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Another Plea for a Windows Version [A: no plans in foreseeable future.] Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
OK, full disclosure, this posting it more a self-serving plea for multiplatform integration within an enterprise environment…be warned.

This is not a new request by any means, but I will attempt to explain why I feel it is a valid request:

OmniGraffle makes no sense on Windows as it is simply the Mac flavor of a Windows app already (Visio) unless you guys are just bored. OmniGraphSketcher has 1,000 alternatives on Windows. So these two are not significant.

When considering multi-platform there are two critical questions. First, does a single user need to move back and forth? Second, are there multiple users on different platforms?

Application developers often live in an Apple-centric world and make the assumption that since they are all looking at Retina displays the whole world uses Macs. They need to get out more. In any enterprise – from a corporation to a school district – Windows based machines account for 95% or more of the installation base. Sure there are special cases (the advertising department using a Mac or native Linux machines booting to a VDI image…of Windows). The norm is Windows though. The reason is the wide array of existing enterprise management tools, office suites and general application compatibility. Apple shines as an individual machine or within isolated silos such as App-Dev in an enterprise. I am not making an argument for or against any technology, just stating a simple fact that can easily be verified though most Apple users chose to ignor.

OmniFocus is, by its nature, a very personal application. While many people own their iPhones and iPads, they tend to work on a company issued laptop that is almost always Windows. I admit that in most situations they are not local administrators so they cannot install OF. For those that can, I can easily see an OF Windows install on the laptop with a sync to iPhone/iPads. Another common scenario is an iPad/iPhone owner not being able to pay 2x-3x more for equivalent Apple laptop hardware and going with a Dell or other Windows based machine. Same net result.

With OmniOutliner and MUCH more so with OmniPlan there is simply no way these can thrive in a multi-user situation without multi-platform support. OO files are often shared. OP is designed as groupware to begin with. While you may have a group of app-dev folks on Mac’s, their manager is often on a Windows box. You know, the person actually creating the project plans? Due to application compatibility with non-Omni apps you will also have team members on multiple platforms. Anyone with Enterprise experience will immediately understand my point here.

Public cloud syncing is cute…and pure stupidity for an enterprise. If you want to trust your own thoughts and goals to the cloud that is your decision. You do not have the right to make that decision for a company you work for even if the cloud services were not being blocked. Clouds go out of business (Look at MobileMe). Clouds get hacked. (Look at Evernote.) Clouds have easily misconfigured settings. (Google search "password" site:google.com filetype:xls and see how many people upload docs with their passwords to a public folder by mistake). So internal sync is mandatory, and I believe Omni is there, or close, with OmniPresence.

Finally I want to say that the concept of having an open standard or an API is admirable put does nothing more than give lip service to this problem. Omni does not drive the space enough to have other high quality software dev shops build to their API. We actually need a feature parity based Omni offering before an enterprise is going to select the platform. For support reasons if nothing else.

So the bottom line is that in order to move beyond just addressing the needs for a single person in a vacuum (which Omni does very well) there needs to be cross-platform support and a sync solution that is entirely internal (and hopefully includes encryption and multi-factor authentication hooks…but maybe I am pushing it there.) I believe that delivering this would open a lot of new doors for Omni where they currently are immediately dismissed.

Just my $0.02.
 
I'm really sorry, but we don't have any plans to tackle additional platforms in the foreseeable future. This post from our CEO goes into the thinking behind that. Apologies for the disappointment.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DHewes View Post
Public cloud syncing is cute…and pure stupidity for an enterprise. If you want to trust your own thoughts and goals to the cloud that is your decision. You do not have the right to make that decision for a company you work for even if the cloud services were not being blocked. Clouds go out of business (Look at MobileMe). Clouds get hacked. (Look at Evernote.) Clouds have easily misconfigured settings. (Google search "password" site:google.com filetype:xls and see how many people upload docs with their passwords to a public folder by mistake). So internal sync is mandatory, and I believe Omni is there, or close, with OmniPresence.
The OmniPlan sync doesn't have to be exposed to the public or go out of business. It uses a standard WebDAV server such as comes on every Mac shipped, and you are free to have your own server.
 
 


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