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

[Davo Smith]

On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 7:34 AM, Jon Glass <jonglass at usa.net> wrote:
> 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.

Remember the difference is a bit like someone driving their car in
first gear all the time, because no one has taught them how to change
gear, rather than because someone has welded a large metal plate to
the gearstick to stop you moving it.

The solution to installing software outside the Ubuntu Software Centre
is education. The solution to moving outside the 'Mac app store' (in
the doom and gloom situation where Apple decide to block all other
installation methods), is to try some sort of warranty-voiding  hack
(or to buy a PC instead...).

It comes down to which company (Canonical / Apple) is most likely to
continue to give their users a choice in the matter (even if most
people don't take the alternative option offered).

As an (related) aside, I have an Android phone, but have never
bothered to install anything outside the market (but like the fact I
*could*, if I ever wanted to), on the other hand my Ubuntu desktop has
lots of applications installed from outside the official repositories.

Davo