Are there any plans to make TextMate free and open source?
The benefits of this would include:
* Having multiple developers voluntarily fixing bugs * Bugs get zapped quicker * Features can get added faster (after volunteer developers are carefully chosen) * Everyone gets to see under the hood * If someone doesn't like something, he can create a branch of TextMate, and this can also serve as a test branch for the trunk release. * Being open source is the ultimate sign of self-confidence in your software's security and stability.
And how you can still profit:
* Google Ads * Popularity * Technical support * Donations and funding from individuals and organisations relying on TextMate.
I mean no disrespect to Aaron and the other guys at Macromates. I'm suggesting this because it might actually improve TextMate without incurring a loss on its developers. And after Mozilla Firefox's success, I believe that anything is possible.
Just my 2 cents. Please correct me if I'm out of line. Either way, I plan to keep on using TextMate after the demo runs out. :) Everytime I use TextMate I'm reminded why Mac OS X applications rock.