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This is an argument for only installing things from the App Store. I told my parents only to install from there and we never had a problem.

lisper 9y ago
Just because you never had a problem doesn't mean you never will. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and in fact it would be trivial to get a malware-infected app into the app store because the review process does not look at the source code (and even if it did it's not hard to obfuscate malware).
- dep_b 9y ago
  AppStore applications are more sandboxed than regular side loaded applications. You need to request quite a lot of permissions up front before it can actually do some harm and requesting those permissions will lead to more scrutiny on the side of the reviewer. That said it's still easier to get something in the AppStore that really wreaks havoc on your machine compared to the iOS AppStore where developers being used to a completely free reign over the machine never was a thing to begin with.
stcredzero 9y ago
The problem with the App Store, is that the software most likely to have an issue with the sandboxing is often the software that's more critical in terms of security. Such software may not be security software but still have more stringent needs in terms of security review. For example, layout managers might have hotkey functionality that could disguise key-logging.
- astrodust 9y ago
  Your typical "parents" are not the sort to need that sort of stuff. Those are profesional tools for people with specialized needs, and they can assess the risks of installing such things.
  - bobsam 9y ago
    You would be surprised how many "normal" apps are not in the store... ( it's even worse in win10s )
    - astrodust 9y ago
      Honestly nothing is in the Windows app store, they've got a long, long way to go to get that ecosystem in order.
zyb09 9y ago
yeah very good argument. you never install anything from the command line or what?
- astrodust 9y ago
  What, like via brew?

lisper 9y ago

Just because you never had a problem doesn't mean you never will. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and in fact it would be trivial to get a malware-infected app into the app store because the review process does not look at the source code (and even if it did it's not hard to obfuscate malware).

dep_b 9y ago
AppStore applications are more sandboxed than regular side loaded applications. You need to request quite a lot of permissions up front before it can actually do some harm and requesting those permissions will lead to more scrutiny on the side of the reviewer. That said it's still easier to get something in the AppStore that really wreaks havoc on your machine compared to the iOS AppStore where developers being used to a completely free reign over the machine never was a thing to begin with.

stcredzero 9y ago

The problem with the App Store, is that the software most likely to have an issue with the sandboxing is often the software that's more critical in terms of security. Such software may not be security software but still have more stringent needs in terms of security review. For example, layout managers might have hotkey functionality that could disguise key-logging.

astrodust 9y ago
Your typical "parents" are not the sort to need that sort of stuff. Those are profesional tools for people with specialized needs, and they can assess the risks of installing such things.
- bobsam 9y ago
  You would be surprised how many "normal" apps are not in the store... ( it's even worse in win10s )
  - astrodust 9y ago
    Honestly nothing is in the Windows app store, they've got a long, long way to go to get that ecosystem in order.

zyb09 9y ago

yeah very good argument. you never install anything from the command line or what?

astrodust 9y ago
What, like via brew?