{"id":43534,"date":"2024-06-05T16:19:37","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T20:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=43534"},"modified":"2024-09-02T15:58:54","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T19:58:54","slug":"bartender-acquired-by-applause-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/05\/bartender-acquired-by-applause-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Bartender Acquired by Applause Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Juli Clover<\/a> (Reddit<\/a>, Hacker<\/a> News<\/a>, Mac Power Users Talk<\/a>, AppleInsider<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Popular Mac app Bartender appears to have been quietly sold approximately two months ago, with neither the prior owner nor the current owner providing customers or potential customers with information on the sale.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Bartender’s new owners replied to the Reddit thread and confirmed that Bartender had been acquired, but did not explain why customers had not been notified nor why there had been a certificate change without said explanation.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Reddit users asked Bartender’s owners for more information on their identity, but there was no response.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Jason Snell<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

These things happen—no developer should be chained to their software forever—but it’s odd that (anonymous?) new owners could appear without any communication to existing Bartender customers beyond a note saying a certificate had been changed<\/a>. It’s Apple’s rules around signing app binaries, and the attention of MacUpdater, that brought this out into the open at all.<\/p>\n

A glance around the Bartender website does reveal that while Surtees celebrated 12 years of Bartender<\/a> in a blog post announcing version 5, posts from 2024 read more like SEO spam<\/a>, with “key takeaways” summaries at the top, followed by unrelated Mac tips, followed by a pitch for Bartender.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Jonas Wisser<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The transaction needs to be acknowledged and endorsed by both the seller and the buyer. Otherwise it looks like one or the other (or both) are trying to pull something.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Jeff Johnson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I am doing fine, hope to be an indie dev forever, have no plans to sell StopTheMadness, and indeed never had an acquisition offer, but if someone totally mad offered me $millions for it, I absolutely would owe my customers an announcement.<\/p>\n

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s a sacred responsibility to run my native code on other people’s computers, and I take that responsibility seriously. Your customers trusted you, and any developer who violates that trust harms all other developers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Jeff Johnson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

1) A comment by MacUpdater about the new Developer ID code signing certificate. Before it became Bartender App LLC it was temporarily App Sub 1 LLC, a name shared by a number of iOS App Store apps.<\/p>\n

2) A tweet from a Chinese software distributor claiming that the new owner of Bartender is applause.dev<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

ran mak<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

This is the same group that acquired and then fucked up VoiceDream by forcing users to a subscription model even if they had paid the full price when it first came out (they later backtracked).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

A few weeks ago, I heard from a reader who said that:<\/p>\n

\n

[The] app now attempts to connect to Amplitude and to export analytics without, as far as I can tell, making this clear. I found my Wi-Fi MAC address in the Analytics’ JSON trail, which is dirty at best and a gross violation of GDPR at worst.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The release notes for the latest update did not make the change in certificate clear, only explaining that macOS would prompt for permissions again due to an issue in the TCC database — which is sadly riddled with bugs, making the explanation perfectly plausible.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Greg Pierce<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I don’t know anything about Bartender, but I do know that acquisition by a private equity backed app farm is one of the only practical exit strategies for indie developers who are looking to move on from a project, so expect it to happen again.<\/p>

I think this not inherently bad, there are such organizations that are reputable, but certainly there are plenty that are not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Craig Hockenberry<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The problem with Bartender is that you are giving Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions to an unknown entity.<\/p>

With Accessibility APIs you can control the Mac (including other apps). With Screen Recording APIs you can see everything that’s happening.<\/p>

Both of those things require trust, and the new owners being silent about the matter does not gain that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Craig Hockenberry<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

If you have Bartender currently installed, I would not assume that dragging the app to the trash is enough to get rid of it.<\/p>\n

Again, since it has a higher level of access than other apps, there may be things lurking around.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Christian Tietze<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Marco (@esamecar@social.lol<\/a>) posted a list of alternatives<\/a>. From that list, I filtered out MAS-only and Chinese-subtitled apps[…]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

As I was about to hit Publish, I saw that the original developer, Ben<\/a> Surtees<\/a>, had finally made an announcement:<\/p>\n

After the release of Bartender 5, I came to the realization that supporting all the users and maintaining the app at the high standard I expect and you deserve was too much for one person. It required a dedicated team that could provide continuous support, innovate, and keep up with the fast-evolving macOS landscape. This realization led me to make a difficult decision.<\/p>\n

Three months ago, I sold Bartender to Applause, a company with the resources and expertise to take the app to new heights. Applause shares my vision for Bartender and is committed to maintaining its core values while bringing in new features and improvements. I truly believe they are the right team to continue the journey and ensure Bartender remains a valuable tool for all of you.<\/p>\n

I understand that the transition hasn’t been entirely smooth. Recently, there was a change in the signing certificate for the app, and unfortunately, this change wasn’t communicated properly to you, our loyal users. I apologize for any confusion or concern this may have caused.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n