I’ve been a paying user since 2015. This makes me sad, as it’s one of my most beloved utilities and this isn’t a good look. I’ll keep running it without updating until it stops working or I find a replacement that I like. Also:
https://sixcolors.com/link/2024/06/bartender-has-a-new-owner/
Examples?
BetterTouchTool, TempMonitor, Al Dente, Alfred, Little Snitch, literally 90% of my apps are all paid, it’s genuinely insane. It’s not like they’re bad, or anything, I miss them when I’m not using macOS, but Jesus Christ…
Many of these have good FOSS alternatives. Bettertouchtool does a million things, but check out rectangle, middleclick for some of the features. TempMonitor has several alternatives but if you’re mostly after menu bar widgets, there’s one called “stats”. Al dente is free, though Apple has something like this built in already but it’s heuristic based and less predictable. After building an 80% charge limiter into iOS and iPadOS I bet this will show up in a future macOS version. Lulu is an alternative to little snitch.
Alfred is just slightly better Spotlight or slightly worse Raycast (which you can totally use for free just fine)
Most apps offer basic features for free, but the truly useful features are always behind a paywall with Apple products. This is the case with iOS too and you can’t deny that. Whether it’s games, apps or basic features like dark mode for browsers. Like why do I gotta pay for dark mode in Safari in 2024? Bruh.