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Preventing users from running code not obtained through the Mac App Store would change the Mac fundamentally from a personal computer to something like a consol
by generalk 16y ago
Preventing users from running code not obtained through the Mac App Store would change the Mac fundamentally from a personal computer to something like a console.
Apple making that move would alienate every software dev and anyone who's ever bought a boxed retail app that's unavailable on the App Store, just to start.
Clearly, Apple likes markets they can control completely, but I think that if the time comes Apple will simply stop selling and supporting Macs rather than attempt to fundamentally change what a Mac is. And if it does happen, it'll happen very slowly.
- tptacek 16y agoAnd, Apple already has a platform exclusively for curated apps: iOS. The whole notion of a "Mac App Store" revolves around curated apps on an otherwise open platform. A locked-down MacOS is really, from the perspective of consumers (the only thing that actually matters), just iOS.
- orangecat 16y agoI think that if the time comes Apple will simply stop selling and supporting Macs rather than attempt to fundamentally change what a Mac is. I'd say that would still count. A prediction I'm more than 50% confident of: by the end of 2016, Apple will not sell any consumer-targeted products that run unapproved apps.