I’m a big fan of Jason and pretty much everything 37signals did and Basecamp continues to do. There are some great answers in this AMA.
AMA: Jason Fried, CEO and Co-Founder of Basecamp (formerly 37signals) – Designer News
Tag: software
When I was a kid back in the ’70s and ’80s I was really into hi-fi systems. I couldn’t afford much gear, but I could borrow copies of The Absolute Sound and read them cover-to-cover. In those days the general wisdom was to buy an amplifier with way more power than you could possibly ever use, because it would sound great at low and normal volumes.
That wisdom stuck in my head, and I think it applies to software
If you want to keep the software and services around that you enjoy, do what you can to make their businesses successful enough that it’s more attractive to keep running them than to be hired by a big tech company.
The True Story of Audion
This is such a fantastic story about one of the best MP3 players/encoders ever built for the Mac. I vividly remember using it prior to iTunes and loving it. The story is an important one for any music nerds out there.
Like a service? Make them charge you or show you ads. If they won’t do it, clone them and do it yourself. Soon you’ll be the only game in town!
Ushahidi
A non-profit tech company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping.