Re:Apple OS X - Closed is the new Open
by astrodust on Friday March 25, 2011 @12:14PM
(#2369089)
You've lost your mind. Why so much fuss when Apple is simply trying to make their user experience better?
Apple sells into different markets, developers being one of them, and as OS X is the only official development platform for both OS X and iOS then there will be, by necessity, a "developer mode", at the very least, into the distant future.
I am 100% with Apple in their efforts to make installing and launching applications easier. It is embarrassing to have to explain to people how to download and install applications because each vendor has their own take on how to do it, and the whole process is completely mysterious until you've done it a dozen times and seen most of the quirky methods used.
As much as people decry the "30% tax" Apple imposes on sales, I would gladly pay it if I knew my sales would double by going with Apple's distribution channel. This might be because of better placement, or perhaps people being more willing to use Apple's check-out process than something like Kagi which has a worryingly amateur feel to it and would reasonably scare off a first-time app shopper.
It's like we're up in arms because the city wants to demolish a bunch of tin-shack houses, crack-dens, and dog fighting pits and replace it with a mall. This is merely gentrification, not "closed".
If you're opposed to making computers easier to use for the average consumer who has no interest in learning how computers work, what a hard drive is, or any of the other things you must internalize simply to install an application, then you're entitled to your opinion, but don't go stirring up panic.
Just as Apple has introduced drool-proof interfaces before, such as their launcher in OS 9, Lion will have yet another. As before you will be able to side-step it or disable it entirely if you so choose.
Apple sells into different markets, developers being one of them, and as OS X is the only official development platform for both OS X and iOS then there will be, by necessity, a "developer mode", at the very least, into the distant future.
I am 100% with Apple in their efforts to make installing and launching applications easier. It is embarrassing to have to explain to people how to download and install applications because each vendor has their own take on how to do it, and the whole process is completely mysterious until you've done it a dozen times and seen most of the quirky methods used.
As much as people decry the "30% tax" Apple imposes on sales, I would gladly pay it if I knew my sales would double by going with Apple's distribution channel. This might be because of better placement, or perhaps people being more willing to use Apple's check-out process than something like Kagi which has a worryingly amateur feel to it and would reasonably scare off a first-time app shopper.
It's like we're up in arms because the city wants to demolish a bunch of tin-shack houses, crack-dens, and dog fighting pits and replace it with a mall. This is merely gentrification, not "closed".
If you're opposed to making computers easier to use for the average consumer who has no interest in learning how computers work, what a hard drive is, or any of the other things you must internalize simply to install an application, then you're entitled to your opinion, but don't go stirring up panic.
Just as Apple has introduced drool-proof interfaces before, such as their launcher in OS 9, Lion will have yet another. As before you will be able to side-step it or disable it entirely if you so choose.