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Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

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Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#331

Post by jaclaz »

mmastrac wrote: post #14

I wrote an Android app for my little programming news aggregator, and published that on the Play Store because it was basically free (IIRC there might be a one-time signup fee). $99/yr is a ridiculous sum for the "privilege" of publishing in Apple's walled garden, and it's just not something I'm willing to do. The arguments for paying for review, distribution, advertising, search, etc feel so disingenuous when the co…

> $99/yr is a ridiculous sum for the "privilege" of publishing in Apple's walled garden

I think that what you buy with your 99$ is the privilege of asking for the privilege of publishing (which is not given at all).

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#332

Post by MrStonedOne »

rebeccaskinner wrote: post #198

My honest question is: What's the alternative. I'm not an apple fan. Most of my personal devices run Linux, but I feel essentially trapped on an iPhone. It doesn't seem like there's a truly useful open phone out there. I don't like Apple, and I don't trust them or their ostensibly pro-privacy stance much, but I want as little privacy invasion and as little advertising as possible on my phone, and I think as bad as Ap…

[dead]

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#333

Post by danaris »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #297
a4isms wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, you are right. Jobs himself said that he wanted to go beyond selling computers, and sell information appliances. In that respect, he and Woz were diametrically opposed. When he was squeezed out of management in his own company, it is not a coïncidence that he elbowed his way into Jef Raskin's Macintosh project: Raskin was also interested in building information appliances, the difference between the two men wa…

>But Jobs never lost his vision that Apple should sell appliances, and people who wanted to "wrench their own devices" should buy PCs. You present an excellent historical case of how Apple got here, but here's where I see a dichotomy: Back in the day, tools like RezEdit, Hypercard, AppleScript came included. There were countless "apps" to reconfigure how the Mac looked and felt to create a personalized experience. Av…

And these days, every Mac comes with a full Unix terminal built-in. Xcode is a free download (remember, if you wanted to develop Macintosh applications back in the day, you had to buy something like CodeWarrior!), and, as you say, they've developed Swift Playgrounds specifically to make a nicer onramp for people interested in developing their own stuff.

It's never been trivial to configure the Mac in terms of things like skinning, but third-party tools to do so have always existed for those who cared enough to look, and today, if you want to install Linux on your Mac, you can. If you want to install Windows on your Intel Mac, you can even do that. Those options were, at best, incredibly niche back in the pre-Intel days (though I remember toying with SuSE Linux for PowerPC in the early 2000s), and nearly nonexistent in the pre-MacOS X days.

So it's definitely not a simple case of "Apple in the '90s was in favor of customization; when Jobs came back, he locked them all down and made them toasters."

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#334

Post by diydsp »

toyg wrote: post #165
filmgirlcw wrote: post #37

I’m not defending this, but after 15 years, I don’t see the point in complaining. We complain (rightfully) about the amount of crap in the App Store and Apple's capricious review policies that don’t stop the scammers, but for better or worse, the $99 fee IS a barrier to entry that I would argue has made the iOS ecosystem better than Android. I’ve been paying $99 a year for early access to iOS betas and for my own tes…

[flagged]

It's a reflection of the classist nature of Apple's policy. Access to the platform, like shelter, is a privilege for those with means.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#335

Post by officeplant »

anigbrowl wrote: post #262
flohofwoe wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually mean all the little Vista-style popups that recent macOS versions introduced, on top of the quarantine and notarization bullshit which gets harder to skip in each release. Just give me a simple checkbox in the system settings that this is a "developer machine and I know what I'm doing" which disables all that stuff and it would be fine.

Just install linux/OpenBSD and log in as root instead of using sudo. I do not find MacOS any more intrusive than my non-rooted Unices.

I gotta say, I moved from MacOS to GhostBSD recently and it was far easier than I expected. Even if the main reason my spare computer works well with BSD is the fact that its generic 10 year old Dell business hardware.

I assumed it would be much more frustrating than going back to Linux. Instead I've found fairly sensible documentation for solving nearly every issue I've run into, and a well stocked repo of applications.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#336

Post by causi »

giobox wrote: post #315
jedberg wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need the internet to backup an iPhone. But you do need a ~Mac~ Computer. Edit: Mac -> computer

Exactly! You can still backup/restore an iPhone locally offline just like the PDA example, even with a Windows PC: > https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/back-up-iphone-iph3ec... . I don't understand OPs problem with cloud backups being charged for? Many people (myself included) are storing terabytes of images/videos in their cloud backups. While I think the free tier could offer more than 5gb, its not unreasonable…

Itunes backups don't get everything. No media files originating from the itunes store are backed up. Some apps are not backed up. Anything that's backed up to iCloud is not backed up with itunes. You essentially have to pick one: online or offline backups. If you keep your phone backed up to iCloud your offline backups are useless without an internet connection.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#337

Post by bobleeswagger »

ib33 wrote: post #178
rcstank wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's $8.25/mo if you save up for it each year.

That is 20% of the monthly minimum wage in some countries.

> if you are truly spending time with the platform

I don't think folks who make $500 a month are going to have an Apple computer and the time to develop. Why are you using illogical examples to make your point?

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#338

Post by bobleeswagger »

fulafel wrote: post #192
bobleeswagger wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should Apple allow anonymous publication on a marketplace which they are ultimately responsible for?

The article is specifically about apps that you don't want to distribute through Apple.

Apple's choices are specifically about security and longevity of the marketplace. You can disagree, but they don't owe anyone anything.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#339

Post by livrem »

lostgame wrote: post #109
sramsay wrote: post #68

What bothers me about this -- and it bothered me enough to leave the platform -- is not fees, or "hobby computing," or "it's just for my own use," or trying to figure out why this or that would be in Apple's interest. What bothers me is that it feels like an offense against the entire notion of what a computer is. I am, of course, aware that many (perhaps most) computers in the world are effectively appliances, but a…

>> It's like giving someone a deck of cards and telling them that these cards can only be used to play blackjack. You can't invent a card game, or change the rules, or build a house of cards, or do card magic. Millions of people buy cards that can only be used to specifically only play, say; 'Magic: the Gathering' (MtG). You could probably invent some sort of new game with MtG cards, or do some sort of card magic wit…

> Millions of people buy cards that can only be used to specifically only play, say; 'Magic: the Gathering' (MtG).

I love that example, since I have thousands of Magic The Gathering cards, but I have never played the game ever. The cards are very useful and I don't care what game they are meant for. Like many others I use Magic cards for print'n'play card games. Print out cards on regular paper, cut out, and put in sleeves with a cheap Magic card behind as backing.

Re: Apple doesn’t want you developing hobby apps

#340

Post by criddell »

nequo wrote: post #201
api wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS devices are not "real" computers. They're more comparable to game consoles or TV set top boxes. They're special purpose computing devices that can only run approved software. Apple does sell real computers under the Mac line.

iOS devices are running a derivative of straight up macOS that your MacBook is running too. As computers, they are as real as any. The "only run approved software" part is a restriction imposed by Apple. It is not because of a physical limitation that makes them not real computers.

So they are like set top boxes and game consoles then? Just like the person you replied to said.
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