So today I got spammed by Logos software to tell me that their product line now includes a version of Logos Bible software for Mac OS. () I have several responses to this.

1. I’ve refrained from buying products that would otherwise have interested me from companies I might otherwise support simply because the product came to my attention through spam. In some cases, I’ve take the information from the spam and searched for a competing product.

2. I know that a lot of people use the Logos software, but I’ve never really given it a serious look because it was always too rich for my blood (current range $150-1380). I realize that the copyrighted works included require royalties be paid, which drives the cost up. I’m not suggesting that the value isn’t there to some degree, but it just always felt steep since if I bothered at all, I’d be into it at some scholarly level, well past the price range for the intro levels.

3. When I finished college 20 years ago, I planned to purchase Bible software of some form, but given the cost, I never did. Back in the ’90s, I was looking more closely at BibleWorks, but by the time I was almost ready to spend the money, I began finding more and more resources on the Internet, even close to ten years ago. Basically, I waited long enough that it generally seemed irrelevant — not something you should purchase. Now I run Linux and look more to free and open source software: there are a few credible packages out there where the framework and the public domain texts at no cost, with only the copyrighted texts incurring a fee.

4. I have always collected books and study tools, slowly building my library over the past 20 years. Many of the tools that are included in the software are sitting on my shelf. At times it takes a bit longer to look up what I’m after, but if it’s more than a passing reference, I find in most cases I still prefer the hard copies to reading onscreen.

That’s basically the summary of my approach to Bible software over the past 20 years, during which more resources have become available at lower (or no) cost, with the most common ones being available online — “online” having become a near-ubiquitous state over the same timeframe. So my question is, with the Logos software now coming out for the Mac, will anyone actually care?

Do you use Bible software, and if so, which one? Do you use or prefer online study tools? Which ones, and why?