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0 pointsxpaulbettsx15y ago0 comments

So that's the thing - if Apple promises that there will always be a way to directly install to the machine, I'm totally okay with these rules, they're quite reasonable.

However, this sets them up to do the same thing they did with iPad / iPhone, then require me to pay $100 to bless my machine as a "Development machine", then I can install what I want. Or maybe even then, I can only use Apple-certified binaries but I can use XCode. Curated experience is fine, but only if I have the freedom to choose an alternate one.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

jonhendry15y ago· 2 in thread

Promises? Corporate promises are worthless.

Rely on logic and assume Apple is reasonably rational.

They mentioned AutoCAD and Steam today. Steam isn't compatible with the guidelines, and Autodesk isn't about to sell AutoCAD through the store.

Apple isn't going to cut them off, nor are they going to cut off the myriad other software vendors for whom the App Store is either unworkable or unattractive or unneeded.

xpaulbettsxOP15y ago

Sure, that's how it looks today, but being in the App Store will be a huge draw, and tons of people will rework their apps to be App Store compatible.

In a few years once most apps have been pushed onto the App Store, they'll be in a far better position to cut them off, making the excuse of "This will only affect a small number of apps..."

While I agree that right now, it's infeasible for them to do this, a few years of the Mac App Store will change the landscape to a point where they very well could do this.

jonhendry15y ago

It would be a case of "This will affect a relatively small number of hugely important apps that we can't afford to lose from the platform".

They're not going to feel free to lose Adobe, Matlab, Steam, VMWare, Parallels, and AutoCAD just because they have a million fart apps.

msbarnett15y ago

I don't think it sets them up to do that at all.

The rules also block things like MatLab or Photoshop, which have their own licensing schemes and updaters and downloadable plugin systems.

All of which signals that this isn't some plan to lock down the desktop; when the rules exclude the VMWares and the Photoshops and the other Things-Lots-Of-People-Use, it's a good sign that the store isn't intended to be the only game in town for software acquisition.

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