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Thank god there are some developers who have the balls to stop with this "Store" app distribution bonanza brought by the mobile phone. Someone should give Micro

by tdkl 11y ago

Thank god there are some developers who have the balls to stop with this "Store" app distribution bonanza brought by the mobile phone. Someone should give Microsoft a hint.

StavrosK 11y ago
> brought by the mobile phone Brought by the iPhone. You can install whatever you want on Android, and multiple stores exist.
- spdionis 11y ago
  But 90% of the users (me included) use only the play store and barely know anything about the rest, let alone trust them (me included again).
  - StavrosK 11y ago
    "People don't use them" is qualitatively different from "they cannot exist", though.
  - oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
    I'm guessing you don't have a source for that because I would be shocked if it were any less than 99%. It would be wonderful to see genuine rivals, offering alternative business models.
    - gtk40 11y ago
      The only significant one would be Amazon's app store, which doesn't really offer any improvements over Google's.
      - goodplay 11y ago
        I use f-droid over te play store whenever I want to install an app.
        gtk40 11y ago
        Yes, there are others, but I imagine (I would like to be wrong) that Amazon is the only one with any significant marketshare. Maybe something in China.
jbob2000 11y ago
The "store" was really great for small/solo developers to release an application. It's really expensive to setup your own server to distribute an application. It's also really annoying to have to patch your apps without a store. What's changed is that there are lots of open source options for distribution and patching, so developers need a "store" less and less.
- SyneRyder 11y ago
  > It's really expensive to setup your own server to distribute an application. I haven't found it expensive at all. I've been selling apps outside App Stores for over a decade and never needed more than my $9/mth shared web hosting. Accepting credit cards is even easier & cheaper through someone like Fastspring or Kagi, who only take 8 - 9% instead of Apple's 30%. > It's also really annoying to have to patch your apps without a store. On the Mac, Sparkle is your friend for auto-updates, it's been around since 2006 (long before the Mac App Store existed): http://sparkle-project.org http://sparkle-project.org On Windows, there's WinSparkle, though it isn't quite as elegant: http://winsparkle.org http://winsparkle.org
  - jbob2000 11y ago
    I don't disagree, there were always solutions. The app store just made it easier than the alternatives. But now the alternatives are easier than the store.

by tdkl 11y ago

Thank god there are some developers who have the balls to stop with this "Store" app distribution bonanza brought by the mobile phone. Someone should give Microsoft a hint.

StavrosK 11y ago

> brought by the mobile phone Brought by the iPhone. You can install whatever you want on Android, and multiple stores exist.

spdionis 11y ago
But 90% of the users (me included) use only the play store and barely know anything about the rest, let alone trust them (me included again).
- StavrosK 11y ago
  "People don't use them" is qualitatively different from "they cannot exist", though.
- oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
  I'm guessing you don't have a source for that because I would be shocked if it were any less than 99%. It would be wonderful to see genuine rivals, offering alternative business models.
  - gtk40 11y ago
    The only significant one would be Amazon's app store, which doesn't really offer any improvements over Google's.
    - goodplay 11y ago
      I use f-droid over te play store whenever I want to install an app.
      - gtk40 11y ago
        Yes, there are others, but I imagine (I would like to be wrong) that Amazon is the only one with any significant marketshare. Maybe something in China.

jbob2000 11y ago

The "store" was really great for small/solo developers to release an application. It's really expensive to setup your own server to distribute an application. It's also really annoying to have to patch your apps without a store. What's changed is that there are lots of open source options for distribution and patching, so developers need a "store" less and less.

SyneRyder 11y ago
> It's really expensive to setup your own server to distribute an application. I haven't found it expensive at all. I've been selling apps outside App Stores for over a decade and never needed more than my $9/mth shared web hosting. Accepting credit cards is even easier & cheaper through someone like Fastspring or Kagi, who only take 8 - 9% instead of Apple's 30%. > It's also really annoying to have to patch your apps without a store. On the Mac, Sparkle is your friend for auto-updates, it's been around since 2006 (long before the Mac App Store existed): http://sparkle-project.org http://sparkle-project.org On Windows, there's WinSparkle, though it isn't quite as elegant: http://winsparkle.org http://winsparkle.org
- jbob2000 11y ago
  I don't disagree, there were always solutions. The app store just made it easier than the alternatives. But now the alternatives are easier than the store.