Or vice versa. The two platforms are sufficiently different that the two development teams are essentially independent of each other.
Katherine
Well, other than having a product to sell.
Katherine
Unless your clients literally die waiting. 
It’s been proved not once that it’s better to release an innovative product and then iron out the inevitable bugs, than spend years ironing out the bugs and lose the clients. Especially if releasing means money, With which you can strengthen the team and do work more quickly.
I’d say, the only reasons L&L has not been hurt by this is that the product is very niche and basically they have no competition. Clients have nowhere to go.
Not to say that current version is bad, of course. It’s quite good and fits most needs. I’ve used it for years with great pleasure, and would continue if I could.
Sadly, I won’t be upgrading this time. I have to move away from Scrivener not because of lack of v.3, but because of lack of cross-platform solution. My usage of Linux has been growing exponentially during this year (and will continue), and not having compatibility halts the writing process. So I’m moving to markdown editor, which will allow me versatility I’ve never had before juggling between Fedora, Android and Windows, Of course, it’s not quite the same, but then, writing is not about bells and whistles.
I wish the Windows development team all the best and am sure they will deliver a great product. Hopefully before the users start dying of old age.
By the way, could anyone using beta post some UI screenshots? I’d like to have a look.
The people behind the Manuscripts app tried to do exactly that back in 2014. It was to be a writing app dedicated to scientific writing and fully integrated with Papers 3 reference app. They released an early beta version for free but vey early decided to start selling the beta as version 1 although it was still a very buggy beta. Users became increasingly frustrated because of all the bugs and complained in the user forum, which after some time made the developers close down the user forum. The developers finally had to give up and realized in 2017 that they weren’t gonna make it. So they decided that the app should be an open source project instead and said they were gonna reveal the code in 2018, which by the way hasn’t happened yet. But the app is still out there, for free, if you want to test a different kind of writing app.
Didn’t say anything about early beta. Something that has been worked on for a year can only be an early beta if no work has been done whatsoever. Which is obviously not the case here.
Besides, steveshank was talking about “a really good product”, which implies strive for perfection. That is a good thing per se, but you see how long Windows users have been complaining. Have people had this new release, even if a bit buggy in some scenarios, they would have had an ability to roll back to the previous version and wait further. I think there would’ve been more understanding. Otherwise people feel neglected compared to other users. I don’t think this makes for happy customers.
There are lots of apps for Windows and Android that are not available for Mac or iOS, but that doesn’t make me feel neglected. Personally I actually think this kind of complaining is a bit childish. If Scrivener 3 is so important for you, there is a simple solution. Buy a Mac! If running Windows is more important than running Scrivener 3, stay with Windows and Scrivener 1.9!
Life isn’t fair or juste, it only is what it is.
I’m not sure I understand the complaint here. The public beta is available for download now. That is exactly the code you would get if we released the program today, except that it’s free, and admits that it is beta-quality code.
If you don’t want to use beta code, that’s fine, but it doesn’t really make sense to argue that we should release the software now while simultaneously refusing to use the code that we have released.
Katherine
Yes, I love Scrivener and I don’t want to dump it, especially since there isn’t anything else that’s comparable.
But it is frustrating to wait and wait and wait for the promised parity with Mac and, after a year, be told there’s still no plan to actually release v3.
I’m sure the Mac developers haven’t been sitting on their hands this past year waiting for Windows to catch up. So, will Windows v3 be released before Mac v3.1? I doubt it.
But, hey, we can always use the perpetual beta. 
Or buy a Mac. 
There are competitors and thus alternatives for those who are discontended with Scrivener 1.9 and don’t want to use the beta:
Hi Jaaaarne,
Couple of responses to your points.
But this isn’t really applicable to Scrivener, is it. When first released Scrivener was certainly a groundbreaking, innovative app. However, 10 years or so down the road, Scrivener is now a mature product with a large, sophisticated customer base, some of whom make their living using Scrivener. I am grateful that L&L has not succumbed to the temptation of prematurely releasing a buggy product for increased revenue.
