Beta 6 is up, go “Check for Updates…”

This release is the feature-complete. We might change the look of some buttons, might add or modify a shortcut here or there, might even juggle some menu items around — but that’s about it.

Preferences will need to get cleaned up, some interface strings have errors. Localizations are incomplete, and the Help does not reflect the change from 1.7 to 2.0 or much of the new features, for that matter. The links in the Help menu still lead to unfinished webpages.

Other than that, this will be it.
Happy testing, you know where to report. ;)

BTW: The release version will include several project templates as well as five to six default themes for use via Fonts & Colors. We might even include some freely available fonts, though this is still undecided (e.g. Gentium).

We’ve just started the Public Beta for Ulysses 2.0. If you’re interested, head over to the blue-tec forum, grab a copy, and let us know what you think.

After much debate and even more added features, we’ve decided to take Ulysses to version 2.0. That’s right: The next version will be a major release, our first full version jump after almost six years (!), and it will be an update more than worthy of the version change.

And yes, we will indeed charge an update-fee from long-time users. We’re still evaluating our grace-period policy, but please don’t worry. If you’re considering buying 1.6 right now, we won’t charge you again in a couple of weeks.

The move to 2.0 will also bring with it some changes to the way we handle updates and registrations. For one, we’re ditching the current registration process in favor of a simple serial number scheme. I could go into great lengths explaining why we implemented our system in the first place, but it will be gone for good anyway, so I don’t want to bother.

Second, we’ll be moving to Sparkle for automatic updates. This might be of minor interest to most users, but when we started Ulysses, Sparkle wasn’t available at all, so we came up with our own system. Turned out to be pretty much identical to Sparkle, so for 2.0 we’re giving up our own solution for a system that has become the defacto standard on Mac OS X — for third parties at least. Helps us focus on more important tasks.

There are still lots of as-of-yet unannounced features, but my guess is that you’ll rather play around with 2.0 yourself then read about it. If so, I’ve got news for you: We’ll be starting a public beta run of Ulysses 2.0 within the coming weeks. The application will be available for download over at the blue-tec forum, where we’ll also set up a PB-section again to exchange thoughts, comments and, uhm, bug-reports.

And that’s that.

I’m off to a two week’s holiday now. No web, no gaming consoles, no mobile phones. Let’s see if the kids play along, he…

Have fun!