NetNewsWire Alpha One

After five years of work — including getting the name NetNewsWire back, and a beautiful new app icon by Brad Ellis — NetNewsWire 5 has finally hit the alpha stage.

This was the very first milestone to hit in the bug tracker. No other milestone will take years to achieve. But I did it — and, way more importantly, we did it. I did a bunch of foundational work, but then folks like Maurice Parker, Daniel Jalkut, Olof Hellman, and others totally stepped up and made huge contributions.

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When we (NewsGator, at the time) sold NetNewsWire to Black Pixel, I described working on NetNewsWire as the thrill of my career. I loved every minute. I loved talking to every NetNewsWire customer who wrote in. I loved everybody who helped test, and everybody who helped me think things through.

And now I’m at it again. Only this time it’s open source, and there are people willing and able to help actually write it. And there are people writing in again, via email and via the Slack group — and this is already better. A bigger thrill.

I’m in my 50s now. When NetNewsWire 1.0 shipped, I was 35. Did I think things could get better with age? Nope!

I’m so glad to be wrong. :)

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How fortunate am I! Today is the day NetNewsWire 5.0 alpha one goes out — and it’s NetNewsWire, not something else, and it has a NetNewsWire icon.

And my Bendii Syndrome has taken me over entirely.