Here’s a little bit from the OpenSoft about page:

OpenSoft was founded on July 13th 2004 with Dustin Bachrach’s first program: QuickTunes. OpenSoft strives to deliver the best freeware applications with 100% of the source code included. This allows for users to customize the experience and contribute to the whole community. OpenSoft encourages all users to modify the code and expand it.

Wow, today marks the 3rd anniversary since I released my first application for Mac, and what can I say? It’s been truly awesome. I started out with QuickTunes, a simple controller for iTunes. There were minor revisions and then came version 2 with significant updates, a new UI, and lots of great stuff. At that time I started doing consulting for SonicSwap and helped them create Boink. After some great experiences there, I came back and did another open-source application DiggUpdate. This recieved some good press on digg. It got a lot more appreciation then I expected. I even got to work with Kevin Rose a bit for version 2, which came out including the new Slim Digg Window, and Growl support. A short while after, I created 10 Seconds With Tyler Durden, a little fun app for Fight Club fans. This was nothing more than just an excersise in Fun Programming.

The next big release that OpenSoft had was Todos, the wildly popular application launcher. This, in the beginning, was meant to be just a little fun app not meant for extensive use. I guess it hit some sort of nerve, and a lot of people found it useful. I couldn’t be happier with its adoption.

And that pretty much brings us up to the present. 3 years, 5 apps, and much more than I would have ever expected. It’s all leading up to my first shareware endeaver: MACieval.com. It’s been a good 3 years of learning, and hopefully we’ll be able to release something that a lot of people think is really cool.

So why the post? Other than the 3 year marker, I thought I’d just write a bit about how to get into the Mac Indie development business. I know my experience will be different than everybody’s, and it’s by no means the best way, but I think there’s something to learn from it. QuickTunes was simply made for me. Really. I had this huge music library. I kept hearing songs I didn’t know the name of. This was happening frequently enough for it to annoy me to go to iTunes each time to find out. I looked on the web to try and find something that solved my problem. Nothing did. There were some Konfabulator widgets (yeah old-school, right?), but I didnt’t want to have to look at the desktop. I needed a different solution. At the same time I was experimenting with Cocoa and Objective-C by writing those little temperature calculator apps. I needed something more challenging.

Then it hit me. Why don’t I make an app that I would use. Something that I would want. And I did. Know what? Other people had the same need. Funny how that is, isn’t it? That’s why from then on, all of my applications have been made from some need I’ve had personally. For DiggUpdate, I wanted digg on my desktop. For Todos I wanted to see all my icons in a grid like how Todos is. And each time, there were people who shared the same need. I think that’s why the software did pretty well. I picked things that other people wanted too.

So my advice for upcoming developers? Just go out and program. Find something you don’t like about OS X or something that would make it easier or cooler. And just program that. Don’t make it big. Make it something on the scale of QuickTunes 1.0 (not 2.0). Nice and simple, very focused task. Then release it. Put it up on the web and let other people check it out. Hell, email me, I’ll blog it. Once you get it out, you might be shocked how many people dig your stuff. They’ll send you feature requests, they’ll send you bug reports, and good wishes. And then you can go back and make it more complex, more flushed out. And before you know it, you have a really polished app, and a lot of valued users. Then do it over again. Just keep doing it, and soon you’ll be a Wil Shipley :)