I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed to hear that Brent was selling NetNewsWIre to NewsGator. My dream is to someday do what Brent did — start my own OS X software company and work on what I want to work on. Somehow his sale of NetNewsWire to “the man” tarnishes the dream a little bit.
But once you get over the initial reaction, you see that what Brent has done was incredibly smart. He basically bought an entire company to wrap around his product. Not that he owns NewsGator. But the net effect is pretty darn close since I don’t think Brent wants the CEO job. It does show you an end game for what to do if you do get successful. Will other OS X indies do the same? Is this any different than other creative endeavors?
I do hope that Brent keeps his product alive as it is truly orginal and unique. It’s a fantastic example of why OS X is just better. I wish him good luck and I’m happy to stay a customer so long as he still wants to welcome us.
Comments 1
You wrote: “He basically bought an entire company to wrap around his product.”
That’s very much how I felt about it! Of course, I didn’t really — but I invested my company in another company, so that I’d be able to better concentrate on working on NetNewsWire and be able to do cool features I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. (My programming time has been so scarce for a while now, and this deal changes that, which is good for everybody.)
Definitely read John Gruber’s piece, if you haven’t already: http://daringfireball.net/2005/10/the_life
Posted 19 Oct 2005 at 21:10 ¶Post a Comment