[nihonde]

For a guy who opines all day about Apple, the fact that he can't maintain a pretty simple iOS app is telling. If you really care about the app and your users, you read the damn docs and get to work. I taught myself in less than six months, and my app is free. Although I don't have much time, I still keep it running out of respect for my 50 thousand or so users.

This especially annoys me after their enfillade of blog posts about best practices for UI and pricing of Vesper.

[Unbeliever69]

This is what drove me to abandon Ux in favor of a life-long dream of programming via a mid-life career shift. I was simply tired of relying on programmers to realize my visions AND being beholden to them if decided, for whatever reason, to jump ship. Luckily, I've been a lifelong programmer, but never professionally. The result is that I'm much happier and only have myself to blame if a product doesn't come to fruition.

[panglott]

This is true, but I was glad to see Gruber put his money where his mouth is and spend some time in an app developer's shoes.

[paulcole]

But did he really? Did he have a development role in Vesper? Or was it just project manager-ish?

[rtpg]

I feel like nobody's really obliged to do anything. Maintenance is work, after all. Though I think it's cool when things exist for the community.

If you're abandoning a project, releasing the source seems like a Good Thing To Do. But people should be allowed to walk away from things if they do not enjoy it as much anymore (modulo service contracts).