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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1464866
Unclutter unclutterapp.com/help-ukraine • unclutterapp.com Unclutter Unclutter is a simple app that does a lot of handy things to make your Mac a better place to work. As its name implies, it adds a bunch of Finder-related features you often need, and keeps them out of the way when you don’t. The company is headquartered in Kiev. The company’s founder and CEO shared his experience and observations with us. Eugene Krupnov, Unclutter CEO Good evening! We’re from Ukraine. This greeting has become very popular after the beginning of the war. Now it’s widely used in different videos demonstrating the resilience and unity of Ukrainians. Originally used in a track by Ukrainian DJs, it is now a symbolic expression that inspires and causes pride for the Ukrainian people. My name’s Eugene. I’m the owner and lead developer of Unclutter, a productivity app for MacOS. We have a small team based in Kyiv. War… war never changes Although we were feeling the pressure ever since we’d heard about the increasing number of Russian troops by the Ukrainian border at the end of the last year, the full-scale invasion on Feb, 24 was no less shocking to us. That morning I woke up at 7 am to drive my 8-year old daughter to school as usual and read that the war had started. I decided not to wake her up. That day my wife and I were hopelessly trying to regain self-control. The whole situation seemed surreal. We couldn’t decide whether we wanted to leave or stay. Leaving home is never easy. The first distant sounds of explosions broke that indecisiveness. We packed our stuff and left Kyiv. It was obvious that the capital would become the occupants’ primary target. As we were fleeing the city, we heard how the shelling escalated, we saw unthinkable traffic across the highways and endless lines at every gas station. It was night time. And it seemed like an apocalypse. Nonetheless, from the very first moments of the war, we also witnessed the unity and integrity of our people. Complete strangers were helping each other unconditionally. In fact, there were no strangers now: there were us - the Ukrainians, and them - the Russian invaders. We reached the house of our relatives in Western Ukraine two days after. Over this short period, our daughter kept asking if we would die. “Not today”, we joked, quoting Arya from Game of Thrones. What’s now Imagine that your life has completely changed in just a few days. We had prepaid cinema tickets for Moonfall for February 25 but instead got an apocalypse in real life. And it’s not that entertaining, believe me. It’s emptiness, fear for your loved ones, and shame you feel because you don’t do enough for your country. It’s a sensation of overwhelming despair each time you read about murdered civilians and children or soldiers who died protecting their homeland. It’s also destroyed cities - the places you loved and felt connected to. No more morning coffee from your favorite cup, no more school pictures of your kids, and no school itself. Imagine you can’t hug your relatives or meet friends cause all of them have become refugees. As many others we hoped we were only leaving for a few days. But here we are still, hiding for almost a month. Some of our employees were fortunate enough to be abroad when everything started - now they’re trying to help by going to demonstrations and protesting. Other guys from our office are still in Ukraine volunteering. We’ve been planning to release a major update this Fall. And