Developers get emotional about their software, their babies. So do the people who use those apps, especially ones that have been mainstays for years and years. Thereupon, NetNewsWire has changed hands and the app’s father, creator, and developer-in-chief Brent Simmons is calling it a day, having sold the premier Mac RSS reader to Black Pixel.

I never wanted to give it up, that first success and that good feeling of keeping it going. I slowly came to realize that one person couldn’t keep up with all of it, though, and that hanging on forever wouldn’t be fair to the software and the people who use it.

Black Pixel’s Daniel Pasco, the new lead, offers encouragement, but no specifics. Given Steve Jobs’ impending WWDC Keynote, that’s to be expected.

Ultimately, it’s going to come down to what provides the best experience for our users, and we’re still in the process of determining if that means doing a relatively quick set of interim builds or a more extensive and time-consuming overhaul. Once the conference is over we’ll start opening up a little more about when people can expect updates.

It’s unfortunate for us that Simmons is moving on, though I’m not quite sure how to feel about Black Pixel as they don’t have a publicly discernible Mac track record.

I’m not waiting on a lady…

Where we stand right now is that the last notable release, NetNewsWire Lite 4, is essentially unusable having been scraped bleached bone clean of the meaty features we know and love. Moreover, we’ve got a new sheriff that’s iOS very capable and OS X largely unknown, who’s intentions won’t be known until after Steve talks and Apple’s engineers illuminate.

That said, NetNewsWire 3.2.15 does run in the current OS X 10.7 Lion Preview Release, though there have been issues under previous builds. With Apple’s latest cat poised to pounce, my fingers are crossed.

Further, as a long-time NetNewsWire user, I’m really keen to see what happen next…

What’s your take?

via Macworld and Daring Fireball