Ostinato is a packet crafter and traffic generator software to test networks and network devices. It's Qt based cross-platform desktop software.
Running the numbers recently, I found that 50% of those who downloaded the Ostinato trial version did not even install it!
Thinking about why, one of my hypothesis was that the download, install and run is one step too many in this SAAS age. Now Ostinato can't be made SAAS - not completely anyway since the agent which sends the actual packets needs to run on some hardware connected to the devices or network it is meant to test. But the GUI could be potentially SAASified. But to try Ostinato, just the GUI isn't enough - you need some ethernet ports.
So I wrote a demo agent with dummy ethernet ports and SAASified the GUI using Qt's Webassembly support and combined the two so that potential Ostinato users can try it directly in the browser! The whole app runs entirely on the client browser (assuming it's a modern browser capable of webassembly).
The demo preloads some pre-created packet streams that you can 'play' around with. You can also edit those or create your own from scratch.
Essentially my idea behind this web demo is to let people quickly try the product to see if it matches their needs before they make a purchase decision.
Happy to answer any questions and listen to any and all suggestions and feedback!
Disclosure: I created Ostinato in 2007 as a scratch-your-own-itch project and released it as GPLv3 open-source back in 2010 - you can still build from source without having to pay anything. I sell binary licenses on ostinato.org since 2016 to sustain the project. I quit my day job last year to try and make a living off this project.
Running the numbers recently, I found that 50% of those who downloaded the Ostinato trial version did not even install it!
Thinking about why, one of my hypothesis was that the download, install and run is one step too many in this SAAS age. Now Ostinato can't be made SAAS - not completely anyway since the agent which sends the actual packets needs to run on some hardware connected to the devices or network it is meant to test. But the GUI could be potentially SAASified. But to try Ostinato, just the GUI isn't enough - you need some ethernet ports.
So I wrote a demo agent with dummy ethernet ports and SAASified the GUI using Qt's Webassembly support and combined the two so that potential Ostinato users can try it directly in the browser! The whole app runs entirely on the client browser (assuming it's a modern browser capable of webassembly).
The demo preloads some pre-created packet streams that you can 'play' around with. You can also edit those or create your own from scratch.
Essentially my idea behind this web demo is to let people quickly try the product to see if it matches their needs before they make a purchase decision.
Earlier HN threads on Ostinato - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13947567 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7049099
Happy to answer any questions and listen to any and all suggestions and feedback!
Disclosure: I created Ostinato in 2007 as a scratch-your-own-itch project and released it as GPLv3 open-source back in 2010 - you can still build from source without having to pay anything. I sell binary licenses on ostinato.org since 2016 to sustain the project. I quit my day job last year to try and make a living off this project.