The problem is way deeper than the UI itself. You think a socket, a thread and a file somehow magically become multi-platform because of c++ ? Chromium embed is 100Mb for a reason just like Java and Qt. The dependencies define the app and not hipster culture. Mocking UI is a sport for people who do not understand the underlying problem. Huge industrial sewer pipeline is too ugly for my living room, etc.
Apple, Microsoft and Google made three different phone UI API´s for the same problem just to lock people in. Apple and Google then beat Microsoft at their own game because they themselves defined the marked. Legal bullshit and patents is the main driving force behind all this non-standard API idiocy. Everyone claims to be unique and non-obvious.
Native apps on many platforms are easy when most of the work is server side. So native is now big because of servers, multi-touch dependencies and code signing complexity. Hybrid is big when the client does all the work. HTML/CSS works when you are showing a document, a list or a form.
Having read actual Samsung code I would guess it was written in India by someone who uses copy/paste instead of a small library. I understand that runtime dependencies are a problem in embedded programming, but the Bada platform suffers because it was written by lots of people who were all not talking to each other.
Fax and email as services does not really age. They are simply integrated as servers, messaging applications and printers. A VCR is now Netflix minus the record button. Byproducts of the underlying network topography, storage options and short term legal agreements. A future without fax is a service restriction, not modernity.
You are missing the point. The __words__ `FAX and email` in fiction (especially Sci-Fi) are at a much higher risk to age and disappear or seem anachronistic than `ridulian crystal` wich has zero chance of ever getting old since it's a made-up word that can refer to any imaginary artifacts or underlying tech.
> A VCR is now Netflix minus the record button.
And `ridulian crystal` can be FAX, e-mail, Netflix, kindle and VCR and the next tech whenever you read the book or see a screen adaptation and it won't get old. It's never going to put you back in the real world old where VCR and Faxes are basically dead and unknown by today's teenagers.
Desktop software is desktop because of mouse. Touch software replaces mouse with hand gestures on screen or panel. But web apps still trying to be 1990 desktop replacement. Soon biometric feedback makes this painfully obvious. Security and compatibility is key. But Apple and Microsoft refuse to agree on anything except basic web standards. Third player needed for anything to change.
Do you love VAT, taxes and payment problems ? Three people buying your software and then the $10 000 consulting payment keeping you afloat is delayed another month ? 1 star reviews, angry emails from paying customers and dangerous programming errors ? Being alone is brutal. You probably need partners who believe in the same idea as you.
Some of the issues you mentioned seem to arise when you do single consulting gig at a time (which I've run into before). It sounds like you have had a particularly bad experience, but I agree these are things I'm willing to put up as part of getting the company up and running. Sorry if I was unclear, but I'm primarily interested in developing a product or SaaS or even PaaS, rather than a consulting company so hopefully I wouldn't run into the issues to the extent that you did
Mozilla is the Mozilla of web apps. Without them we would have brain dead IE and Safari API´s. Stuff like VML and -webkit-match-nearest-mail-blockquote-color. Standards are what makes web apps possible. Who pays for running servers is another issue.
I wrote some clever code that fixed a problem on Windows. When running on Mac the same code leaked memory and blocked the event loop. 1 star - "crashed my entire computer".
