“NetNewsWire is free”:inessential.com (congrats again Brent!) and reaction is coming in from other indie developers.
“Rory Prior”:www.thinkmac.co.uk/blog/2008… “It’s hard to compete with a product that’s as well known and frankly as good as NNW, it’s damn near impossible to compete with it when it’s free.”
“Paul Kafasis”:www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/posts… “When something is given away for free, its perceived value is lowered. If software is treated as valueless, it becomes much, much harder to sell.”
Ultimately I don’t think it’s going to have a significant negative impact as far as devaluating other software (except of course other news readers) because most people paying attention should connect that it supports Newsgator’s core business model. But rather than debate the issue I searched my archives to see what else I had said about the product. It must be one of the most-blogged-about apps ever, right? I’m limiting it to 1 post per year.
2002: “Moving to NetNewsWire”:www.manton.org/2002/09/m…
2003: “NetNewsWire as a platform”:www.manton.org/2003/03/n…
2004: “Google and the great apps to come”:www.manton.org/2004/12/g…
2005: “Tabs are a hack”:www.manton.org/2005/05/t…
2006: “Time for thinking”:www.manton.org/2006/07/t…
2007: “New software releases (plus screencast)":www.manton.org/2007/06/n…
2008: “New and old posts about NetNewsWire”:www.manton.org/2008/01/n… (you’re reading it!)
