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BBEdit 16

barebones.com

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Re: BBEdit 16

#61

Post by conductr »

bellowsgulch wrote: post #27
kennywinker wrote: post #19

In 1998 bbedit 5.0 cost $120 usd. Adjusted for inflation that would be about $245 usd. Today an individual license costs $60. Wild how software pricing and sales models have changed, and good on bare bones for staying away from subscription pricing.

I would rather software companies sell at more realistic prices so that they have a sustainable business, and signal to others in the industry that it's still possible to build a sustainable business. No, we should not praise software companies for hobbyist practices like selling $1 app on the App Store, which say, 30% goes to a digital distribution store, and then of your after distribution fees, about 20%+ percent…

BBEdit is a small private company, no VCs. They probably make a ton of cash (by normal standards) for the owners at this point and doing right by their customers and not rocking the boat through profit maximization strategies is a long term play that VCs could not put up with.

Re: BBEdit 16

#62

Post by jeffrallen »

kstrauser wrote: post #38
skydhash wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won’t disagree with that, but my daily driver is OpenBSD. Emacs is what I got ;)

Right on! I have much love for Puffy. You'll never hear me speak evil on Emacs. It's one of mankind's greatest software accomplishments. But I spend most of my days and nights on a Mac, and when in Rome...

Me neither. But I will speak evil of evil-mode. That's just plain evil.

Re: BBEdit 16

#63

Post by chipotle_coyote »

kstrauser wrote: post #38
skydhash wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won’t disagree with that, but my daily driver is OpenBSD. Emacs is what I got ;)

Right on! I have much love for Puffy. You'll never hear me speak evil on Emacs. It's one of mankind's greatest software accomplishments. But I spend most of my days and nights on a Mac, and when in Rome...

I admit I have recently moved, on my Mac, from BBEdit to Emacs for most things, although Emacs has also taken over from Ulysses and Day One for me. But there are still some things that I end up doing in BBEdit, because it's kind of a multitool for text manipulation that, unlike Emacs, exposes its power very easily. As much as I'm growing to love Emacs, there's something to be said for an editor that doesn't answer so many questions with "write a little Lisp".

Re: BBEdit 16

#64

Post by iknowstuff »

nofunsir wrote: post #54
pokstad wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The software world is different today. People expect you to release security updates as vulnerabilities are discovered. They expect you to fix your application so that it works on the newest macOS that deprecated and broke the old APIs you used (or switch architectures). We expect continuous maintenance for a fixed price. I wish Textmate had a yearly charge to keep their team running instead of the one time purchase…

You're making this up to justify subscription model guilt. Nobody (besides those on here) EXPECTS this. In fact, most would rather live with the risks than deal with subscription model, let alone the headaches of updating and it breaking everything (i.e. causing a chain reaction that you have to update EVERYTHING in order to fix a small non-issue). I, in fact, do NOT want continuous maintenance. Ever. I will literall…

I think you’re in the minority. There are products out there that suit you. They are not mainstream products.

Re: BBEdit 16

#65

Post by kstrauser »

bayindirh wrote: post #55
jms703 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Give people two choices. 1) Purchase a major version and get no updates. 2) Purchase a subscription and get constant updates.

Or use "The Dutch Model": Pay for the major version, get all of its updates. Then pay for update (to next major plus its updates) with a discount. If you don't prefer the pay, you can keep what you have. This is what Reaper, Forklift, CameraBag and countless others do, and it works very well. Edit: This comment contained Forklift as an example before, but they have changed their model, so it's removed.

Forklift only sells you a year of updates at a time now.

Re: BBEdit 16

#66

Post by bayindirh »

conductr wrote: post #61
bellowsgulch wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would rather software companies sell at more realistic prices so that they have a sustainable business, and signal to others in the industry that it's still possible to build a sustainable business. No, we should not praise software companies for hobbyist practices like selling $1 app on the App Store, which say, 30% goes to a digital distribution store, and then of your after distribution fees, about 20%+ percent…

BBEdit is a small private company, no VCs. They probably make a ton of cash (by normal standards) for the owners at this point and doing right by their customers and not rocking the boat through profit maximization strategies is a long term play that VCs could not put up with.

Plus, BBEdit has a heritage and extremely well rounded and polished codebase. They would not betray their stable business, quality and heritage for some short term gain.

They are building a good product for the fun of it and making good money out of it, which they deserve squarely.

Re: BBEdit 16

#67

Post by bayindirh »

kstrauser wrote: post #65
bayindirh wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or use "The Dutch Model": Pay for the major version, get all of its updates. Then pay for update (to next major plus its updates) with a discount. If you don't prefer the pay, you can keep what you have. This is what Reaper, Forklift, CameraBag and countless others do, and it works very well. Edit: This comment contained Forklift as an example before, but they have changed their model, so it's removed.

Forklift only sells you a year of updates at a time now.

Yeah, you're right. I remembered it now. However, they have stopped doing "major" releases at the same time, too.

Let me update the comment.

Re: BBEdit 16

#68

Post by simondotau »

simjnd wrote: post #57
pokstad wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows sells more copies of its software the OEM route. Also, they sell specific versions that eventually end support. Today you might consider Windows almost a loss leader since Microsoft is diversified with many services on top of windows.

It ignores the point. If I've bought BBEdit 13 for 60 USD three years ago and I'm still happy with it, I can keep using it for the rest of my life without paying more. If I want the new features, then I can pay 40 USD to get the latest version. This is a sane AND a sustainable model for companies, and actually creates MORE incentives for the developers to align with the user's interest: if the new update sucks and ha…

I’m a fan of the subscription model where if you stop paying, you continue to have a license for the last version you got during the subscription.

I’ve appreciated that in a few apps where my need for them on a daily basis evaporated but I still need to briefly touch that system once every few months.

Re: BBEdit 16

#69

Post by simondotau »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #16

My search for a "just a text editor" ended with "CotEditor". It's Mac native, not Electron, and supports both RTL and vertical text. All I could ever want.

The built-in TextEdit (in plain text mode) is also a perfectly cromulent minimum viable text editor.

Re: BBEdit 16

#70

Post by kennywinker »

bellowsgulch wrote: post #42
kennywinker wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Implying that one of the oldest still actively developed commercial text editors is not doing sustainable business practices kinda misses the mark. They’ve been at this since 1992, 34 years ago. I think they know their business.

Yeah, I think I know their business, too. Remember 12 years ago when BBEdit left the Mac App Store only later to come back with subscriptions? Boo. [1]: https://x.com/smorr/status/521033038713880576 [2]: https://www.barebones.com/company/press/bbedit_back_to_mas_p...

The app store doesn’t allow for any kind of upgrade pricing, so offering a subscription allows them to operate in the app store sustainably. A shitty compromise, but i don’t blame them for making. 12 years later you can still buy without subscribing - which is what counts for me
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