[ejdyksen]

I've already seen a number of apps in the Mac App Store that take this exact approach.

Two examples off the top of my head:

Textual, an IRC client [1, 2]

Blink, a SIP client [3, 4]...this is pretty difficult to compile, though...

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[1] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/textual/id403012667

[2] https://github.com/Codeux/Textual

[3] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blink-lite/id431473881

[4] http://icanblink.com/download.phtml

[Kerrick]

Cyberduck, an FTP client, takes a similar (though easier) approach. You can buy it on the Mac App Store for $23.99 [0], get precompiled binaries for free on their website [1], or grab the source yourself [2].

[0]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cyberduck/id409222199 [1]: http://cyberduck.ch [2]: https://trac.cyberduck.ch/browser

[dkl]

I wish I could pay for Blink on Windows, because it's my main SIP client. Windows definitely doesn't get the attention that Mac OS does, but the client is the best one I've found. (I really grew to hate Bria/X-Lite.)

[gjtorikian]

I never thought about it like that. I bought Textual because I wanted to support the developers.

The benefit of it being open-source was that I could try it, use it, and hack it, before deciding they'd done a damn good job.