So it is of course obvious to any one that the introduction of code signing in Leopard plus the recent introduction of the Mac App Store are the first two steps on the road to your beautiful Apple computer becoming nothing more than a big iPad.
Here’s step three – a missive recently sent out to all OS X Developers who have apps hosted at Apple’s Mac OS X Downloads site.
Thank you for making the Mac OS X Download site a great destination with apps that offer users new ways to work, play, learn, and create on their Mac.
We recently announced that on January 6, 2011, the Mac App Store will open to users around the world, presenting you with an exciting, new opportunity to reach millions of customers. Since the introduction of the App Store in 2008, we’ve been thrilled with the incredible support from developers and the enthusiastic response from users. Now we’re bringing the revolutionary experience of the App Store to Mac OS X.
Because we believe the Mac App Store will be the best destination for users to discover, purchase, and download your apps, we will no longer offer apps on the Mac OS X Downloads site. Instead, beginning January 6, we will be directing users to explore the range of apps available on the Mac App Store.
We appreciate your support of the Mac platform and hope you’ll take advantage of this new opportunity to showcase your apps to even more users. To learn how you can offer your apps on the Mac App Store, visit the Apple Developer website at .
Best regards,
Ron Okamoto
Vice President, Worldwide Developer Relations
Apple Inc.
The short version? Apple are closing their Mac OS X Downloads site. The long version? OS X Lion (or whatever cat follows that) will make app code signing mandatory and suddenly if you’re not in Apple’s cosy little walled garden you’re out in the cold, and your laptop joins your phone in being a device that you rent from Apple rather than actually own outright.
In the face of this disappointing future, three cheers for Jay Freeman (saurik) for his recent announcement of ‘Cydia for Macintosh’ – at least there’s one person out there who sees the way the wind is blowing and is in a position to do something about it. Note that it is very relevant that Jay sees that in the main Cydia contains ‘system tweaks’ rather than applications. Fighting Apple’s lockdown of your iDevice (whether phone, pad, or laptop) is and has always been more about giving you back complete ownership over the device you paid for rather than running any particular application on it.
by SLmanDR
09 Jan 2011 at 23:55
I have an old AMD machine in my garage that I have Ubuntu loaded on. I’m getting used to the idea that my old G5 will be the last Mac I own. I’ve tried many installs of other BSD’s and Linux’s but the Ubuntu I must admit is well developed and quite user friendly. Still and all though, I am an avid Halo Combat Edition Gamer and if I’m not on Windows or Mac / Intel I have no path available. It’s getting cold out here in my garage. I guess Jobs’s decision to ditch enterprise and leave it to Microsoft and McAfee to patch on patch is a good one. Sucks for us in the “enterprise” but good for the IT paychecks. He is concentrating on the consumerist facebook crowd. Make it a walled garden to control the stability and integration so it “just works”©. But for the small minority of us who want it done with choice, good hardware and excellent software engineering the options have become constricted. It seems building one’s own box and loading the software according to one’s own needs and competence is the path. Like you say “as if that matters”.
by Mack Diesel
03 Mar 2011 at 01:12
Mark Pilgrim was right all along. He was just ahead of the rest of us. As for me, I’m glad that I jumped ship when I had the chance. After five years with Ubuntu, other Linux distros, and everything else open source, I have no regrets and would have done it sooner if Linux on the Desktop was a little more mature at the time.
by Vassilis
06 Jul 2011 at 10:21
Mac os x is the most advanced desktop operating system (as apple mentions of course). Is there any way that they will lock it down ?
Mac App store is created for two reasons:
1) To make developers access more clients more easily and make money! Otherwise you should be an excellent web developer too, to make a competitive website, or pay for it, pay google to push you to the top, lock your own way your app, find the best method for updates, etc, etc. So App store is good for any developer that wants to make some money.
2) Apple wants great apps, wants many apps so that there is no way for a solution to exists in windows but not on a mac. That’s why they pay so much attention to the developers, help them make money, programming language features and capabilities, etc.
by admin
06 Jul 2011 at 10:48
Hi Vassilis,
Both the points you make are true and are all well and good – the percentage Apple take for this service is probably worth it if you intend to make money from OS X software you write. What would not be acceptable would be if said App Store were to become the only way to install software on OS X – this is the point I am making.
Let’s look at the established facts:
1. This ‘App Store-only’ limitation was present from the start on iOS.
2. Apple introduced app code signing in OS X for the Leopard release.
3. Apple love a hermetically sealed box “No user serviceable parts inside”. For example they’re the first laptop manufacturer to seal the battery inside the box.
Do you genuinely imagine that they won’t enforce code signing on all apps at some point in the future?
Ian