As a fairly long-tem Apple Mac user, there’s been a period of around 7 years or so where I moved from a Windows computer to a purely Mac environment. I use Macs for my business – for repetitive grunt-work and the more exploratory and creative stuff, which is arguably more fun, in the conventional sense of the word.

A large part of my daily Mac experience is processing tasks, doing stuff, and doing it in an efficient way. I’m a big fan of workflows and getting things ‘just so’ and to my liking. This invariably involves using a bunch of software from a bunch of software developers outside of the Apple campus. They make (usually) small, efficient applications that integrate well with Mac OS (the Apple version of Windows, if you like). If someone were to ask me for an app recommendation for doing a given task on a Mac, I would most likely have one that I use, or know of one that the might get them going.

Enter Macheist. They’re Mac app brokers. They don’t release applications themselves, but some individuals within the Macheist staff are involved in software development projects in various ways. Every so often, normally once a year, they release a cut-price bundle of 3rd party Mac applications with a value of hundreds of US dollars, with proceeds split between the developers, Macheist, and reputable charities. These Mac software bundles are becoming more commonplace across the Interwebs. Whether this is due to economic conditions and/or developers fighting for lebensraum is up for debate; frankly, I don’t know the reasoning behind it.

To market the latest Macheist bundle (codenamed ‘nanobundle2’ and released March 2nd/3rd, 2010), there was a multiple day real-time countdown timer on the front page of macheist.com with a natty HTML5 animated graphic of crated-up Mac apps being taken off a lorry, the premise presumably being they were preparing the big launch for when the counter hit zero.

When zero hour arrived, thousands of excitable Mac nerds – me included – were curious to see what was in store with this bundle. Now, I only picked up on this bundle around 12 hours before it was launched, I hadn’t been ruminating and getting twitchy for the week or so before the bundle actually launched, so I was sort-of excited, and sort-of assumed it would be a big, damp blob of boring anti-climax.

After a delay of 40 minutes (this tweet summed up the unexpected wait perfectly), the bundle deal was announced. 20 US bucks gets you full, legit versions of this little lot:

The pricing is such that, even if you use one or two apps, it’s a good deal for the consumer. The first thing that struck me, rather selfishly, is that this bundle wasn’t a good fit for me. Which is fine, and not something I’m going to hold a grudge over. Sure, I’ll admit I was disappointed when the list was revealed, and there were subsequent grumblings (along with pre-launch frustrations at the wait) on my Twitter stream.

A few things troubled me slightly. First, an open letter on the Macheist forums made it clear that Mac developers would be ruling themselves out of inclusion in the annual Macheist bundles if their apps were in other (competing?) software bundles. Sort of a “you’re with us, or you’re against us”, which is something I guess you can dictate when you run the place, which the author of the post/letter does. The reason I mention this is down to Ripit – a DVD ripping app that’s streets ahead of anything else in the class. I use it daily, and have total confidence in it doing what I want it to do. I got Ripit in a MacUpdate bundle in mid-2009. I don’t need another licence for it, thanks. Macjournal was in TheMacSale last year, which makes two of the bunch which are already in bundles elsewhere. Perhaps the nanoBundle doesn’t count as an annual bundle, as mentioned in the open letter, either way it’s a bit odd to have statements of intent and then muddy the waters.

Playing the Rapidweaver card is clever, although it has been included as a cut-price item on the regular MacUpdate promotions (which is where my copy came from). I don’t use Rapidweaver often, but when people ask me for pretty websites (and there are some people I can’t say no to, despite my better judgement), I can throw something together quickly enough to fit their budget.

What really annoyed me is the way Flow was presented. Flow appears to be an FTP client and file editor. Macheist intro’d the app as follows:

1998 called… it wants its file transfer app back
Are you still using Transmit, an app that dates all the way back to MacOS 8? Well, if so, then it’s time to make room for the new kid in town… Flow.

Wow. I was speechless. Way to go, Macheist, knocking the competition before you’ve even explained what the app actually does. I point the finger at Macheist rather than the developers of Flow, presumably they have marketeers and copywriters who vet the text before it hits the web. And this got through, which bothered me. I’m not a tree-hugging hippy (well, I am a bit), but poking fun at your competitors doesn’t sit well with me. Update: according to this tweet, it looks like the text in question came from MH, not ExtendMac.

It continues…they then go on to say:

And we’re not talking about a gimped editor… it has powerful features like syntax coloring, multiple tabs, and code-suggestion.

On a technical note, there are also niggles. Firstly, Transmit is made by Panic, a long-standing and respected Mac software developer – until yesterday I’d never heard of Extendmac. Secondly, comparing Flow to Transmit is like comparing iTunes to Quicktime Player. Panic also make the excellent Coda, which is in many ways very similar to Flow (FTP client, viewer, editor, plus “syntax coloring, multiple tabs, and code-suggestion”, and a shedload more stuff besides). Established, stable, does the job, exactly the things I want from a Mac app.

Neil Dixon, author of SEO Webmonkey has written about his thoughts on this Macheist bundle thing in a far more succinct fashion, and I urge you to read it – I’m glad I wasn’t the only one affected by this (besides, I haven’t blogged anything in about a billion years, so I have to start back somewhere, right?). Update: another Mac user whose opinions I trust, Jen, has similar concerns about Macheist.

There are many people who are already saying they’re going to buy this bundle because of the 25% charity donation, despite not being over-enamoured with the app selection, which seems odd to me. A few dollars/pounds/groats/etc in a charity collection tin or whatever would service the charities far more effectively if software is not your primary concern. It also begs the question that if the bundle is considered mediocre by Macheist standards, does this lower the standards of the next one, either from a consumer point of view or from the Macheist HQ app acquisition process.

I, maybe rather childishly, don’t even want to download a trial of Flow to see if it is better than Coda, purely on the basis of the unprofessional Macheist copywriting. Ultimately, I can destroy thousands of hours of development time and marketing by saying: “don’t need, got, don’t need, don’t need, don’t need, I’m useless at games, got”. Which is not to say I’m ungrateful. Frustrated, yes, a little – but today is continuing as it was going to, regardless of new software arriving. Expectations and enthusiasm for the ‘main’ bundle (Macheist 4?) are a bit lower with the past 24 hours in mind.