If there's no mining in NXT, how exactly did the coins get distributed? Someone mentioned that people bought them initially. So the developer made BTC off of selling his premined coins? At least ripple gave some away for free...

Initial IPO of NXT was only 21 BTC.
PoS must be initially distributed- it lies in its nature. The way BC did it was very smart : Proof of Work.
There's nothing shady with these. Just a lot of misunderstanding usually.
So how many people exactly received NXT in this initial IPO? probably just the dev and a close circle of his friends. This BlackCoin thing doesn't seem much better either. How long did the mining period last for? Probably only a few people got their hands on them before mining ended, which is weird as the coin is like 2 weeks old.
LiteCoin has a better distribution than both of these, and people can still mine them with GPUs. As far as I can tell, this BlackCoin only has pump-and-dump potential at the very most.
http://maarx.nl/maarx.nl/blackcoin/distributionI was from beginig and those top 10 places was floating 1m - 4m...
i think distribution of BC was ok.
There is no sense in ague about distribution because now eg with up coming ASIC for LTC will brake your great distribution like it is with BTC.
Only BTC farm can get some coins like that from cex.io.
Whole idea mining BTC for regular Joe was burrowed year ago.
Now only BTC farms get some BTC...
LTC was mined in 33% by gpus now with ASICs your distribution will follow BTC path...
I give LTC hmm 6-12 months and forget GPUs. That will be ASICs festival.
LTC was P&D too it took time to stabilize market. LTC price jumps 1$-50$-13$ ^^ yea P&D free during lifespan.
Give BC one year and then we can talk which distribution is better.
Today in one month of lifespown there is no sense to argue about it.
NXT is just other kind of distribution...