You get this security in exchange for all your personal data being uploaded to their servers (for advertising to try and change your behavior for their clients, and for storage for your government, and perhaps others), and Google getting to decide which apps you can run, and which apps developers can publish in the store.
As long as you stay aligned with the interests of the shareholders of the ad-surveillance company (and the government) it's a great deal.
I like to think of a general purpose computer like a giant truck: great if you like that kind of thing, but not for everyone.
Using various Ubuntu-based distros and Free Software apps over the last 8 years, I have never felt like any program was overstepping the boundaries.
http://download.com? Now owned by CNET, and full of sketchiness.
Or maybe you like http://freeware.com? Oh, snap, it's down and parked by a squatter now.
Or maybe an open source site? How about https://sourceforge.net? How'd that work out?
Could start by installing Java, let's see, oracle.com, click, ah, what's this? It's installing the Yahoo! browser toolbar by default??!!!
Yeah. Curated.
And even if you do manage to get a curated software store without lockdown that has a business model, it's not clear to me how you solve the problem of people sharing passwords with sketchy family members and friends who then install hidden software that secretly, behind their back, stalks them without so much as an informational prompt or opt-in.
No, I think there are good reasons for having devices somewhat locked down, especially when it's being done for the sake of the end user.
And of course Steam, GoG, and the HumbleStore provide curated repositories for proprietary games on many platforms.
Don't want to deal with the official repository you can easily host your own and provide a package that adds your own repo and serves the latest and greatest version of your software. Want a solution that targets multiple distros and bundles deps there is no snappy.
Preventing untrusted users from installing software is also a solved problem. Require the root password or simply don't let them use sudo.
If you give morons and bad people physical access your machine AND permission to install software it seems to me that you have put you in a bad place where no amount of lockdown can render you safe.
Rather than make the futile effort to render your situation tenable when we know it wont how about we continue to improve actually feasible use cases?
I guess that's a fair use case for locking down the OS.
But when it comes to various sites giving you bad software, how is locking the device and not giving the user control supposed to help? Any security measures like sandboxing could exist on a device without taking control from the user. And while installing zero programs is pretty secure, the user could make that choice without a lockdown.
> So, which curated software store/repo do you prefer?
Ninite is quite good. Other comments already pointed out various linux repos that do a very good job. Also look at the iOS store for something that has pretty aggressive quality control, even if the rules aren't perfect. (While iOS is locked down, the store would work the same if it wasn't.)
It's for good reason that Tech Solidarity and other security-conscious organizations recommend using iOS and Chromebooks where possible: https://techsolidarity.org/resources/basic_security.htm
Of course, we must fight tooth and nail against any regulations that would restrict access to general-purpose computing, or put limits on connecting a general-purpose computer to the Internet. But it's important to remember that there are absolutely legitimate reasons to use and recommend locked-down machines, and that the most technically adept of us will use a combination of both categories of computing device in our lives.