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Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

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31–40 of 157 posts

Re: Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

#31
post #16

Apple needs to do better than this. For the duration of the company's existence, one of their biggest customer segments has been the creative industry. I can't think of a single pro audio/video/graphic/etc app that doesn't make extensive use of plug-ins, another Mac App Store disqualifier. Do the developers of these apps necessarily have a "right" to iCloud APIs, delta updates, and other benefits of playing in Apple'…

> For the duration of the company's existence, one of their biggest customer segments has been the creative industry

I would have thought the Final Cut Pro X debacle (http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/professional-video...) would have served adequate notice to those folks that Apple doesn't consider them an important market segment anymore...

Re: Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

#32
post #8
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're trying to take take take everything away from the user. Soon there will be no filesystem.

Next thing you know, there will be no keyboard, just a featureless ball. It would roll down from slippery slopes real well.

Hopefully it'll eventually become a computer with no screen or keyboard, just a big red button which turns the thing off. I'd buy that.

Re: Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

#33
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're trying to take take take everything away from the user. Soon there will be no filesystem.

Yes, and never mind that just about everything you take for granted about personal computers was "given" by Apple, too. I find this notion that users are entitled to complete device freedom really annoying. If you find it so objectionable, go build your own hardware and OS platform. This isn't a matter of human rights because no one is telling you that you can't make your own.

Great sarcasm. :-)

Re: Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

#34
This is the first iteration of something I'm sure Apple will refine over the coming years. It's not surprising they haven't addressed the concerns of some applications, particularly power user and developer applications. Instituting a sandbox with user controlled permissions seems a solid step for usability and safety. For sure every feature will probably not ever be possible in a sandbox - for that we have regular installations which are not going away any time soon if ever. Apple is smartly trying to establish a trusted installation pattern for desktop applications resembling the experience on iOS, recent snafus notwithstanding.

So basically, it's notable that some applications are having difficulty with the first iteration of these new restrictions, but it's not surprising and I'm confident the issues will be resolved in time. Meanwhile, we've all survived without the App Store for a long time. I think these applications can survive. This is not the time for outrage.

Re: Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

#35
post #29

How could Apple handle sandboxing in Xcode? It doesn't seem possible. Right now they just distribute the installer via the app store, but I thought they were planning to put the whole app in there. I wonder if Apple might give some companies of just distributing the installer via the app store as well.

Apple fairly routinely lets themselves be exceptions to rules for their own platform. Lion is distributed via the Mac App Store, and I'd put money on them not allowing Ubuntu or Windows to be distributed via the Mac App Store in a similar fashion[1].

1: future anti-trust cases or congressional testimonies nonwithstanding

Re: Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

#37
post #10
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're trying to take take take everything away from the user. Soon there will be no filesystem.

>Soon there will be no filesystem. Is that a bad thing? I'm not saying it will happen soon, or that those of us long in the tooth will go easily, but I honestly think it's the future. Think about young teenagers who will soon be "in charge". They snap a pic on their phone and send it to someone else. Nobody cares where it is in the filesystem, or even what the filename is. I used to meticulously name, tag and organiz…

Reminds me of the GDrive story[1]. Basically, Google killed a Dropbox competitor project 4 years ago because "files are so 1990". Fast forward from where they thought the death of files was imminent and they're now preparing to launch Google Drive[2] again.

Files are more popular and profitable than ever. You have companies like Dropbox and Box.net making serious money. Yes, I can see that we may one day not need to expose the concept of filesystems to an end user but I think it will be a very very long time (like generations) unless there is some revolutionary new computing concept besides the ones we have today.

[1] http://googlesystem.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/how-google-docs-... [2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9071936/Google-...

Re: Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

#38
post #8
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're trying to take take take everything away from the user. Soon there will be no filesystem.

Next thing you know, there will be no keyboard, just a featureless ball. It would roll down from slippery slopes real well.

The MacBook Wheel: http://www.theonion.com/video/apple-introduces-revolutionary...

Re: Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

#39
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Soon there will be no filesystem. Is that a bad thing? I'm not saying it will happen soon, or that those of us long in the tooth will go easily, but I honestly think it's the future. Think about young teenagers who will soon be "in charge". They snap a pic on their phone and send it to someone else. Nobody cares where it is in the filesystem, or even what the filename is. I used to meticulously name, tag and organiz…

Teenagers aren't going to go on making careers out of tagging photos and checking into places.

"Teenagers aren't going to go on making careers out of tagging photos and checking into places."

Exactly. No human will do this, computers will do for us in an automatic way, using search and programming.

We will ask the computer:

"Show me my 2004 photos in chronological order, and the computer will do."

What is the problem?

Re: Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store

#40
post #16

Apple needs to do better than this. For the duration of the company's existence, one of their biggest customer segments has been the creative industry. I can't think of a single pro audio/video/graphic/etc app that doesn't make extensive use of plug-ins, another Mac App Store disqualifier. Do the developers of these apps necessarily have a "right" to iCloud APIs, delta updates, and other benefits of playing in Apple'…

> For the duration of the company's existence, one of their biggest customer segments has been the creative industry I would have thought the Final Cut Pro X debacle ( http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/professional-video... ) would have served adequate notice to those folks that Apple doesn't consider them an important market segment anymore...

Maybe. I hope not. All the filmmakers/editors I know still use a previous version of Final Cut, many of them really like some of the features of Final Cut X (syncing is apparently dead easy, nearly automagic), and remain hopeful that Apple will pull it together and address their needs in future updates.

I don't know if you have used/use Final Cut 6/7, but it is a phenomenally ugly, often poor performing, generally unintuitive piece of software. I can see where the motivation for a full reboot would stem from.

Now, a reboot that involves consolidating formerly modular panes into a single window when the target market typically works on two, three or more displays is just dumb. A reboot that was, as a practical matter, 0% backwards-compatible may have been necessary, but if it could have been avoided, it should have been. But buried under all the mistakes, I think there was some genuine good intent (yes, I know I'm grasping at straws).

I primarily work with music, and you don't need to be as involved as I am or attend as many shows as I do to know that for any artist/band that uses a laptop on stage, the MacBook Pro is the de facto standard. The same applies to Mac Pros in studios (although those boxes may be going the way of the Dodo as well).

None of this necessarily makes a difference to Apple; the new features in Mountain Lion which focus on Chinese web portals and social networks serve as a reminder that the emerging Chinese middle class is likely as important a segment to Apple as any, and the number of potential customers in that group already dwarfs the ranks of every DJ, producer, sound engineer, and electronic musician on earth.

Still, it would be a great disappointment to me and many others if Apple were to abandon such a loyal group of customers who helped them reach this point.

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