# Daniel Jalkut

> Daniel Jalkut is a Mac and iOS indie developer who founded Red Sweater Software in 2002 after seven years engineering Mac OS at Apple. He is best known for MarsEdit, the long-running desktop blog editor he bought from Brent Simmons in 2007, and for FastScripts, a scripting automation utility. For 16 years he co-hosted Core Intuition with Manton Reece, one of the defining podcasts of the indie Apple-developer scene, and he runs the long-form interview show Bitsplitting. He is a fixture of the indie web and micro.blog community, writing about software craft, the business of going it alone, and the texture of a programming life.

- **Role:** Founder and lead developer at Red Sweater Software
- **Organizations:** Red Sweater Software, Core Intuition, Bitsplitting
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA, Computer & Information Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, BA, Music (history and theory), San Francisco State University
- **Known for:** Founded and has run Red Sweater Software single-handedly for over two decades., Maintained and modernized MarsEdit, one of the longest-lived desktop blog editors on the Mac., Co-created and co-hosted Core Intuition, a foundational indie Apple-developer podcast, for 16 years.

## Career timeline

- **1995** — Programmer at UC Santa Cruz working on environmental data systems across multiple workstation platforms; earned BA in Computer & Information Sciences.
- **1995** — Joined Apple as a Software Quality Engineer, talking his way toward an engineering role.
- **1995-2002** — Rose to Senior System Software Engineer at Apple, contributing to Mac OS 7.6 through 10.2, including Carbon APIs and the Code Fragment Manager; led a pre-Safari custom web browser project for Mac OS 9.
- **2002** — Founded Red Sweater Software as an independent Mac developer.
- **2005** — Earned a second BA, in Music, from San Francisco State University.
- **2007** — Acquired MarsEdit from Brent Simmons (NewsGator/NetNewsWire) and took over its development.
- **2008** — Launched the Core Intuition podcast with Manton Reece.
- **2013** — Started the Bitsplitting interview podcast and blog.
- **2024** — Retired Core Intuition after 16 years and roughly 580 episodes.

## Achievements

- Founded and has run Red Sweater Software single-handedly for over two decades.
- Maintained and modernized MarsEdit, one of the longest-lived desktop blog editors on the Mac.
- Co-created and co-hosted Core Intuition, a foundational indie Apple-developer podcast, for 16 years.
- Contributed to multiple releases of Mac OS (7.6-10.2) as an Apple system software engineer, including Carbon APIs.
- Built a respected catalog of indie Mac utilities including FastScripts and Black Ink.

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Quoted by John Gruber on Daring Fireball for his commentary on AI.
- **2026-04** — Active on his micro.blog, posting on indie software and the open web.

## Links

- Website: https://redsweater.com/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/danielpunkass
- GitHub: https://github.com/danielpunkass
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/danielpunkass.punkitup.com

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/daniel-jalkut
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-04