

On the plus side, Onivim 2 has some smart defaults which made it a joy to use. I encourage anyone who thinks about buying Onivim 2 to first learn how to fine tune VS Code to look and feel like Onivim 2 because you can.

View on HN

Hey, Onivim contributor here.

I assume by FOMO you mean the increased license price as time goes on, but as far as I understand (that decision was made before me), the idea is that the product becomes more valuable over time as a result of more features being added. You can still buy a one time license as of right now.

As far as abandonment is concerned, I can let you know that hasn’t been discussed. Bryan recently went on his first vacation since working on Oni, but work has resumed since he returned.

Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions — the Discord is always open!

>the idea is that the product becomes more valuable over time as a result of more features being added

I have a hard time believing that's the main motivation

Why?

I backed it early and paid less for a half-implemented editor but wanted to show support.

The later you back the more that's actually built.

What main motivation do you think the seller has? It's basically an early bird discount.

Many things improve but go down in price. Can't articulate fully but it instinctively feels like a rationalisation rather than a reason.

>It's basically an early bird discount.

When has that not been a marketing tactic

Exactly. It is a marketing tactic. A very fair and obvious one, at that. So what? Hardworking programmers are not allowed to market their stuff?

I don't see the issue. Price of a company's stock goes up as the company continues to become more useful over time and no one thinks this is unreasonable. Why not same for a product?

Was the same licensing method for Minecraft in beta

And is the same model used by many 'early access' titles, pay less up front for the incomplete game to fund the completion of the future full-price game.

Interestingly, I've seen some devs turn the concept on its head and charge more up front, kind of to say "only buy in now if you are really doing this to support development, and in return you'll get an early release build - but you aren't buying the game early."

How can we get a one time license? I tried it when it was still the oni repo 2 years ago and would be keen to try again. And is there a summary of how it was different from oni (1?)

You can do a one-time purchase, IIRC it was ~$45 around a month ago when I purchased it. I wanted to buy outright instead of go the Patreon route.

As far as abandonment, I had a fairly subtle issue with it shortly after starting to try it, and on github I opened an issue and got help troubleshooting it in a day, we were able to identify the problem and there was a fix in the build the following day.

> I really wanted to like Onivim 2, but went back to Visual Studio code after supporting the creator on Patreon for a while.

Same, though I went back to MacVim. I thought they might bring something new to the table, bit it felt so much like VSCode + a vim plug-in, except with a subscription.

I was really just hoping for MacVim bit with a nicer UI.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com