3 ms·

FOSS on Apple products that only have an app store is doomed because it costs money to have a developer account. FOSS activists always claim that it's free as

FOSS on Apple products that only have an app store is doomed because it costs money to have a developer account. FOSS activists always claim that it's free as in free speech and not free beer, but somehow these FOSS apps everyone claims to need can't even reach the $100/y necessary to keep them on the app store.

usrn 4y ago
Not just the developer account, the developers are required to maintain app specific infrastructure to do things like push notifications. That's why FOSS apps rarely have them. All of this on top of the the hardware cost and having someone run the iOS API treadmill and deal with app store reviews makes FOSS on iOS prohibitively expensive for everyone but the most committed. It pretty much filters out everyone that isn't a corporation or irrationally passionate.
- HidyBush 4y ago
  I mean, I would suppose people who want IRC on their phone must be pretty senior. They can't spare 2 dollars per year to pay for the developers to keep the app afloat?
rollcat 4y ago
> FOSS on Apple products that only have an app store is doomed because it costs money to have a developer account. It also costs money to buy a computer and pay the electricity bills. It also costs money (indirectly, through man-hours and infrastructure costs) to maintain and distribute FOSS apps through any other channels. The idea behind the fee is basically as a CAPTCHA. Whether it's achieving that goal is very arguable though. Apple definitely could do a better job accommodating FOSS apps. The developer account fee could be waived for verified FOSS developers. They've recently launched a CI service - it should have a free tier for FOSS. Verifying that an app is FOSS should be very simple - the App Store should link to the source code and a public CI dashboard. A part of Apple's 15/30% cut from FOSS app sales should directly go to fund FOSS development. I wish.
- usrn 4y ago
  It's not just that. Reread my comment. Apple has single-handedly destroyed FOSS chat.

usrn 4y ago

Not just the developer account, the developers are required to maintain app specific infrastructure to do things like push notifications. That's why FOSS apps rarely have them. All of this on top of the the hardware cost and having someone run the iOS API treadmill and deal with app store reviews makes FOSS on iOS prohibitively expensive for everyone but the most committed. It pretty much filters out everyone that isn't a corporation or irrationally passionate.

HidyBush 4y ago
I mean, I would suppose people who want IRC on their phone must be pretty senior. They can't spare 2 dollars per year to pay for the developers to keep the app afloat?

rollcat 4y ago

> FOSS on Apple products that only have an app store is doomed because it costs money to have a developer account. It also costs money to buy a computer and pay the electricity bills. It also costs money (indirectly, through man-hours and infrastructure costs) to maintain and distribute FOSS apps through any other channels. The idea behind the fee is basically as a CAPTCHA. Whether it's achieving that goal is very arguable though. Apple definitely could do a better job accommodating FOSS apps. The developer account fee could be waived for verified FOSS developers. They've recently launched a CI service - it should have a free tier for FOSS. Verifying that an app is FOSS should be very simple - the App Store should link to the source code and a public CI dashboard. A part of Apple's 15/30% cut from FOSS app sales should directly go to fund FOSS development. I wish.

usrn 4y ago
It's not just that. Reread my comment. Apple has single-handedly destroyed FOSS chat.