That meant snapping up links to pretty much any freeware I could find. On the plus side, it also meant that those few apps were likely maintained by developers willing to stick it out with the platform despite its tiny market share.

Twenty years later, there is a tsunami of new Mac apps driven by vibe coders. The good news is that we have a much larger selection. The bad news is that much of it is best avoided.

As an example, I use Ghost Crop to crop the transparent pixels that often surround the icons I post on Thriftmac. It’s been out for four years and works fine. I gave it five stars.

A few days ago, I came across an app that costs about the same and does a bunch of other image-related things as well. I downloaded the trial version and gave it a try. The results were pretty bad.

This developer is quite prolific, with dozens of apps on his site up for grabs. The prices are quite reasonable.

But it has to make you wonder. How can someone crank out so many apps and offer them so cheaply? They have to be vibe coded. And not only that, but vibe coded without attention to detail. If users report issues, I’m sure he’ll get Claude to fix them. It doesn’t inspire confidence.

Meanwhile, Ighor July has a blog that I’ve come to appreciate over the past few months called Reverse Everything.

He has his own apps for sale, but also recommends others. Without exception, these are apps that have stood the test of time, coming from an era when vibe coding did not exist.

His interviews with the developers of these apps are inspirational. Their dedication and perseverance give you faith that this is software you can rely on.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I’m having a tougher time selecting apps for Thriftmac. It’s reached the point where it would be impossible to list them all, so I’m leaning more heavily on the curation side of things.

Am I qualified to do that? Well, I’ve had over 20 years of experience, so that should count for something. In the end, though, that’s for you to decide, dear reader.