macOS will keep reminding you that MacDown.app will not run on Apple silicon. That is not a bug in your Mac. That is an Intel-era markdown editor reaching the end of the road.
DownSide is the replacement we actually use.
The problem
MacDown was great: write left, preview right, stay in the files. Then Apple stopped being polite about Intel leftovers. Reminders. Then it will not launch.
You can keep a VM. You can switch to a $10/mo web editor. You can pretend Obsidian’s vault format is “just markdown” until you want to print. Or you can buy a Mac app that still thinks a folder of .md files is the product.
We kept hitting the reminder on machines we actually work on. That is a stupid reason to lose a writing tool. So we built the one we would pay for.
What DownSide is
A markdown workspace, not a file viewer.
- Point it at the folder where the files already live
- Split editor + live preview
- Print-ready PDF
- Apple silicon native — macOS 15+
- $39 one-time. No subscription.
Site: downside.alta-forma.com
It does not invent a database. It does not sync through a proprietary cloud that you cannot grep. Your vault is the directory. Git still works. Cursor still works on the same files. DownSide is where you finish the prose and print it.
Who it is for
Writers, agencies, and anyone whose vault is a directory — not a proprietary database in iCloud.
If Cursor is where code happens, DownSide is where the docs next to the code get finished. README, proposal, sermon notes, the post you are reading a draft of.
People who loved MacDown already know the muscle memory. We did not make you relearn markdown. We made the app launch on an MX Mac.
Same funeral, different app
ImageVectorizer.app is on the same Intel list. That replacement is Vectra.
Apple silicon is not a vibe. It is a compatibility wall. A lot of small Mac utilities never got a rewrite because the original author shipped it in 2014 and moved on. The OS will keep the reminders coming. We would rather sell you the tool than watch you keep a Hackintosh personality just to edit markdown.
Why it is on alta-forma.com
We sell websites. We also sell the Mac tools we refuse to lose. DownSide replaces MacDown. Vectra replaces ImageVectorizer. Both exist because we needed them on this desk.
$39. One time.