By “strengthen the team” do you mean “hire more developers”? The thing is, and of course this is complete speculation on my part, I suspect L&L is just about as big as Keith wants it to be, although I could see them trying to hire an iOS developer, to allow Keith to focus on Mac. But finding the right person is not a trivial undertaking.
There seems to be a plethora of markdown editors out there now, so it seems like a good choice. Best of luck, I hope you find something that works for you.
Jim
“Consistency is not a human trait.” - Maude
There is a plan. Releasing the betas is part of that plan. What they’re not telling us, and what people are feeling entitled to (and it is that sense of entitlement that is the reason WHY they are not telling us) is what their current planned dates are. I realize that the dates are all some people are interested in, but L&L have been very straightforward from the get-go this time that they would not be giving dates, that the process would take as long as it takes.
If you have been using the various betas as they have been released, you can see clearly that there is a significant amount of progress being made and the trajectory for catching up to the Mac version is actually pretty good.
But to say there’s not a a plan is not accurate.
I’m not the topic starter. And you’ve missed my point entirely. Not to mention that not having a version for an OS at all and having an inferior version for an OS are two quite different things.
Also. To buy a Mac I need to stop eating for about three months. Kindly get out of your first world bubble from time to time, will you.
I think you’ve mixed me up with somebody else.
I was talking about managing customers’ expectations, which, frankly, L&L is doing a so-so job of. That’s all. Communication to the customers is important. See another user’s post below. They’re speaking about being frustrated at empty promises. This is customer communication and managing expectations. How come L&L doesn’t see it? Talk to people, give them something other than “one day we will release it”.
I was not talking about refusing Windows beta. Simply because I’m on Linux 3/4 of time.
Nobody promised it will be an easy feat. But you see, if the project is growing, if they want to cover more platforms, if the bar keeps being raised, then hiring more professionals is inevitable. Otherwise a bottleneck is created. Two good devs will be better than one. Three good devs will be better than two.
Thank you. I’ve found a couple of apps that look promising, I will try them out this November. Although I do realise that switching to a new software before NaNo is a bit of a crazy move. But then, NaNo itself is a crazy idea, isn’t.
Anyway, I’m really thankful for Scrivener. It has changed the way I write, and it has been a great experience. Hope everything works out in the best way possible.
Hope to return to it some day in future, when more OS are supported. 
Like many topics in software development, this seemingly intuitive statement is incorrect more often than it is correct. Even good devs require ramp-up time to figure out how to work with the existing code, and for a non-trivial codebase like Scrivener, that time is typically measured in months – possibly even years, given the specific requirements for experience in the framework being used, expertise in the text editing system, learning the customizations and overrides of the text editing system, etc. In the long run, of course, having those experienced devs will help, but in the short term, adding bodies usually decreases overall efficiency during the learning curve.
If you haven’t read it, track down a copy of The Mythical Man-Month and peruse it. It does a wonderful job of explaining why throwing more developers at a problem is usually the wrong solution to a time crunch.
Hi Jaaaarne,
The thing is, if they must have the new release now, it’s available now! And for no additional cost!
Albeit as you say a bit buggy in some scenarios.
Jim
Am I right to assume that at least there will be a new beta for Scrivener 3/Windows once the current beta expires?
Yes.
Katherine
Quick question: is the Windows Scriv 3 beta able to export ePub 3 files?
If not, does the iOS version of Scrivener export ePub 3 files? (I have an iPad Air 2)
I need to produce a valid ePub 3 file for upload to IngramSpark for publishing. So far I haven’t been able to find a way to produce an ePub 3 file that doesn’t generate errors in ePub validators. Ingram requires ePub 3 files to pass the validation at this site:
Thanks!
Happy to see they won’t release “buggy” versions. It is the worst kind of strategy, breaking the trust of your customers.
The current beta is very very slow and 1.9 is still a very good product. And although some new features of Scrivener 3 would be very helpful for my next writing phase, I’ll just stick with 1.9. I do not have time to beta-test a product.
The news that Scrivener 3 for Windows will not after all be available in 2018 is very disappointing indeed.