I've been using MacJournal (MJ) for over a year now - in fact I started using it not long after I bought my 14“ G4/933 iBook; the first 'Mac' I've owned since a Colour Classic 4/16. When I took up with MJ it’s principal attraction was that it was easy to use and that it was free - but not in that order. ☺ Look, I’ll be honest, like most people I *hate* paying for stuff like software which is inherently intangible. I'm certainly not going to pay if it's offered to me freely. However at the moment I'm staggered by the amount of negative commentary flashing around Version Tracker where many people are talking about a supposed breach of trust and so on. However the author, Dan Schimpf, originally released MJ as a freeware application - not an open source application. To start reading on the significance of this difference go here.

Plainly put then; MJ has never been anything other than a privately controlled program, the author's model of development (freeware) has it’s pros and cons extensively outlined in various free/Open-source software websites, rants, blogs, discourses and articles. Now I’m sure that there are plenty of Open-source programs that people could pick up for free and use or build on from and develop. Otherwise there are plenty of opportunities for people to start projects of their own; projects that will always be free if they're defined and licensed as such.

I suspect that this program has a big future in front of it and wish it all the success that it gets.