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Leaving the Mac App Store

blog.sketchapp.com

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Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#71

Post by Karunamon »

scarface74 wrote: post #61
roosterjm2k2 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intention of most of their decisions is more about their own money... Case in point, it took forever for chrome or opera to come to iOS because they "competed" with the apple product already integrated into the OS, and "provided a less seamless user experience" ... basically, Apple didn't want to be outshined on their own platform...

That's not true. Apple allowed third party browsers - as long as they used WebKit - from day one when the app store opened.

Which makes them not really third party browsers anymore, they're basically frames around a UIWebView (which is Safari) which can't do anything interesting.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#72

Post by dkonofalski »

X-Istence wrote: post #30
walterbell wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do apps really contact the App Store to approve each launch? That would be a lot of tracking data that could be collected. How could it work if the endpoint is not connected to a network?

No, they don't contact the app store to approve each launch. Apple has a root CA that expired, during this "event" apps wouldn't launch because they couldn't verify the code signing certificate. Apple updated their certificate, and all apps started working again. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10560634

I already responded to you in another thread here, but this isn't true. The apps wouldn't launch because they were using an old, outdated version of OpenSSL that's been updated since 2005. They were referencing an old, out of date root certificate, not the current one.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#73

Post by j2bax »

S_A_P wrote: post #7

That is my biggest complaint about the Mac App store. I think in general prices have been reduced for most apps. But upgrade pricing is a must for customer retention. If they try to sell me the next version of Logic for 199 Im not buying it. I spent 599 for logic 8 platinum, 129(I think) for logic 9 upgrade and then 199 for Logic pro X. Im not interested in giving them another couple of hundred dollars for a while.

Logic Pro is a professional DAW as I'm sure you are aware given your years with it. If you can't afford the $199 upgrade, you should probably just use Garageband for free. Personally I prefer this pricing strategy over requiring a monthly subscription. And $199 is far cheaper than the alternatives.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#74

Post by thesimon »

X-Istence wrote: post #30
walterbell wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do apps really contact the App Store to approve each launch? That would be a lot of tracking data that could be collected. How could it work if the endpoint is not connected to a network?

No, they don't contact the app store to approve each launch. Apple has a root CA that expired, during this "event" apps wouldn't launch because they couldn't verify the code signing certificate. Apple updated their certificate, and all apps started working again. See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10560634

But as the top comment says: The actual issue was that some developers used an old version of OpenSSL, which couldn't handle the SHA2 cert. Apple apparently "deprecated" their SHA1 cert and started to use an SHA2 cert. IIRC some apps were still working because they used the right OpenSSL version.

I guess Apple didn't communicate enough with the developers that they'll start using SHA2.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#76

Post by jnbiche »

jp555 wrote: post #68
song wrote: post #3

I avoid buying from the mac app store as much as possible. If Apple ever decided to change mac os x to no longer allow external applications, I would switch to Linux right away. I don't want to do that because I do like the os X better a GUI... But there's no way I'd stay on a system that wouldn't allow me to do what I want with it.

> there's no way I'd stay on a system that wouldn't allow me to do what I want with it. But there's a big difference between allowing you to do something and allowing you to not change the way you do something.

> But there's a big difference between allowing you to do something and allowing you to not change the way you do something.

I've read this sentence 5 times and I'm still not sure what you mean. Can you expound, please?

I'd say that semantics aside, it's pretty black and white: either OSX allows users to install apps as they please, or they don't.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#77

Post by laveur »

ismail wrote: post #67
kremdela wrote: post #60

I'll just play devils advocate here. As a consumer, I really like buying from the Mac App store solely for the user experience of, when I eventually new a new Macbook Pro, I can easily sync all of my purchases, rather than having to retrieve the licenses and go download the latest version of each piece of software I've purchased. As a developer, I've heard countless horror stories and totally understand.

For syncing apps and tools have you tried homebrew and cask. Create a brewfile and stick it in your dotfiles.

Brew is not consumer friendly at all. My parents (in their 60's) own a mac that I bought for them. It was a great decision for me as I barely have to support them for technical problems. I only get questions on how to do something. If I was to try and explain brew to them it would be a disaster. Explaining the Mac App Store is far easier.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#78

Post by kybernetyk »

austenallred wrote: post #2

>App Review continues to take at least a week That must be the most frustrating/annoying thing in the world. > there are technical limitations imposed by the Mac App Store guidelines (sandboxing and so on) that limit some of the features we want to bring to Sketch I'm sure there are good intentions to what Apple is doing there, but it would be nice to know more details. > and upgrade pricing remains unavailable Man,…

>That must be the most frustrating/annoying thing in the world.

Yes, and sometimes it gets even more frustrating when you get rejected for some minor issue like "the app name in the help menu is mis-spelled". An issue that takes you 3 minutes to fix and re-upload. And then you need to wait another 7 days. (If you're unlucky they find something else for 7 days more of waiting time).

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#79

Post by tomphoolery »

song wrote: post #3

I avoid buying from the mac app store as much as possible. If Apple ever decided to change mac os x to no longer allow external applications, I would switch to Linux right away. I don't want to do that because I do like the os X better a GUI... But there's no way I'd stay on a system that wouldn't allow me to do what I want with it.

> If Apple ever decided to change mac os x to no longer allow external applications, I would switch to Linux right away.

Even if that did happen, which it wouldn't, what would stop you from compiling the application yourself, theoretically? If Apple computers allow for compilation of their own software, which they probably always will given that a Mac is the only way you can make OS X or iOS apps at this time, then OS X will never get to a point like the iPad wherein you are very limited in what you can do.

Re: Leaving the Mac App Store

#80

Post by eveningcoffee »

song wrote: post #3

I avoid buying from the mac app store as much as possible. If Apple ever decided to change mac os x to no longer allow external applications, I would switch to Linux right away. I don't want to do that because I do like the os X better a GUI... But there's no way I'd stay on a system that wouldn't allow me to do what I want with it.

I don't want to do that because I do like the os X better a GUI

I think that in the current pity world of 16:9 displays, actually Ubuntu has the most logical GUI layout because they conserve the vertical screen real estate as much as possible. This means they merge global toolbar, menu and window title bar when windows are maximized.

I see that OSX has followed this trend but their solution seems to be more ad-hoc and application based that it does not feel natural for me.

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