Macheist 2 ☀
MacBreak 74: Hot Lips and Hawkeye
Listening to the MacBreak crew on their podcast, a meaty segment was devoted to the MacHeist 2 bundle, where 14 separate Mac applications are sold in one package, at a cost far less than even one software application. Andy Ihnatko relayed a cab ride chat he had with a couple Mac application developers who decried the whole MacHeist scheme.
Then, a developer (Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of BareBones software) dialed into the show, and gave his take on how this was such an awful deal for the Mac developer “community”, that it degraded the product and setup unrealistic expectations for customers. Mr. Ihnatko pronounced it the equivalent of having David Hasselhoff hawking your goods on late night TV infomercials. Siegel, best known for BBedit, after his remarks, drew adulation from the hosts who nearly pledged outright not to support MacHeist.
As I listened, my head started to shake. I realize BBedit and BareBones cultivate customer loyalty, but I couldn’t help ponder how sour Mr. Siegel sounded about this affair. Like it was a personal affront that other Mac software makers would denigrate the craft of building Mac applications.
Then I remembered when I first took the Mac plunge, 5 years ago. When there was a dearth of quality Mac software in those early OS X days — BBedit was THE Mac editor. And I’d have to fire up the wayback machine, but I’m fairly certain that its cost was double or greater what it is today. For a text editor significantly deficient when compared to free offerings of Emacs or Vim. I even tried their text editor lite rendition, Text Wrangler, but was sadly disappointed. Worse, installing it was a very Windows-esque experience as it became the default application for a multitude of file extensions.
The sophmoric shenanigans MacHeist organizers conducted aside, what’s wrong with developers getting some exposure for their wares? Gaining users and expanding thier market to folks who wouldn’t ever stumble upon the product. Also, 25% of the purchase price goes to charity.
Hearing Siegel’s rant, it dawned on me that the state of Mac applications has improved greatly. And TextMate, my text editor of choice, was included as a MacHeist bundle in MacHeist I. Thankfully, BareBones ain’t the only game in town anymore.
I wonder if Siegel makes use of Apache or Firefox or any other free and/or minimal cost software? If he universally believes that low price means garbage quality? Ironically, the MacBreak hosts concluded the show by pimping more free/open source software — Transmission (bittorrent application) and Tooble (YouTube video download client).
