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The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

marco.org

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Re: The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

#41

Post by masklinn »

bishnu wrote: post #22
Bobby_Tables wrote: post #7

The iOS App Store does the same thing with changing the rules in the middle of the game, but it is not subject to potential irrelevance because it is the only place to get software for iOS devices. So the obvious solution for Apple is to make the Mac App Store the only place to get software for MacOS. I'm actually a little surprised this didn't happen in 10.8.

By default Mountain Lion can only run software from the App Store or by developers Apple has specifically certified. You can tune this restriction both up ("App Store only") and down ("any software can run").

> by developers Apple has specifically certified.

There is no "special certification", it's just a matter of creating a developer account and generating a certificate.

Also, right-click -> open will bypass the verification under the assumption that if you know about that command, you probably somewhat know what you're doing.

Re: The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

#42

Post by briandear »

mikejarema wrote: post #38

I'm wondering how soon until we see OSX being jailbroken. I suspect system level choices like this are bound to continue in order to push users in the direction of iCloud and AppStore usage (ie. vendor lock-in). Though such moves appear draconian from our perspective, I believe Apple times such moves around when some internal metrics indicate a tipping point has happened, namely the developer backlash won't be substa…

Jail broken? What for? You can run any app you want.. Just not accidentally.

Re: The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

#44

Post by illumin8 »

Bobby_Tables wrote: post #7

The iOS App Store does the same thing with changing the rules in the middle of the game, but it is not subject to potential irrelevance because it is the only place to get software for iOS devices. So the obvious solution for Apple is to make the Mac App Store the only place to get software for MacOS. I'm actually a little surprised this didn't happen in 10.8.

iOS has never had a legitimate way to install code in userspace outside of the App store. OS X has a long and rich history of allowing people to run any code in userspace that they want.

This is one of those situations where you can't really close the barn door after the horse has already left.

Re: The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

#45

Post by brudgers »

tadhgk wrote: post #17

Future of irrelevance to who exactly? The 1-in-10000 users who like to play with root level access and scripts and stuff perhaps, but do the other 9999 even notice the change? I'm thinking not. Granted it's a big change from earlier times, the strategy of sandboxing works really well for security and general OS integrity (as iOS has proved) in a world that has no patience for fragmented and exploitative software. Per…

"Microsoft is going the same way too with Metro."

Not exactly. Metro and its app store are only "half" of Windows 8. The other half isn't sandboxed in the walled garden style. To put it another way, Microsoft isn't building the Windows App Store on the back of existing software, but from the ground up using only sandboxed apps.

Microsoft isn't likely to create the sort of moving target for developers that Apple has recently because doing so would not be consistent with the B2B model that underpins their corporate culture.

Re: The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

#46

Post by briandear »

carson wrote: post #11

I think the idea that Apple can't require MAS is wrong. Maybe they can't for everyone but I would bet they can for a lot of people and probably plan to. At some point developers will be buying the developer version of the OS that gets them around the sandbox.

There's no sandbox on the OS. RTFM.

Re: The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

#47

Post by jsz0 »

How about a content rating system? People are familiar with this from movies, television and music. A developer could declare their un-sandboxed application the equivalent of NC17 while most users live happily in their equivalent of a PG13 universe.

Re: The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

#48

Post by spaghetti »

zemo wrote: post #31

this whole article goes over my head, because it assumes the reader is already familiar with the sandboxing issue. I'm not a desktop OS X developer; I'm not familiar with the topic. I searched around and the only articles I could find are blog posts about how the sky is falling, with no sources from Apple that plainly state the app sandboxing requirements. If you're going to write an article about how some upcoming t…

I'd like to understand the implications of sandboxing too. It must have some large negative impact on Instapaper for Marco to care this much. What is it?

Re: The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

#49

Post by St-Clock »

Splines wrote: post #37
archgrove wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which would instantly kill the Mac as a development platform, and render all previously purchased software irrelevant. This just won't happen, though I can see a version of OS X that does this by default (perhaps on all "non-pro" models).

I think the only viable way to do this would be for Apple to make Macs obsolete. Like boiling a frog, if they upscaled the ipad to a desktop-lite device over the next few years, and eventually replaced their fully featured cousins with these devices, they would be able to accomplish it with far much less resistance. (The iMac may have been a few years too early - they could have positioned the iMac as the trojan hors…

But you need a Mac to develop most (i)OS applications and I cannot imagine some of the more complex apps being developed on an iPad-like device.

Re: The Mac App Store’s future of irrelevance

#50

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

Bobby_Tables wrote: post #7

The iOS App Store does the same thing with changing the rules in the middle of the game, but it is not subject to potential irrelevance because it is the only place to get software for iOS devices. So the obvious solution for Apple is to make the Mac App Store the only place to get software for MacOS. I'm actually a little surprised this didn't happen in 10.8.

A few reasons why I think this will never happen:

* Taking something away from someone that they've always had (as would be the case with OS X) is very different to never giving them it (as has been the case with iOS).

* People are used to doing stuff that isn't possible with the current restrictions - with iOS they've only ever had those restrictions so they're not aware of what they might be missing out on.

* Developer goodwill would evaporate overnight. I'm not even sure it would be possible to develop on a Mac with this sort of restriction in place given the low level activity you often need to play around with.

* They'd need to develop a parallel mechanism for managing machines or lose what little they have of the Enterprise who are never going to use the app store.

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