I left the Mac world when I sold my original 128K Mac in 1987. 19 years later I purchased my second Mac. I had been saving up for one during 2006, and when MacHeist '06 started I was still using a PC, but I played it and bought the bundle. I had also found MacZot and had purchased 7 or so apps before finally buying my computer in December. I am grateful for MH, MacZot and Mupromo (and MacAppADay) introducing me to great programs, and for offering them at an awesome discount.

I have spent more than $500 on indy software titles over the last year. Have I paid to upgrade any of them? You bet! I'm quite used to the sales model that makes point releases free but whole-number versions a paid upgrade. I love it when some small dev makes their programs free to upgrade for life .. but I never expect it.

So I can not understand anyone who complains about anything related to these great sites. They exposed me to programs which I did not know anything about. MacHeist puts out incredibly complex heist games that are fun to do, with a forum community that is fun to interact with. They offer up a load of freebies (of which I fully expect will require money to upgrade them ... hey, I don't work for free and I expect the devs don't either). They offer a huge bundle of apps for a few Starbucks lattes. And they give away boat-loads of money to charity! (Well over $400,000 as of this writing!) You want to complain about their marketing? Uh, okay, and while you're at it go on and complain about all the other odd 'viral' attempts at marketing. Hey, its marketing, it's supposed to be obnoxious.

After all the work Phill and crew put in, I'd expect to hear great accolades. When was the last time you raised over 400K for charity and sold about 40K programs for each small dev you worked with ... all in two weeks time?

Will I buy next year? Depends on them finding must-have apps that I haven't already bought ... but I'll sure be playing the heists!