545 Studios goes down

545 Studios was a company of dedicated software developers who, for years, created and maintained a set of freeware programs that had quite an impressive following.

About a year or two ago they began offering commercial software as well as a way to try to pay the bills and move on into bigger things as their talent and skills improved.  Unfortunately, they have called it quits. 

While they had, at times, generated some controversy with very strong opinions on how software should be made and distributed, I must say that over the past couple of years I had really grown to respect and admire much of what they were trying to achieve. To sum it up, they "Got it". I.e. they more than most, really understood the net economy. 

You hear about people being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes the opposite is true. Had they gotten into things just a little earlier I suspect they may have become household names. Anyone who visited their site could almost feel the sizzle of web design talent for instance.  Some venture capital at the right time with their talent and who knows what might have happened.

We wish them good luck on their future endeavors.