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Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

blog.kronis.dev

231–240 of 299 posts

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might be trying to appease Google who now won't let you pass a recaptcha on windows because windows isn't locked down enough, and force you to scan a code with your Google phone instead.

No. Windows code signing was harder and more expensive since years.

The writing has been on the wall for years.

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#232

How does anyone who cares about open source or even development more generally see this and go "Yeah that's the OS I want to use"? I genuinely don't understand why so many developers are willing to compromise so much for a thin laptop.

I use my Macbook for things other than dev work, and that's where Linux tends to fall flat. Weird hardware incompatibilities, jank, huge amounts of time required to maintain the machine rather than just getting work done.

Having to occasionally run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine to download some random low-userbase FOSS app is nothing compared to what Linux users go through.

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#233
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also have things I want to change in gatekeeper, but that feature is not one of them. Just gut feeling but I would say 110% of all users, would just click ”start” on every unsigned app if it was that easy.

So have a buried option that power users can flip one time to add an allow button to opening untrusted apps.

But that's exactly what `sudo spctl --master-disable` does! You'll still see a warning dialog on first launch.

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#234
post #41

Maybe I'm too dumb, but I haven't figured out a good way to sign just a binary (or a tar/zip containing a few binaries). I zipped up the binaries, sent them off to Apple, Apple comes back and says "yup, notarized!", and they still trigger the popup. I'm probably missing a step. I guess I'm not currently stapling the ticket to the binary, but supposedly you don't have to if you are running with a network connection.

> I guess I'm not currently stapling the ticket to the binary, but supposedly you don't have to if you are running with a network connection.

AFAIK, you do in fact have to staple the ticket. The other thing I found is that you have to make sure you're using the right kind of certificate from Apple.

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#235

How does anyone who cares about open source or even development more generally see this and go "Yeah that's the OS I want to use"? I genuinely don't understand why so many developers are willing to compromise so much for a thin laptop.

You won't appear as hip and fashionable amongst your CA/SV peers lugging a "generic" laptop around.

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#236

Author here, just pushed a quick update to the article. To be fair, compared to the prices of Certum and other providers if you ever want to sign something for Windows, perhaps Apple isn't uniquely overpriced (they all seem to be that way): https://www.certum.eu/en/code-signing-certificates/ Looking more into the Windows side of things, I also found Azure Artifact Signing which is supposedly affordable at 8.54 EUR pe…

To avoid having your application blocked by Windows SmartScreen, you need to pay extra for an extended validation code signing certificate. A normal code signing certificate is not sufficient. Here's an eight year old Stack Overflow discussion of the issue: > A guaranteed way to immediately and permanently get rid of the Microsoft SmartScreen warnings is to buy an "Extended Validation" (EV) code signing certificate f…

I don't think this is true. A normal CS signing cert is sufficient for most commercial apps - you will get the SmartScreen warning for a few days but it will go away fairly quickly.

The important part is that SmartScreen reputation is URL-based, you need to make your initial download URL consistent. If you are constantly rewriting it (i.e. with a version #) it will break. It's ok if the original URL hits a 302 to the latest version.

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I looked the MS Store was just a sad catalogue of shovelware. Has it improved?

Yes but it's free and easy to link customers there. They don't have to interact with the store outside of your product's listing.

I would be interested to find out a bit more about your experience with the MS App store. Do you get much traffic? Does it convert? What price range is your product? Is it a game or utlity?

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#238
Honestly, for most open-source apps where you don't want to Deal with this, the answer is to just get it into Homebrew. They handle re-signing apps using the local computer's ad-hoc signature and for most apps this is by-far the easiest way to deal with Stupid Apple Bullshit.

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I looked the MS Store was just a sad catalogue of shovelware. Has it improved?

Yes but it's free and easy to link customers there. They don't have to interact with the store outside of your product's listing.

You can also link directly to a web installer so customers don’t even have to ever see the Store app. The Store provides you a web link for a tiny exe installer, like this: https://developers.openai.com/codex/app/windows

Re: Distributing Mac software is increasing my cortisol levels

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> give me an option to actually run it without having to manually go into System Settings each and every time without disabling security features? People reflexively hit yes to these things.

At what point does optimizing the experience for those who refuse to read or think stop making sense?

That never stops making sense.

People are trying to get things done, and will choose the fastest path, and their context is that they are constantly bombarded with popups, cookie banners, two-factor prompts, captchas, and a zillion other things.

They have neither the time nor the resources to distinguish what’s important and requires their attention from what doesn’t.

Most people find using a computer absolutely exhausting.

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