
Easel Is Shutting Down - jcater
http://blog.easel.io/blog/2014/09/17/easel-is-shutting-down/
======
pkorzeniewski
With every SaaS shutdown I wonder if desktop software will have a big
comeback, because it's getting a bit ridiculous - you find a SaaS tool, use it
daily, pay for it, store all your work there and one day they just shutdown.
Middle finger to you. Sure, you can export your data, but what's the use
without the tool? When you have a desktop application, you can use it as long
as you want - even if the company goes out. Sure, you won't get support and
future updates, but at least you can continue to use it until you find
something new.

~~~
cstrahan
Sandstorm will make a big difference in this regard:

"Sandstorm is a radically easier way to run your own personal server. It lets
you install and manage apps entirely through a web interface — it's as easy as
installing apps on your phone."

See: [https://sandstorm.io/"](https://sandstorm.io/")

(I'm not directly affiliated with the team, but I am a big fan of Kenton
Varda's work in this space, and his work on Cap'n Proto.)

~~~
AceJohnny2
I'm a big fan of Kenton Varda's work, but my problem with Sandstorm is I don't
understand how it's conceptually different and better than, say, Docker.

~~~
peterwaller
I mean no disrespect, but purely from how you phrased this - I hear things
said of this form a lot - this sounds more like your problem than Sandstorm's.

~~~
AceJohnny2
That's quite valid :) However considering Sandstorm was crowdfunding, and I
was interested in their idea and so did a minimum of reasearch and followed
all their posts, I'll retort that in this case, it's their problem.

As a counter-example, it was pretty clear to me what Cap'n Proto improved over
ProtoBufs.

~~~
kentonv
Well, Cap'n Proto had an obvious competitor to compare against. :)

For Sandstorm you should compare against things like ownCloud, Cozy Cloud,
IndieBox, etc. Docker is not really a relevant comparison.

------
danso
For reference sake, their previous post, dated Jan. 1, 2014, states that they
(the team, presumably) were acquired by Github, and they had a vague promise
that things would remain the same:

[http://blog.easel.io/blog/2014/01/06/easel-acquired-by-
githu...](http://blog.easel.io/blog/2014/01/06/easel-acquired-by-github/)

> _What does this means to you, our users? Easel continues to run as it has.
> We’ll continue to provide support and all of our paid plans will continue to
> enjoy their current benefits. We’re excited to begin this new chapter and
> hope you’ll love what we have in store._

Edit: More reference...their highly upvoted Show HN from two years ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4113866](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4113866)

I've always seen these products as amazing technical achievements...but of
limited market. For more programming/scripting-focused devs like me, such a
product can never uproot the (perhaps crusty, but trusted) toolset and
workflow we've invested in. For visually-focused designers, they get paid
plenty do do beautiful designs that are then sliced from Photoshop...so they
don't even need to bother with making exportable code. And then for all the
others...product managers and etc....the need to prototype a site happens
what...at most, once every two to three months...That is not a sustainable
rate of use for a tool that inevitably has some bit of learning curve.

second edit: durr, OP was acquired by Github not Easel

~~~
ljk
> _...were acquired by Easel_

you meant acquired by GitHub right? :p

------
cursed
I can only hope that the code will be open sourced. Seemed like a really cool
product.

~~~
callmeed
Yes, I think a lot of developers/freelancers/startups desperately need an OS
tool like this that they can plug into their larger codebase/CMS. I see it as
the evolution of the WYSIWYG/rich-text editor.

------
dceddia
I hadn't heard of them, but I just walked through their tutorial called
"Improve Your Typography With a Few Simple Guidelines" and was really
impressed. It looks like a fun tool. It's a shame to have found it at this
point in its existence.

------
bhouston
Is Github about to release something similar?

This is a really quick shutdown. But I wonder how many active users they had?
The less active users, I guess the quicker you can shut things down.

------
general_failure
So, did the acquisition not happen? Is it being integrated as part of github?

------
colmvp
To be expected after being acquired by Github.

~~~
sp332
Well it wasn't expected after they said back in January that it wasn't going
to happen.

~~~
pyre
You should never believe any of the "we won't close the doors" post-acquire
statements. It's the exception to the rule when they keep them running.

~~~
saidajigumi
> It's the exception to the rule when they keep them running.

Not necessarily, acquisitions aren't all one kind of thing. The motive for the
acquisition greatly impacts the outcome. If it's a technology/IP acquisition
or a personnel acquisition, then yes, generally expect that the original
company's products will vanish. Why? Because the products were never part of
the recognized value of the purchase.

If it's a business process acquisition, then it's more likely the product(s)
will remain. This depends more on the motives and details of the acquiring vs.
the acquired companies. If the acquisition leaves the acquired as a wholly-
owned subsidiary, then one can expect the products to remain.

~~~
pyre
"everything will stay the same" doesn't just mean "doens't close down." Look
at Yahoo!'s attempts over the years to integrate products into their ecosystem
by forcing users to needs a Yahoo! account for new sign-ups.

~~~
icambron
The parent was responding to your blanket skepticism of "we won't close the
doors", not "everything will stay the same".

------
pbhjpbhj
Not seen this before, the tutorials still work -
[http://easel.io/tutorials/shadows?utm_source=easel-
blog&utm_...](http://easel.io/tutorials/shadows?utm_source=easel-
blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=2013-06-17-three-shadows) \- it looks good.
Wonder what GitHub will do with the code now?

------
slantedview
This is one of those "why even bother using any startup product" kind of
shutdowns. It's beyond old.

------
reustle
Build a cool product, raise money, hire a team, run out of money, shut down.
Why can't we just stop at step 1?

~~~
aleem
They got acquired by GitHub. From their January 2014 blog post [1]:

> We’re excited to be joining GitHub to continue to pursue that goal. What
> does this means to you, our users? Easel continues to run as it has.

So more of a case of build a cool product, get a talent acquisition and focus
on something more important (I presume).

[1]: [http://blog.easel.io/blog/2014/01/06/easel-acquired-by-
githu...](http://blog.easel.io/blog/2014/01/06/easel-acquired-by-github/)

------
recursive
In other news, Easel is a thing that exists.

------
itry
What was their license? Can it be forked?

------
ntaso
And another story for
[http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/](http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/)

 _We believe that iterating on design should be straightforward and free of
repetitive work. We’re excited to be joining GitHub to continue to pursue that
goal._

 _What does this means to you, our users? Easel continues to run as it has.
We’ll continue to provide support and all of our paid plans will continue to
enjoy their current benefits. We’re excited to begin this new chapter and hope
you’ll love what we have in store._ [1]

Weird. I checked them out yesterday, even thought about signing up. Good that
I didn't go through the hassle.

[1] [http://blog.easel.io/blog/2014/01/06/easel-acquired-by-
githu...](http://blog.easel.io/blog/2014/01/06/easel-acquired-by-github/)

~~~
sp332
Not sure it's OIJ material, since they at least apologized for deleting their
users' data. Of course that's not as good as not-deleting it in the first
place. This was posted in 2009 and is unfortunately still relevant: _they
chose to rip it down posthaste, with a specific amount of “warning time”... it
also happened in an environment where this approach was considered legitimate
and valid. This is the heart of what I’m trying to get to: they saw absolutely
nothing wrong with this._

[http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1649](http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/1649)

