I loved 1.9 and so far I’m happy with Beta, but I have to agree it’s ridiculous to have not made any public comment on the blog in almost 9 months. Say something. Anything. Even “We’re still working on it” is better than nothing.
The last public comment from the development team was in the Windows Beta forum, on August 14, 2020.
Katherine
That’s the thing, one need only refer to one of many topics in the beta forum, or look at the latest Release Candidate/beta which was released this month. Literature and Latte has been far from silent, one just needs to know where to look. 
You know it’s likely that most Scrivener users never look at the website, but I feel it’s a safe bet that an even smaller number than that comes into the forums. Why make people go looking for answers?
I agree they’ve been far from silent, but it’s only been here in the forums where only a small percentage ever log into. People are naturally curious, but the company shouldn’t make it difficult for them to know where to look.
Painful experience. If users are not willing to come to the official forums, they’re also likely to completely misread and misinterpret blog posts as has already happened many times in the past. And then they actually do manage to come here…to complain about L&L not meeting “promises” that only ever existed in their own interpretations.
Both the blog post you mention and the main Scrivener 3 release page point to the Windows Beta forum.
Katherine
I came here today because I have heard or seen nothing from L&L. The Windows version wasn’t promised in 2020, it was promised in 2018. It’s been in eternal beta. I have not used the beta version because it’s a beta. If your entire project gets corrupted it was your own fault for using a beta, right? No thanks.
I’m coming to the conclusion my purchase for win3 was just a donation to L&L. Good luck with your future.
It wasn’t promised in 2018 either, Literature and Latte has only ever released estimates, they never made promises.
Here’s one example, from this blog.
That reads as an estimate to me, not a promise. You’ll find similar wording on other blog posts.
Scrivener 3.0 licenses have never been available for purchase. What you probably purchased was a license for Scrivener 1.X, a fully functional and robust piece of software which many of us have used for years without any complaints. It just happened to come with a free upgrade to 3.0.
Worth noting while beta software is generally use at your own risk, the Scrivener beta is highly stable, and many of us have been using it with little or no issues for months and in some cases even years.
Ahem. Please do not feed the trolls.
If you are not sure who the trolls are in this conversation, please consider that it might be you, and cut it out.
Katherine
Oh! be still my trollish heart! I’ve been outed!
Here is what L&L currently says about Windows Version 3:
“Scrivener 3: in the Works
We’re currently hard at work on Scrivener 3 for Windows (yes, we’re skipping a number!). If you buy now, you’ll get a free update to Scrivener 3 when it’s available.”
Note the use of the word “when”, not “if”. Sounds like a commitment.
But they also say:
“Disclaimer: Please make your decision to buy based on the current version of Scrivener (Scrivener 1 for Windows). This offer is a bonus for new users. We can make no guarantees on when Scrivener 3 for Windows will be available (we only release software when we are confident it is stable and the best it can be), and buyers of Scrivener 1 for Windows will not be eligible for a refund in the unlikely event that something happens to prevent Scrivener 3’s release.”
So L&L actively promotes version 3 in order to sell version 1, but the fine print says you might never get a version good enough for release.
Actually, the fine print says that you are not entitled to a refund if, say, an asteroid wipes out Cornwall. (L&L world headquarters.) Every company on the planet includes this kind of disclaimer.
Katherine
What tools are those? I am genuinely curious here. Links to the posts are fine.
Out of curiosity, I did look to see what I could find on both people leaving Scrivener and alternatives. Here are some of the information I found:
melleesmith.com/2019/12/08/ … scrivener/
reddit.com/r/scrivener/comm … ft_behind/
alphaefficiency.com/scrivener-review/
reddit.com/r/writing/commen … tware_you/
getnovelize.com/why-scriven … your-novel
reddit.com/r/writing/commen … rade_to_3/
chrisrosser.net/posts/2018/08/3 … s-ulysses/
forum.atomicscribbler.com/t/i-o … ger/299/11
Would you mind summarizing?
I only opened one of those links. It’s “Why Scrivener sucks for writing your novel” brought to you by the people trying to sell you something called Novelize, which I never heard of before. The anti-Scrivener screed has nothing to do with Scriv 3 for Windows not being released fast enough for anyone, but is all about how Scrivener is too complicated for all us dummies.
There were a couple of links in there where people explained why Scrivener didn’t fit their writing process, and those were good.
Yet for the most part, all of the supplied links were filled with factual errors from people who have unrealistic expectations about what software does.
No way. This stuff happens in the software industry. My guess is they got hung up with the tools or their documentation but Scrivener is a complex ground breaking product - which is why we keep coming back here to see where things are.
Remember the worst platform for software development is Windows - any version. The registry! The virtual memory (partly Intels fault because they think they are doing something “new” every time they reinvent technology Digital Equipment had 50 years ago. Windows dev. looks great at the seminars but the performance is awful.
Then there’s the “documentation”, and the illogical values you can set but never clear, and let’s not get into updates. If Scrivener gets V3 to work on Windows they should get a medal, even two.
We’ve had Windows for 50 years and suffered with a paradigm driven only by better hardware enduring 10,000 “updates”, bug fixes, patches, knowledge base articles, and support so incompetent you wonder where they dug up the bodies. There’s a reason Gates got into medicine.
In the meantime if you need to get going buy an old MAC and upgrade it. It’s cheap and believe it or not a 2011 MAC with its i5 and a couple 2TB SSDs screams.(DVD morphed into the second SSD).
My guess is the developers are working really hard, but its like trying to land on the deck of an air craft carrier in high seas. You have no idea where the deck will be in 20 minutes when you get where you thought you needed to be 30 minutes ago.
Let’s cut LL some slack. We’ve had COVID crap for almost 8 months and NOTHING IS ON SCHEDULE. So let’s not sweat the small stuff. Promises before COVID are not fair game. (I have no financial interest in anything mentioned or their competitors.).
/Len
Windows 1.0 was released in November of 1985. That’s not 1970.
Windows 3.0 was released in 1990. That’s also not 1970.
Windows NT 3.1 was released in 1993, and that is arguably the start of the modern Windows lineage. Still not 1970.
My 2011 Mac does not scream, even with an SSD-ectomy. I frequently do, however, waiting for slow OS updates.
But don’t let little things like facts get in the way of your little rant…