My Take on MacHeist

The MacBreak podcast spent two episodes discussing the cons (first episode) and pros (second episode) about the two (so far) MacHeist software bundles. Both episodes featured discussions with developers on both sides of the opinion line (pro and con) as well as a person from MacHeist. So, let me throw in my opinion as an ordinary end user who took advantage of the second bundle (after being just an observer of the first event's activity).

As a Mac software consumer, the MacHeist price is obviously a huge attraction. Although the individual developers may not make a huge profit (or maybe any profit?), I think they will benefit from this in the long run. Why? Here's my take... There were 12 packages in the last MacHeist offering. I might have bought one or two of those. But, one I probably would NOT have tried is Pixelmator? Why? I have Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4 (which runs horribly slow on Intel Macs) and was waiting for version 6 to come out later this year. I had never heard of Pixelmater and wasn't actively learning more about the product. But, since it was in the bundle, I gave it a try and found I liked it a lot. I may not even bother upgrading PhotoShop Elements now. And, guess who might get my hard earned $$$ when a Pixelmater major upgrade is released?

I have not tried any of the other MacHeist bundle applications yet. But, I would not be surprised if I find a couple more products useful that I might not have even tried otherwise. And, they too will probably get my upgrade $$$ at some point in the future.

On the Windows side of my computing work world, I've been using JASC PaintShop Pro since version 4 (it is currently version 11). I haven't upgrade on every upgrade cycle. But, I have upgraded most of the time (I think I skipped two upgrade releases). It is a good stable product (well, there was one release that wasn't :-) that has served me well for probably a decade in various versions. They've earned a good chunk of upgrade $$$ from me. If Pixelmator continues to release a quality product, they have probably earned my business going-forward too.