MacHeist.com?

No it isn’t illegal. It’s basically just a bunch of puzzle games that give you free software (donated by the developers) then at the end of it they’ll offer a huge bundle of software at a fraction of the normal price. It’s a good deal if you actually need the software, but if you already own some of it or don’t need much of it then it isn’t as good of a deal obviously.

Hahahaha. No, It is not illegal. It’s just a series of puzzles that promote an annual sale of a bundle of Mac applications.

It is a lot of fun to try out the puzzles, but I’ve never really used any of the free software I’ve gotten for more than a few minutes. In the Bundle, though, there’s always some great software for a great discount.

The software isn’t donated by the developers; they’re paid an extremely low flat fee for it, and the organizers of MacHeist make out like bandits.

Unless they’ve changed their ways since this and this were written.

Yeah, but no one forced the developers to participate, so I don’t feel bad about it.

@cwilbur, I think that to say that participation fleeces developers is to ignore a lot of the picture. I never paid for shareware until I was exposed to it through MacHeist. I just pirated it, or did without. Through MacHeist, a lot of developers have gotten some of my money that I otherwise wouldn’t have ever handed out. Even if a disproportionate share of the profits go to the MacHeist crew, the developers get a new customer, charities make money, and I get to play fun puzzles and get great new software.

@tonedef: the “some of your money that you wouldn’t otherwise have ever handed out” probably wound up being less than a dollar per copy, and you still expected support. This is not a good thing for developers.

Nobody’s being coerced into anything here, so you can make your own decisions; just make sure you know what a raw deal this is for the developers, and that the promoters are making out like bandits, so that you can make an informed decision to participate or not.