Can't you just right click? • Hacker News Board

Re: Can't you just right click?

#171

Post by henvic » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:51 PM UTC

I've ran into this signing issue a few years ago when trying to distribute a binary for applications (tips, if you need to do so here: https://henvic.dev/posts/cs-security/), and while it's a hassle for developers I really appreciate that this is making using computer applications safer.

The next step is naturally adding boundaries about what applications can do just akin to containers, sandboxes, or permissions found on smartphones operating systems. I just hope some sort of standard emerges so we don't have each major vendor implementing their own incompatible system (okay, too late).

Re: Can't you just right click?

#172

Post by dwaite » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:53 PM UTC

rurp wrote: post #140

FreakyT wrote: post #7

I still believe that Gatekeeper is a blatant cash grab and not a legitimate security feature. $100/year to avoid a scary warning about how your app is definitely a virus? It's like a protection racket.

I think this is part of a longer term and much larger cash grab of eventually forcing all Mac software to go through the app store. Apple will of course require a modest 30% cut of all sales for providing their benevolent oversight.

It seems infeasible that this is a long-term cash grab. The Mac App Store will be ten years old this October.

The most recent opportunity to attempt this would be with the architecture change this fall, which they have not taken.

Re: Can't you just right click?

#173

Post by FabHK » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:53 PM UTC

turblety wrote: post #41

FreakyT wrote: post #7

I still believe that Gatekeeper is a blatant cash grab and not a legitimate security feature. $100/year to avoid a scary warning about how your app is definitely a virus? It's like a protection racket.

It absolutely is a cash grab, and part of a series of unethical behaviour from Apple. Since the latest awful hardware products (terrible keyboard, control strip thing that breaks, no escape key) with MacBooks and a great improvement with using Linux via Purism and System76 I've managed to move away from Apple.

> latest awful hardware

The latest round fixed all of these problems.

Re: Can't you just right click?

#174

Post by dividedbyzero » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:55 PM UTC

turblety wrote: post #41

FreakyT wrote: post #7

I still believe that Gatekeeper is a blatant cash grab and not a legitimate security feature. $100/year to avoid a scary warning about how your app is definitely a virus? It's like a protection racket.

It absolutely is a cash grab, and part of a series of unethical behaviour from Apple. Since the latest awful hardware products (terrible keyboard, control strip thing that breaks, no escape key) with MacBooks and a great improvement with using Linux via Purism and System76 I've managed to move away from Apple.

The newest iteration of Macbooks has a very nice new keyboard (no butterfly mechanics anymore) that reminds me of the really old models, better than my 2013 model IMO, one of the best in a laptop that I've used, though it doesn't beat the really old Thinkpad ones; those were incredible. Of course, this sort of thing is a matter of taste to some degree, but my private 2020 13" and my work 2018 13" are several worlds apart, they've really fixed that issue for me.

There's also a physical ESC key now, and for me, personally, the touchbar is a pretty neat feature after a bit of getting used to it, and some tweaking.

No idea if it is prone to fail, but I believe the rather sizeable fleet of touchbar Macbooks at work hasn't had a broken touchbar yet (there have been other failures)

I've yet to see anyone get a Linux machine and not struggle with something; maybe that'll happen someday soon, but so far everyone seems to have issues that I'd find unacceptable.

Re: Can't you just right click?

#175

Post by csense » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:55 PM UTC

"Y'know, it sure would be a shame if our OS went around telling users your software's a virus. Now we c'n make sure this little problem doesn't happen to you, all you gotta do is fork over the $300 (yearly of course) to join our developer program."

Nothing like a good old protection racket. No wonder Apple's worth trillions of dollars.

Re: Can't you just right click?

#176

Post by dividedbyzero » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:55 PM UTC

Shared404 wrote: post #153

suzakus wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They look to be in the same price ballpark as Macbooks? Ref: https://system76.com/laptops

Can't afford a Macbook either. :)

Understandable, it's a crazy lot of money.

Re: Can't you just right click?

#177

Post by FabHK » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:56 PM UTC

hardmath123 wrote: post #166

I came across this problem when I wrote a small program for a humanities professor to help him draw some diagrams. He didn't want a web app ("it'll disappear once you graduate!") so I wrote him a mac app and emailed it... it was such an adventure getting him to ignore the security warnings to run it...

The alternative (that macOS not display security warnings when trying to run unsigned software that someone emailed you) doesn't seem better.

Re: Can't you just right click?

#178

Post by throwaway13337 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:57 PM UTC

wruza wrote: post #152

I thought that a developer status will autosave me either from malware or from being babysitted, but then [1] happened. No matter how hard I tried to start that binary, OSX didn't allow me to do that. Damn OS which knows better, who do yo think you are? Did you see checksums, site certs, my competence, my willpower? I thought that it must be something with a build process that transmission uses, some signature didn't…

So the moral is that we should give up freedom for security?

Because that's a bad moral.

Re: Can't you just right click?

#179

Post by irrational » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:58 PM UTC

The crazy thing is that I had no idea those dialog boxes have the malware warnings. I just look for the buttons and click.

Re: Can't you just right click?

#180

Post by dwaite » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 11:59 PM UTC

jojobas wrote: post #149

FreakyT wrote: post #7

I still believe that Gatekeeper is a blatant cash grab and not a legitimate security feature. $100/year to avoid a scary warning about how your app is definitely a virus? It's like a protection racket.

It's more of a choke hold than a cash grab. Your app broke our store rules, we removed it and you're suing us? We'll terminate your dev account so your apps won't run.

Assuming you mean Epic, Apple has only given a deadline to cease breaking their developer agreement before their developer account is terminated.

Epic is empowered to get their app back in the store tomorrow if they want to release an updated build without the contract-infringing functionality.

They probably have lost their chance to be features by Apple or to be invited back on stage in future keynotes, but at least to me it appears Apple is trying to not be punitive in their reactions. Epic has consistently been given a no-nonsense way to recover.