when bad things happen to good Mac developers

Posted on February 25, 2003 
Filed Under Macintosh

“BareBones Software”:http://www.barebones.com/ is discontinuing BBEdit Lite in favor of the $49 Text Wrangler.

I am not happy. Neither is “Erik J. Barzeski”:http://nslog.com/archives/2003/02/25/bare_bones_now_officially_sucks.php who writes “Bare Bones Now Officially Sucks” I think my title works too. _update: He didn’t write it, someone on an IRC channel did_

Let’s say you used a certain street in your town to get from your home to your job. Now, your town puts up a toll on the road because they’ve just installed a system that served Diet Cokes and tuned your radio for you. “Nice,” you say, “but all I wanted from the street was a way of getting to work from my home. And now I have to pay for that?”

That’s how I feel about TextWrangler. I used BBEdit lite to edit CGI scripts as needed for my website. I used it to read text files friends send me. I used it to paste/copy web text before placing in InDesign so the text would appear unformatted. Syntax coloring, FTP, multi-language support? “Nice,” I say, “but all I wanted was a simple Text Editor. And now I have to pay for that?”

BBEdit Lite may be “dead” but it will live on in my iBook for as long as whatever version of OS X I’m running supports it.

I should say that my complaint comes from the fact that Bare Bones has removed BBEdit Lite from their pages. I know I’ll still be able to get it elsewhere. I would have happily paid $10-15 for it. $20 even. But throwing more features at BBEdit Lite for $49? Not thrilled.

Comments

3 Responses to “when bad things happen to good Mac developers”

  1. Erik J. Barzeski on February 25th, 2003 1:24 pm

    Let me be clear… the title was from a comment a guy made on an IRC channel It wasn’t mine, necessarily.

    I think BBEdit Lite was great for a number of years. TextWrangler adds FTP + syntax coloring to BBEdit Lite. Is that worth $49? I guess they’ll find out.

    BBEdit Lite, for years, has been an amazing deal for free. At $19 they’d have sold a bajillion. They may be missing out, but they’re a good company, with good people, and I wish them the best.

    Oh, if you want a simple text editor, one of course comes with your computer: TextEdit. And yes, you’ll still be able to download BBEdit Lite for months, probably even years, from various places.

  2. NSLog(); on February 25th, 2003 2:01 pm

    Bare Bones Sucks: Not Really

    Wanted to clear one thing up: I don’t think Bare Bones sucks - I got that comment from a chap on an IRC channel. It’s a parody of their “BBEdit: It Still Doesn’t Suck” slogan. Personally, I think they’re doing some awesome work. I think BBEdit Lite was…

  3. NSLog(); on March 10th, 2003 11:28 am

    Bare Bones Sucks: Not Really

    Wanted to clear one thing up: I don’t think Bare Bones sucks - I got that comment from a chap on an IRC channel. It’s…