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Merlin on MacBreak Weekly 75

Submitted by Merlin on January 30, 2008 - 5:47am.

MacBreak Weekly 75: MacHeist Replies

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Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Andy Ihnatko, Scott Bourne, and Alex Lindsay

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Guests: Philip Ryu of MacHeist, Andrew Welch of Ambrosia.

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Apple reports record earnings… then stock tanks, Philip Ryu of MacHeist and Andrew Welch of Ambrosia give counterpoints to MacHeist discussion, and more.

Here’s a direct MP3 download of our marathon 107 minute, nearly-ruined-by-Skype-farts MBW 75.

And, hey, whaddaya know? MBW is having its Diamond Anniversary. I should pick up a necklace or an industrial drill for Leo.

This week, Leo invited Philip and Andrew on to talk about MacHeist. I hope they feel like they got a fair hearing and were able to say their piece. For myself, I’m still not sure how I feel about MacHeist, but I’m persuaded that the process is improved over the first time it was offered. On a personal level, it was cool to be given a chance to talk to Andrew, whose Ambrosia Software has been with me like a secret friend for almost as long as I’ve used a Mac.

This time around my pick of the week is Airfoil by Rogue Amoeba (although I also profess my affection for lots of other stuff Paul makes). Good interview from last year with Paul over on Ars Technica.

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I suppose “exploitation”

Submitted by Vesuvio on February 2, 2008 - 12:03am.

I suppose “exploitation” carries a heavier connotation than I intended, and was not the best word. I agree that there’s no coersion going on here. But stepping back a bit, I see that I’m in the awkward position of advocating for a group that doesn’t want an advocate. I’m not a developer myself, I’m a consumer, so if anything, I should be all in for MacHeist. I can only explain why I’m not by falling back on Merlin’s sentiment that it doesn’t “feel” right. Perhaps I’m a foolish consumer, but I would rather pay full price directly to the developers I want to support.

Then there’s this: I remember being very surprised when the MacSanta promotion ran a few years ago to see DevonAgent come up as an offering. It was an older release, but there is was all the same. I was surprised because I think of Devon Technologies as among the elite developers for Mac. Seeing one of their titles in something called MacSanta was akin to, say, finding a MacBook Air at the Dollar Store– immediately your eyebrow would arch. When Rich Siegel talked about devaluing software, I was reminded of MacSanta.