Just another _temporary_ Wordpress site
- A developer may not injure Apple or, through inaction, allow Apple to come to harm.
- A developer must obey any orders given to it by Apple, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A developer must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
“The combination of application sandboxing and entitlements could provide a more elegant solution if it is applied carefully. Apple doesn’t need to solve the entire problem all at once, but it does need to recognize there are important applications beyond self contained productivity or entertainment, and begin thinking about how to include some of them in the Mac App Store.
To help get the conversation started, I’d like to suggest a rating system similar to the already familiar film-rating system:
“G” for General use or everyone
“PG” for Parental Guidance suggested (security implications should be noted, such as anything that installs a plugin)
“R” for Restricted (requires more extensive system access such as a backup or disk utility)
The point here is that Apple could offer a better user experience by allowing a broader range of integrated solutions to be offered in the Mac App Store.”*
Yes. The one approach fits all is in itself a security risk as more and more users and apps opt-out of the Mac App Store (MAS) entirely or circumvent its restrictions. Add to this the updated delay for security bugs most apps have – comparing with the non-app versions – this might blow up in Apple’s face. But read the full post at the source to get a better view of what’s being criticized
I usually just try to use the non-MAS versions for these reasons as well. And i find the all “download dmg file -> open it -> drag the app to where you want it” not that cumbersome, but then again, i’m not the usual Mac user so my view is skewed.
But Apple needs to seriously consider the criticism being stated all around the developer’s internet. Switching Preference Panes for a Menu Bar icon is, on the long run, a dumb idea. What happens when people have more than 10 apps that require this “hack”? Stop buying apps at the MAS entirely?
Oh yeah, and i forgot, i love, i mean just love that somehow the password that is requested to install applications on my computer thought the app store, is not my user/admin password but the Apple Id password.
Somehow, Apple figures that is “safer” to use a password, that keeps going back and forth in the internet, to use a root enabled application on my computer than use my admin user password that is safely ((as safe as possible)) kept and used only on my computer. Love that. I mean just love that…
Oh, and i just remembered another wonderful features of the App Store that i love.. I keep my dock really really small. Only the apps i use every single day AND that i can interact with their dock icon by dragging something to it (like for example photos from a mail to iphoto or to the compression utility keka for compressing files.) Everything else i call through AlfredApp (a really great great launch application utility).
So that is somehow around or under 10 app icons. Now, the App store icon is the only way to know if i have any update to the (very small and every time shorter list) applications i downloaded through the app store. Remember that i can’t get no “sparkle update warning” when i run them if there is a newer version available.
Now, as i don’t want to spend precious pixel space with the ugly App Store icon, i never know when there is a update available to my applications. In fact, every single time i updated an app though the app store was because i read the news on some apple covering press site or i managed to read the warning from the app makers on twitter. (( you can find me in Twitter under the username maccouch ))
In the more busy times, where i don’t spend as much time reading or looking to this kind of crap (and obviously some times are more busy than others) i can possibly go around for weeks/months using a vulnerable buggy application without knowing.
Now how is this any good for the Mac general security? Or consumer friendliness? Is everyone supposed to put the app store icon on the dock? Or to take attention to the small red number on it? And “regular folks”, the kind that has troubles using a DMG file, will somehow take care and keep monitoring it and update every time there is one available, even if they keep using the app they want and there is no “update available” warning? Yeah, sure. If you believe that I’ve got a bridge to sell you…
Apparently now i can update Xcode.
Although teoretically evey App is updated.
This were pictures taken with a second apart. And i have restarted the App Store a couple of times before just to make sure it wasn’t a small temporary malfunction.
And did you know that for every small update of xcode i have to download 4,5 GB of (this is really what is going on folks…) an “install xcode” application that will install Xcode and i must keep on my Application folder so that the App store can keep if i have xcode installed! This is absurd. over 6 Gb for the Xcode itself and another 4,5 GB of an install app that i must keep permanently on my Application folder?
I thought the all purpose of the App Store was for “easy” application finding, management and updates…
Works really well… ((huge sarcasm signal here folks…))
Until now i have managed to hate the update process, the root ownership of the apps, the lack of option to choose where i want them installed and the garbage that accumulates on your “purchase history”.
This litter is created from every single free app that i choose to download, try out and erase if not useful or the quality i was looking for. With every other app i would download, try, delete the app and the dmg file and there was no more. But not with the App Store. It keeps them there, if i ever want to download 10 different solitaire games again. I might you know?. And the ones i paid and actually want to install again ? i need to look in to all of the garbage to find it, as i can’t simply selectively erase the “purchase history”
Add to that the absolute moronic behaviour in computers with more than one user and different apple accounts, and for me the app store is done. Either they change radically that crashing train or i’m not on board anymore.
When i started thinking about this blog my main point was to alert to the dangers and faults of a company run like ” a small boutique” by an all controlling maestro, that mainly only controls what he thinks is interesting or stimulating, while at the same time all of the other “boring” stuff, day-to-day corrections and consumer care are being neglected and simply exhausted of man-power.
I have no idea of what goes on at Apple. But i do know that you can’t run a company with over 40 K employes that has over 50 millions consumers/users (in the Mac world alone) with a small 100 person A team so that Steve can memorise its names… (( I read that info on a very interesting interview by John Sculley to Macworld i think.)) It’s unheard of and simply it’s not working. Either Apple gets more folks and start having a “regular” enterprise structures (even with all of the unfortunate bloat that carries), without concentrating everything on a small enlightened leader or the big step forward Apple has taken in the last years will be followed by a big client drain as soon as possible (by any other option).
This kind of mess, the mess represented by the idiotic, poorly thought out and completely rushed to the consumer App Store, is just one of the many signals of the deteriorating quality control and attention at Cupertino. You don’t have to be Ballmer to run a company to the ground. Any leader that doesn’t know when it’s time to change gears or pass the ball to another kind of leader, can do that too.