I've owned my Macbook Pro for a year and a half and I've never opened the App Store except when that annoying "Updates" notification pops up that has no close b

I've owned my Macbook Pro for a year and a half and I've never opened the App Store except when that annoying "Updates" notification pops up that has no close button. Correction: I did just download the 10.8.4 update from the App Store and I found one app online a while back that only offered a download link through the App Store.