I don't know. Let's say I wan't to host it myself, I'd pay about $240 per year for Linode VPS.

I'd pay nothing, and host it on GitHub. In fact I, and many others do.

The OP said "Let's say I wan't to host it myself". So his pricing is right.

And the new appstore doesn't stop anyone from hosting their OSS on github - even for Macs. The appstore is for the average user; github is for the better than average programmer.

D'oh, I read wan't as don't want because of the superfluous '.

you'd also be alienating a large number of non-technical users who just want to see a large download button.

If your users are the "compile from source" crowd, I agree the Mac App Store has no benefit to you.

Have the terms changed so radically from the mobile store? At least there licenses like the GPL are incompatible with the extra restrictions that Apple places on the software it distributes, causing software to be removed or refused.

Would be a good gesture if they were to make it free for open source apps, even free apps that are closed source but don't contain ads.

Oh come on. I'm sure they could easily get it through donations if they really can't handle the $99/year.