MacOS Marzipan - Hackdot

Re:MacOS Marzipan by nodamage on Friday September 28, 2018 @12:27AM (#18091076)

Is anyone else concerned that the influx of cheap, low-quality iOS apps ported to Mac via Marzipan is going to effectively poison the well for existing Mac apps? Software prices have already been pushed to rock bottom on mobile but things are more sustainable on Mac, for now anyway...

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by sephoric on Friday September 28, 2018 @12:32AM (#18091101)

Nah. Mac users who pay for software are a different demographic than their iOS counterparts in my experience. Such Mac users are usually professionals who pay a little extra for the reliability and quality and attention to detail that Mac apps have been know for for a while now.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by carlesfe on Friday September 28, 2018 @03:34AM (#18091634)

Fair point. However, we already have an influx of cheap, low-quality web apps ported to Mac via Electron.

I think in this case Marzipan is a better solution, as it will allow willing developers to port native iOS apps to the Mac without much effort.

It won't help with webapp juggernauts like Slack or Skype, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by teknologist on Friday September 28, 2018 @06:48AM (#18092358)

I actually wouldn't mind having the iOS Skype app running on my Mac. It has a nice dark mode.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by saagarjha on Friday September 28, 2018 @06:50AM (#18092372)

So would the old Skype desktop app, had they kept it around and linked it against a recent SDK. But no, they threw it out, replaced it with some sort of Electron mess, and now have to pay the price of not having proper dark mode support.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by raydev on Friday September 28, 2018 @03:33PM (#18096356)

If Apple doesn't offer a better solution, Electron's performance will eventually catch up to "good enough" for all sorts of purposes and then nerds will really be crying as those Electron apps take off in popularity.

Slack is only the beginning, and Apple sees what's happening, perhaps a little bit too late.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by tonyedgecombe on Friday September 28, 2018 @05:45AM (#18092116)

The long term trend for software prices is towards zero, I'm not sure this will have much influence on that.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by s73v3r_ on Friday September 28, 2018 @12:29PM (#18094675)

Why would it be toward zero? The authors of the software still have to eat.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by PKop on Friday September 28, 2018 @12:54PM (#18094878)

"in the direction of"

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by tonyedgecombe on Friday September 28, 2018 @01:39PM (#18095294)

I think there is an economic theory that the price of products tends towards their marginal cost which in the case of software is near zero.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by nsmith14 on Friday September 28, 2018 @06:17AM (#18092223)

As a final user I'm very happy software prices are plummeting, thanks.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by saagarjha on Friday September 28, 2018 @06:49AM (#18092371)

Generally this also means the quality of software declines as well.

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Re:MacOS Marzipan by s73v3r_ on Friday September 28, 2018 @12:29PM (#18094671)

Are you? Wouldn't you prefer that software vendors can support themselves selling the software, and thus be able to update it?

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