Mac App Store: Open for Business • Hacker News Board

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#131

Post by pohl » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:23 PM UTC

generalk wrote: post #77

cubicle67 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

at the risk of telling you what you already know... programmes on the mac have the extension .app; it's roughly equivalent to .exe in Windows (except it's not a binary, more like a .jar). When the iPhone started, I guess 'App' was the natural name for them, and thus App Store came naturally as well. Now it's come to the mac, it's makes even more sense, because it's back where it (Apps) started

Minor historical note: the .app extension for application bundles is a holdover from NeXTSTEP. I don't think that has anything to do with the usage of "app" on the iPhone, and I think the Mac App Store is branded that way for similarity with the iPhone store.

I don't think that has anything to do with the usage of "app" on the iPhone

Really? Why not? The iPhone is, after all, running a decedent of the NeXT codebase too.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#132

Post by lancer383 » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:23 PM UTC

toddmorey wrote: post #91

ugh wrote: post #50

Arrrg! No way of uninstalling apps in one central location. Why, Apple, why? There is this nice list of installed apps, why doesn’t it have an uninstall button? It doesn’t make any sense. I guess you are expected to drag apps to the trash like before? That sucks.

I realized something that I think is even bigger than uninstalling: There's no software trial mechanism in the App Store. That's always been the spirit of shareware (and a lot of hosted services, too). You install it, kick the tires, and then decide on purchasing before the trial is done. But here, even programs available for trial on the actual developer sites seem only to be available for instant purchase. (The equ…

I feel like developers will, an addition to building "Lite" versions, will start adding text to the production description that link users back to the website where they can download a full-featured trial version.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#133

Post by seabee » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:26 PM UTC

tftfmacedo wrote: post #90

jonprins wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which, considering disk space is cheap, is a better way to do it than getting stuck in apt dependency hell.

It's also a security nightmare.

So what's the solution? In the absence of libraries that never break and are fully backwards-compatible with newer versions, we have to make some tradeoffs...

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#134

Post by trotsky » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:28 PM UTC

tyng wrote: post #48

Wow, this is a major step towards creating an uniform marketplace for not just mobile and tablet but also traditional computers. It does seem like a natural next step, it should even have happened earlier, how come nobody thought of it until today?

The lindows desktop software marketplace was online in 2002 (if not earlier): http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9489846614.html

Steam Store also opened it's doors in 2002: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(software)

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#135

Post by ig1 » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:29 PM UTC

tyng wrote: post #48

Wow, this is a major step towards creating an uniform marketplace for not just mobile and tablet but also traditional computers. It does seem like a natural next step, it should even have happened earlier, how come nobody thought of it until today?

Steam have run an app store for sometime now

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#136

Post by dominostars » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:32 PM UTC

ugh wrote: post #50

Arrrg! No way of uninstalling apps in one central location. Why, Apple, why? There is this nice list of installed apps, why doesn’t it have an uninstall button? It doesn’t make any sense. I guess you are expected to drag apps to the trash like before? That sucks.

> Why, Apple, why?

Probably because it's version 1.0

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#137

Post by spacehaven » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:32 PM UTC

fwdbureau wrote: post #78

Call me old fashioned, but I fail to see how implementing a corporate middleman between developers and users can be a progress... OK, from a developer's stand point, this could be really beneficial (distribution, centralization etc), but as a user, it feels like seeing independent record stores about to be crushed by a shiny new Virgin Megastore. I can't help to hope this will be an immense failure

I'm sure someone much smarter than me could draw many parallels, both good and bad, between malls and apps stores.

Personally, I say I hate malls myself, yet once in a while I get the urge to go and buy a few things I didn't know I needed. I find comfort in the consistency of the stores, that you can go to any mall and find roughly the same vendors. Once at the mall, my choices are narrowed down (which ties into the whole Paradox of Choice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More...).

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#138

Post by sudont » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:32 PM UTC

inovica wrote: post #115

rudd wrote: post #43

I will say this: Apple is not afraid to leave old technology behind. While website XYZ aims to support multiple versions of every browser, including those released a decade ago (IE6), Apple won't even support Leopard with its new store, which was the version that came with the Mac I got just over a year ago.

If you look at the history of Apple this is something that they do often when they believe in something strongly. Removing the floppy drive, being one that I remember very strongly. I feel Leopard support would have been useful, however I'm sure they have a good reason for it. I actually welcome the App Store and I have some ideas for Mac-specific apps that would be very difficult to market for the money they would a…

It's also a subtle way to get the new age devs to forget about supporting two architectures. It's not so big of a deal with something that's entirely Cocoa, but this would cause a lot of problems with games and anything written with low-level, performance happy functions. I think.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#139

Post by powrtoch » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:32 PM UTC

Disappointed to see Twitter among the most popular apps. For mobile devices the native-app-front-end-for-existing-websites was arguably necessary and beneficial, but for desktop clients it really feels like a big step back to start moving back out of the browser.

Re: Mac App Store: Open for Business

#140

Post by anto1ne » Thu, Jan 06, 2011, 4:35 PM UTC

ugh wrote: post #68

tyng wrote: post #58

iTunes should be renamed, it's not just about the "tunes" anymore

The App Store is not part of iTunes.

App Store app is just a different interface to the itunes servers, you can try to copy links in App Store and you'll see the exact same kind of url as for tunes, movies, iOS apps, etc... In fact I don't understand why they didn't integrate App Store in iTunes. Maybe they realized iTunes is crap, or they didn't want to change the icon once again. Doesn't make me feel like they have long term strategies lately.. kind of the same with Facetime desktop not being in iChat.