I've seen a few apps get around this by packaging them in a standard .dmg and giving the user clear instructions ("just right-click") as the background image of the opened container, or as the name of the app, or on the download website, etc. Although generally these have been fairly tech-oriented apps where the users would be likely to know the shortcut anyway!
Can't you just right click?
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Re: Can't you just right click?
#12Windows is starting to pull the same shit. Walled garden OS's are the future for most regular users.
Good. Regular users are not sufficiently computer-savvy to avoid being tricked into installing malware.
Re: Can't you just right click?
#13This makes me wonder how open source is supposed to work on macOS. People seem to become more and more aware of it and even enterprises that insisted on support contracts can see that they can't get around open source completely anymore. Meanwhile Apple is removing the ability for me to have a pet project without paying an Apple tax. If the message were completely transparent, something like "The developer didn't pay…
Many (often cross-platform) apps are no longer signed, so they throw up this warning–I assume that users of these have long since learned that the warning is just something they need to bypass. macOS-native apps have largely adopted notarization and the fee that comes with it. Open source command line tools do not need to be notarized.
Interestingly enough, it seems to be possible to notarize someone else's app, so perhaps it might be a worthwhile use of my developer ID to provide this service to people I trust but don't want to shell out money…
Re: Can't you just right click?
#14This makes me wonder how open source is supposed to work on macOS. People seem to become more and more aware of it and even enterprises that insisted on support contracts can see that they can't get around open source completely anymore. Meanwhile Apple is removing the ability for me to have a pet project without paying an Apple tax. If the message were completely transparent, something like "The developer didn't pay…
It mostly doesn't. That is 20% because of bullshit like this and 80% because Apple deprecates, removes, changes and otherwise encumbers their operating system so much that keeping track of it all is a full-time job.
Re: Can't you just right click?
#15This makes me wonder how open source is supposed to work on macOS. People seem to become more and more aware of it and even enterprises that insisted on support contracts can see that they can't get around open source completely anymore. Meanwhile Apple is removing the ability for me to have a pet project without paying an Apple tax. If the message were completely transparent, something like "The developer didn't pay…
Open source projects sign their Apps like anyone else. Works fine.
They do the same on Windows of course and on Linux package managers.
Re: Can't you just right click?
#16On a related note, the macOS 11 Beta 5 released today reveals that Apple silicon Macs will require all ARM executables to be signed: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2020/08/19/apple-silicon-macs-to-req... , https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-note...
From Apple's documentation:
> There isn’t a specific identity requirement for this signature: a simple ad-hoc signature issued locally is sufficient, which includes signatures which are now generated automatically by the linker. This new behavior doesn’t change the long-established policy that our users and developers can run arbitrary code on their Macs
So, the sky isn't falling yet, but it is reasonable to be concerned.
Re: Can't you just right click?
#17This feature is at about the right spot for me. It is still convenient enough for me to run software I want that isn't signed, but sufficiently obtuse that neither of my parents have figured it out. Given they are both prone to running any executable that any website tells them to download and run, this feature has probably save me several dozen hours of fixing their computers.
My answer to that was chromebooks.
Re: Can't you just right click?
#18On a related note, the macOS 11 Beta 5 released today reveals that Apple silicon Macs will require all ARM executables to be signed: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2020/08/19/apple-silicon-macs-to-req... , https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-note...
I know exactly why this requirement exists (parts of the OS have entirely different code paths depending on whether a binary is signed or not) but it is still annoying to have to ad-hoc sign everything.
Re: Can't you just right click?
#19I'm not sure what the point of that page or posting it here is. This system (and others like it) is neither new nor special. It's also not a bad thing, and I haven't seen anyone come up with a better alternative.
Generally you see all major distribution options have signatures with a CA-type trust structure no matter what you use, be it open-source, free or commercial paid software. On Windows, macOS and at least all Linux distros based on dpkg or rpm you have signatures and circumventing that requires a bunch of steps that will prevent most users from shooting themselves in the foot.
Re: Can't you just right click?
#20This is just a cash grab from Apple, and part of a series of unethical behaviour by a monopoly (eg app store dictatorship).
This would be totally unnessisary if apps could run in a sandbox. It wouldn't matter if I run some random game I downloaded off the internet if it can't do anything on my computer outside of its own sandbox.
And to the people that say it's not possible, just look at web browsers. Each website runs in a complete sandbox.
For apps that do need to use operating system functions, then you can escalate privellages with user consent. For example, mobile apps, that ask: "This app wants access to your camera"