UDPATE: 4/25/2004. I realized that I haven't updated the website in some time, so here's the latest:

As many users have observed, InformINIT has been "on hold" for a while now. Although my goal has always been to eventually release a "final" version of InformINIT for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X's Classic environment, I don't know when (or even if) such a version might be available.

The truth is that InformINIT has never been a profitable venture. Although it was one of the most acclaimed shareware titles for the "classic" Mac OS, it was purchased by less than 1% of its users. Despite estimates of around a million downloads over the years, it only brought in -- at its peak -- a few thousand dollars a year (for thousands of hours of work).

I point this out not for sympathy -- I've actually enjoyed writing InformINIT over the years! -- but to illustrate that InformINIT was always a "labor of love" rather than a reliable source of income for me. Many shareware developers increase purchase rates by limiting their software in some way until users purchase it. However, given that InformINIT is "information" rather than traditional software, it was difficult to restrict the app in any way (and I didn't feel right doing so). I relied on users to pay for InformINIT if they found it useful. Some paid, but most didn't.

Why is any of this important? When I was a single graduate student in the mid-1990's, it was feasible to spend a lot of time on InformINIT without getting much in return. However, as some long-time users know, I had a serious injury that prevented me from working on InformINIT for a while, and more recently the economics and time constraints of getting older -- family, "real" work, etc. -- have made it tough to spend much time on InformINIT. To put it plainly, working on InformINIT doesn't pay the rent/mortgage.

I've given a lot of thought to the future of InformINIT and, at this point, I have no idea when (or if) a new version will be finished. If it is, all registered users will be notified via email of its availability. I'm also toying with the idea of making InformINIT's information available in a format that allows users to contribute to it.

One final note: If you're one of the users who did purchase InformINIT over the years, I sincerely thank you for your support. I hope that InformINIT has been useful enough to you to that you feel you got your money's worth.