This is the core of the disappointment that many of us feel with the Sparrow acquisition. It’s not about the $15 or less we spent on the apps. It’s not about the team’s well-deserved payout. It’s about the loss of faith in a philosophy that we thought was a sustainable way to ensure a healthy future for independent software development, where most innovation happens.

via The real reason we’re upset about Sparrow’s acquisition. So true. I paid for Sparrow for Mac and iOS and

I don’t even use them. I use Mailplane and Apple’s iOS Mail.app, mainly because I can’t deal with using IMAP, not even with IDLE. I bought Sparrow because I wanted to support an awesome independent software company and a lot of my friends love both Sparrow clients. No one owes anyone anything, we paid and got great software for more than a year, and people moved on. This worries me a bit though, what if 1Password gets acquired? I depend on it so much that my life would literally be different if one day it stops getting updates with new versions of browsers and OS.