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Leaving the Mac App Store

blog.sketchapp.com

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Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#91

Post by makecheck »

kremdela wrote: post #60

I'll just play devils advocate here. As a consumer, I really like buying from the Mac App store solely for the user experience of, when I eventually new a new Macbook Pro, I can easily sync all of my purchases, rather than having to retrieve the licenses and go download the latest version of each piece of software I've purchased. As a developer, I've heard countless horror stories and totally understand.

The sad thing is, they didn't even need an App Store to provide this type of service, and it would have been more useful without a store. Apple already has iCloud; they only needed a variation of the current sync mechanism (something a bit smarter that knows how to find stuff in Applications and related files like Library->Preferences). If they're comfortable giving away free gigabytes of storage to people, they shouldn't care about uploading all of a user's apps — from a store or not — and syncing them anywhere.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#92

Post by mikeash »

tomphoolery wrote: post #79
song wrote: post #3

I avoid buying from the mac app store as much as possible. If Apple ever decided to change mac os x to no longer allow external applications, I would switch to Linux right away. I don't want to do that because I do like the os X better a GUI... But there's no way I'd stay on a system that wouldn't allow me to do what I want with it.

> If Apple ever decided to change mac os x to no longer allow external applications, I would switch to Linux right away. Even if that did happen, which it wouldn't, what would stop you from compiling the application yourself, theoretically? If Apple computers allow for compilation of their own software, which they probably always will given that a Mac is the only way you can make OS X or iOS apps at this time, then O…

You can compile software for iOS too. If you consider this to be an adequate escape hatch for the Mac, then it must also be one for iOS. If OS X "will never get to a point like the iPad" then the iPad can't get to that point either!

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#93

Post by seivan »

91bananas wrote: post #37
seivan wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you prefer exclusive Mac OS games through Steam or Mac App Store?

Steam all day, especially after this disaster of expired certificates this year [0]. I had a copy of a game from 2007 that will probably never be touched by the developers again, which leaves me $20 in the hole with a broken game. I bought it again from Steam, works better than the App Store version ever did. [0]: http://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/17/apple-responds-mac-app-s...

I am sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. This game, was it a OSX/iOS exclusive or cross-platform AAA game?

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#94

Post by optimuspaul »

I pretty much only use the Mac App Store anymore. There are maybe 2 apps I use that I get outside of it. I have a bunch that I are woefully out of date because their developers abandoned me. It's too bad that rather than trying to push to make it a better place developers are just leaving.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#95

Post by aerialcombat »

They should seriously do something about the review times. I'm sure they can come up with a plenty of good solutions if they wanted to.

I suggest maybe giving developers a bank of a set number of expedited review passes per year or so, so they can use it when they really need it. Damn it.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#96

Post by aerialcombat »

They should seriously do something about the review times. I'm sure they can come up with a plenty of good solutions if they wanted to.

I suggest maybe giving developers a bank of a set number of expedited review passes per year or so, so they can use it when they really need it. Damn it.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#97

Post by simonh »

roosterjm2k2 wrote: post #27
austenallred wrote: post #2

>App Review continues to take at least a week That must be the most frustrating/annoying thing in the world. > there are technical limitations imposed by the Mac App Store guidelines (sandboxing and so on) that limit some of the features we want to bring to Sketch I'm sure there are good intentions to what Apple is doing there, but it would be nice to know more details. > and upgrade pricing remains unavailable Man,…

The intention of most of their decisions is more about their own money... Case in point, it took forever for chrome or opera to come to iOS because they "competed" with the apple product already integrated into the OS, and "provided a less seamless user experience" ... basically, Apple didn't want to be outshined on their own platform...

I'm not sure who you're quoting with those quote marks. It's not Apple though, because I don't believe they ever said any such thing.

The reason Apple has always given is security. This is the reason they gave for not allowing third party access to the JIT version of the javascript engine. Their critics at the time claimed this was really because they didn't want other browsers competing with Safari, and they'd never let anyone have it because of that. Then when Apple developed the XPC framework allowing secure remote execution, they opened up the JIT engine to third party browsers in a secure way.

So far Apple's actual behaviour has been completely consistent with their stated reasons, which are not the reasons you are 'quoting' from somewhere, and in several respect contrary to the predictions of their critics. Isn't it possible that they are being honest about their motives?

But on the other hand, yes, the Mac App Store is a broken mess. Right now it's part of the problem with app distribution on the desktop, not part of the solution.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#98

Post by mikeash »

X-Istence wrote: post #31
Already__Taken wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam does this to me as well sometimes. Why can't these stores use some kind of encryption that can just validate "Yes at some point in the past this has been purchased on this computer" and leave it at that. Always online frankly seems excessive.

That's exactly what Apple's scheme does, except that Apple's root certificate expired... There is no communication between you and Apple when you launch applications.

Which is to say, that's exactly what Apple's scheme does, except in one crucial point where it does not, which malfunctioned and caused a bunch of havoc.

Why does a purchase receipt need to have an expiration date at all? It's stupid. This stuff should be once-and-done.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#99

Post by goodplay »

gtk40 wrote: post #65
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing you don't have a source for that because I would be shocked if it were any less than 99%. It would be wonderful to see genuine rivals, offering alternative business models.

The only significant one would be Amazon's app store, which doesn't really offer any improvements over Google's.

I use f-droid over te play store whenever I want to install an app.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#100

Post by mrspeaker »

Ha... nooow they do it. I purchased Sketch version 2 for 50 euros when I lived in France. Then I moved to the US and got a new computer - at the same time version 3 came out. There was no way for me to get version 2 back: I tried the old "just re-purchase it and it'll end up costing you $0" (which worked for a bunch of other apps - but they were still on the same version). Instead I payed another $70 for version 3. I wrote to Apple and got my money back... but now I'm stuck with a dodgy version of 3 (that I'm supposed to delete and can't get updates for) and no way to get 2 back. Do I actually own version 2? I don't know!
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