I’m Mike Piatek-Jimenez, the owner of Gaucho Software.  I founded the company back in 2004 as an outlet for making great Mac software.  But I’ve been a Mac user much longer.  My parents bought a Mac 512Ke when I was 7, and I’ve been a fan ever since.  I graduated with a degree in Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and later continued my education by studying meteorology at Central Michigan University.  

While working toward my undergraduate degree, I spent a lot of time learning the open source operating systems FreeBSD and Linux.  In 2002, I decided to contribute back to the open source community that taught me so much.  I wanted to learn how to write apps for the Mac, so I started working on an open source system monitor called X Resource Graph (or XRG, for short).  I released the first public version of it on October 24th, 2002.  Once the feedback from users started rolling in, I was hooked.

In 2003 I went to the O’Reilly Mac OS X Conference to learn more about Mac development.  That’s where I met a few Indie Mac Developers who inspired me to work on my own software full-time and start Gaucho Software.  The name comes from the mascot of UC Santa Barbara, the Gaucho.

Two decades later the journey continues.  I hope you enjoy using my software as much as I have enjoyed writing it.