[CS-FSLUG] Apple tightens its grip on developers with Mac App Store

[Jon Glass]

On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 1:30 AM, Fred A. Miller <fmiller at lightlink.com> wrote:
> If Apple's new software channel is the shape of things to come, desktop
> application developers have a lot to worry about.
>
> http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/apple-tightens-its-grip-developers-mac-app-store-319?source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2010-10-28

There so many levels in this App Store issue that I would say it's
impossible to even guess at the ramifications! It is entirely possible
(probable?) that the App Store will be a miserable failure. It may
turn out that people don't want their Macs treated like they do their
iPhones and iPads (Mine is jailbroken, so you can probably guess where
I stand...) Since the App Store is not compulsory, merely encouraged,
we don't know what will happen. Developers may not climb aboard--or
they may, and customers not. Or, it may be such an utter success that
if you want to make money on the Mac, you will be there, and it may
reach the point that Apple closes the bars on side-loading completely.
That is the dark scenario feared by this article, but it is also the
one least likely to happen--at least any time soon!

But here's a question. How does this compare to the Ubuntu Software
Center. In most Linux repos, in fact, using their gateway is just
about the only real way to install software. Go outside that, and you
better know what you are doing! Theoretically, you can add sources to
Ubuntu and other distros, but I can guarantee you, my wife, who uses
Ubuntu daily has no idea how to do that! So she is stuck in the world
of Ubuntu Software Center. Curious what others think... (one could say
that the onerous terms Apple gives is the issue, but Ubuntu has a
tight control over their own software, only opening different levels
with scary disclaimers, and a typical user [like my wife] wouldn't
understand what's going on, and would never open up those other
levels--and just do without.) The real question is, is this all a bad
thing???


-- 
 -Jon Glass
Krakow, Poland
<jonglass at usa.net>

"I don't believe in philosophies. I believe in fundamentals." --Jack Nicklaus