Openness and Apple aren’t always two words which go together, to the chagrin of many of us developers who use OSS technologies. While I think OS X is *nix done right for the desktop, recent moves are scaring the crap out of me. I am also now wondering in the future are we going to have to pay to develop on OS X?
App Store
The Mac App Store is awesome. It is a great way to distribute software on the mac, but it has always concerned me about how applications are going to work when they finally activate the Sandbox. Well what some of my silent concerns were have now come to pass with Atlassian pulling out of the mac app store.
Between a rock and a hard place – our decision to abandon the Mac App Store
Mountain Lion Security
With the new features coming for security there are going to be some great advances on avoiding malware, and other security issues. It is also great that you can choose what level of security you want from 3rd party applications or app store apps. All you have to do is flip a switch. Will be great for consumers, but what about us developers? I have always felt like Apple has had an “meh” attitude towards developers.
However
What if in version “Lion King” of OS X that switch implemented in Mountain Lion required a $100 to $500 per year switch similar to iOS?
I could provide counter arguments for this, but what are your thoughts?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
the $100 “pay wall” is already here, and no one is complaining about it. if you want to distribute in the Mac App Store and get access to pre-release software then you pay $99/year. I assume to get a developer id so you can ‘sign’ your apps to appease GateKeeper you’ll need to be paying this $99.
alex.