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Re:Altstore: Home for apps that push the boundaries of iOS. ... by sneak on Monday March 20, 2023 @09:26AM (#35231171)
$100/year is nothing. I'm not sure why that's even being mentioned.

VLC is in the app store (with telemetry, sadly) so I'm not sure where the whole "GPL isn't compatible with the app store" claim comes from.

Re:Altstore: Home for apps that push the boundaries of iOS. ... by noirscape on Monday March 20, 2023 @10:13AM (#35231784)
Oh really? SponsorBlock is without a doubt one of the more popular OSS applications out there, yet the Patreon of its creator barely breaks the 200$ mark[0], which isn't even enough to sustain server costs for just the WebExtension version (source: same Patreon linked before). People just don't donate to FOSS, corporations do[1] and no corporation wants to fund something like SponsorBlock since it's existence is arguably anti-corporate (I'm not the ideologue for that spiel though, sorry to burst that bubble).

The 100$ yearly publishing fee just straight up is a wall that prevents the OSS iOS ecosystem from thriving. It's just high enough that it's hard to justify putting an App out there unless you want to make a profit from it.

[0]: https://patreon.com/ajayyy

[1]: Or rather, most have been shamed into doing it and only pay the bigger projects. Anything smaller just falls to the wayside.

Re:Altstore: Home for apps that push the boundaries of iOS. ... by meepmorp on Monday March 20, 2023 @10:31AM (#35232028)
> Oh really? SponsorBlock is without a doubt one of the more popular OSS applications out there

Oh really? I've never heard of it prior to this thread.

Re:Altstore: Home for apps that push the boundaries of iOS. ... by circuit10 on Monday March 20, 2023 @10:48AM (#35232296)
$100/year might be nothing for a business, but not a hobbyist.

They had to dual license the iOS version of VLC to get it on the App Store:

> VLC for iOS is bi-licensed under the Mozilla Public License Version 2 as well as the GNU General Public License Version 2 or later. You can modify or redistribute its sources under the conditions of these licenses. Note that additional terms apply for trademarks owned by the VideoLAN association.