From MacHeist:

"That's why we're declaring this The Week of the Independent Mac Developer, and in an effort to spread the word about these hidden gems, we've put together a collection of some of the best darn software available on the Mac for a steeply discounted $49."

Well, that's a big crock of shit. How about this alternate title: "The Week Where You Devalue and Fleece A Bunch of Good Mac Devs". Yea, that sounds more like it.

I'm sure it's a great deal for anyone buying the bundle, and it's a hell of a deal for the folks running MacHeist and the charities, but it certainly isn't for the indie mac devs. If you do the math, that's $3.67 per copy if they are splitting the money evenly. And that's the extremely optimistic view. How much is MacHeists' cut? Are they splitting it, or are the devs getting a flat rate? Let's say it's a $5k flat rate, and they sell 5k copies. That's only a buck a copy. What if they sell 10k copies? That's 50 cents a license. That's not how you "support" indie mac devs, that's how you tie up all their development time answering support emails.

I'm certain the developers who are participating in the bundle know what they are getting into, and have good reasons for doing so. But for MacHeist to call it "The Week of the Independent Mac Developer" and to practically give away the software... well, that's just a fucking insult to me and all the other hard working developers out there.

Update: John Casasanta (one of the macheist guys) responds and mentions that I turned down an opportunity to bundle with macheist, and I reply with the numbers on why that was.