Aside from that, congrats on the well deserved reviews. I just earned my MFA in Screenwriting from USC and I used Scrivener for my thesis script and for my pilot. It’s absolutely brilliant - the multiple views helped go from breaking a story, then to a one-line, one-line to scene cards for an outline, scene cards to first draft. It worked like a charm. Cheers.
Sometimes I go to that forum too and indeed Scrivener is one of the most wanted applications; however, from what I read in L&L, that is not going to happen.
Entering on a promo bundle like this can either be a great push on an app’s career (like 1password last year, as a free app) or a mistake, both in money and in the enormous amount of work the new users (many of them by chance) will imply.
Of course I cannot speak for Keith, but in this case I think he wouldn’t have much to gain on puting Scrivener in the bundle. Scrivener already has a stable users’ base and a very good name on the Mac community. More so, it’s a very affordable application… people who want it, will buy it.
As for me, I’m a bit disappointed with the MacHeist 2 bundle. I already own the most appealing apps for me: 1password, TaskPaper and AppZapper. I have a “skin dislikeâ€
The addition of Launchbar (for free if someone you invite buys the bundle - you don’t have to buy anything at all) is pretty nice.
I’m not as in love with it as much as last year - but Snaps Pro X is pretty enticing. Also, a lot of money is raised for charities. I’ll probably end up buying and gifting the licenses to the apps I own.
Yeah, I was pretty disappointed with this year’s bundle. Of the apps I need, I already own, and the rest are of no interest to me. There isn’t a single app that makes the entire thing worth it for me. Last year it was TextMate, and that alone was worth the cost of the bundle many times over. I also got a fair amount of use out of DEVONthink before switching to EagleFiler later in the year. The rest was just gravy.
I have to say I was very pleased with the bundle this year, even though I do already own the few of the Apps that I would actually use from the crop; however, I was able to gift them to my nephew, who just switched to being a Macfanboy after years of being an embattled Windows user (and others of interest to him but not to me, such as iStopmotion or CoverSutra). I also like the idea that 25% of the money is going to worthy charities. And there is enough in it for me to be interested in it as well (e.g. I am going to play with CSSEdit, which I had never heard of before, and Awaken looks like a nice toy as well).
Of course it would be fantastic if Scrivener was added to the bunch.
So, on a whole not a disappointment because it allows me to extend the season of gift-giving and to learn a few new applications (and through them ideas) that I would not have noticed otherwise.
Whilst the rumours are nice, I’m afraid that Scrivener won’t be part of the bundle for reasons guessed here already.
Scrivener is a fairly niche application, being aimed not just at writers, but specifically writers who don’t want a Word-type program and who want the ability to organise non-linearly. (Just take a look at some of the comments on the NY Times article to see how many writers think that using anything other than Word is heresy and sure-proof that you are a talentless hack; of course, their ancestors no doubt complained when somebody suggested using a feather and ink on sheep-hide rather than etching everything into rock with a chisel, but hey.) Putting it in a bundle would mean that suddenly, lots of new users who had never felt need for such an application would have a licence and every right to demand support. As a one-man team, this would just be too much work! The NY Times article alone meant that I spent the last week answering support e-mails for two or three solid hours after I got home from teaching (and threw up a number of areas where I could make Scrivener easier for new users which will push 1.12 back a month or so).
I’ve been very happy with the way Scrivener as gone without feeling the need to put it in a bundle, to be honest. I’m sure it would make me lots of money, but that’s not what it’s all about. I’m quite happy with the users who seek out and find Scrivener because, like me, they feel the need for something different to their current tool. They tend to need less support and don’t shout at me. These are good things.
For applications that have teams working on them, or applications - such as Jesse’s TaskPaper or WriteRoom - which are fairly self-explanatory and don’t have much of a learning curve, I 'm sure a bundle makes sense. But for Scrivener, I’m too scared that it could entail a lot more time answering support e-mails and less time writing my own novel in Scrivener.
I am very grateful to all those who were hoping Scrivener would be in the bundle for their interest, though, and to MacHeist for asking me.
I’m not buying bundles anymore. In my experience there’s always this one app that you want to have. Then there are few which you think would be nice. And a bunch of stuff you normally wouldn’t bother to download for free. More than once I ended using only the one app I really wanted, but had paid for the whole bundle - and that price was mostly higher than for this one app alone …
But sure, some users might crave for 3 or 4 things out of this bag … they’re lucky.
We have a saying in Portugal that calls these people “Velho do Restelo”, meaning “Old Guy from Restelo”. Why? Because the 16th century epic “Os LusÃadas” (from Luis de Camões) reports a legend when Portuguese navigators departed from Lisbon (in fact, from a neighborhood called Restelo within Lisbon) to discover a different maritime way to India. People were inland cheering and waiving to them, some women were crying of sorrow and fear for their possible fate… and a old guy, full of conservatism, said: “You will fail! You will all die and disgrace your families.”
Now – not using Word an heresy?! Proof of less talent? Good gods! It looks like those times when using a typewriter would be less considered than hand writing, and later the time when a computer would be less considered than typewriting. Yup, history does copy itself. (I so hope those people are not teachers.)
I liked last year’s MacHeist bundle. I got TextMate, which was about the same price as the whole bundle, and that alone was worth the cost of it many times over. But in general I agree, as with impulse purchases for sale items you would not have purchased anyway, it is usually better to just buy the one application you really want. More of your money goes to support the developer, anyway.
Oh, and to the person considering CSS Edit, great application if you have to do a lot of styling. It is good for both types of people, those who like to type and those who like to click. For the typers it has auto-complete which normally bothers me, but their implementation is good. For the clickers, the palettes are all organised well and intuitively. I actually find myself using both the palettes and the text editor regularly. It is easier to set colours using a selector than typing in RGB or hex values, and the ability to position page elements using the arrow keys is very nice. It’s page inspection tools are good, and the real-time editing is lightning fast. I’ve debugged some nasty CSS problems thanks to the inspection tool. I’d say, if you do a lot of CSS editing, that would be the one to buy the bundle for. You’ll save so much time you’ll get your money back in a hurry if you freelance.
Interesting statement. I tend to agree with him… regarding some films. I would not consider watching The Lord of The Rings trilogy on a phone or iPod (at least not the first time). But I have an iPod and some movies in it. Which ones? The ones that I was not interested on seeing at the theaters, like The Fantastic 4 or Bee Movie. I enjoy having them there for the sake of passing time when I’m on a queue, for instance. It’s pretty much like seeing a movie on a plane… not that enjoyable, but useful. I consider it my “B Movies Theater”.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Last year, the developers received a paltry sum (approx 1.5% of revenue each, if I recall correctly). That may have changed for this year after the stink it caused last year, but if so nobody’s come forward to say so.
