TMO Background Mode: Interview with Founder & President of Bombich Software, Mike Bombich
Mike Bombich is the founder and president of Bombich Software, the developer of Carbon Copy Cloner. It’s a backup app for the Mac that has saved the day for many users. He started his career at Bowling Green State University studying aquatic ecology. But he also took computer science classes thinking that one day he would do scientific simulations of ecological systems. Soon, Mike discovered that he had a strong interest the software development process itself. Later, Mike worked for a tech support organization and discovered the real need for software that could back up the new Mac OS X launched in 2001. He created CCC. That got the attention of Apple and landed him a job working on technical solutions for professionals. Mike tells the story about how this app changed his life.
Show Notes
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archimedes: in the interview, Mike points out that Apple wouldn’t allow him to sell the app while employed there. That gave him a chance to build a client base. Once he left Apple, it became an opportunity to support himself and build a thriving business.
@jmartellaro A subscription model would be worse, agreed – but since I dumped CCC I’ve never looked back! When free apps add advertising, go paid, or drop essential features – or when (as in iOS all too frequently) paid apps go “free” adding advertising and/or IAP – it just feels like a bait-and-switch scam. I usually delete them and switch to something else.
@ archimedes
I’m with Mr Martellaro
CCC has saved my bacon so many times.
When Mike went to the “paid” mode, I couldn’t begrudge him.
It can’t be easy to write an app that does all that CCC does. And giving it away for free won’t pay the bills, and a pay to use model means Mike Bombich has more incentive to keep the app up to date and bug free.
archimedes: Free is nice. But there are some real positives here. Mike’s expertise landed him a job at Apple. After leaving Apple, Mike created a business. A legendary company in fact. He supports himself. His business pays taxes. He employs a few other people, so he’s created jobs for others. And he’s decided not to go the subscription route, so once you buy his app, it doesn’t expire. Many can attest to how CCC has saved the day. This is all very good stuff.
Used the free version for years and tried to support continued development by clicking on the OWC ads. I ended up really loving this app and depending on it to be part of my backup strategy. So I purchased it for all my Macs. I can say with confidence CCC has never really let me down and has saved my bacon on more than one occasion.
It’s annoying when your favorite “free” app adds more and more monetization over time. Carbon Copy Cloner seems to have ruined its “free” version, so SuperDuper and Disk Utility are my tools of choice at this point.