That’s not really the point. On the Web you have a single google.com, and on the AppStore you have a single "Google" app. If you allow multiple sources for apps you break this idea of a unique registry and allow anyone to create an app named "Google" or any other well-known brand. There’s no way of ensuring the "Google" app you’re looking at is the genuine one anymore.
Unfortunately it's not really perfect solution for the web either as plenty of people still get scammed by fake urls + not bothering to check who the cert is for/from...
> What, their shitty app sandbox isn't all that good or something? Methinks the real reason is money.
Or maybe just because designing a good sandbox is really hard. Look at snap packages on linux. They're one of the most common way of sandboxing linux apps and come with significant limitations compared to unsandboxed software.
"selinux had an escape once therefore it's useless!" no, that's not how that works and you know it.
"gatekeepers should have an obligation to interoperate with third-party systems!" oh so google needs to run open SMTP relays to allow third-parties to build commercial operations on google's infrastructure and send mail to google's users? google needs to not block unwanted commercial solicitation from third-party operators because they "have to interoperate"?
etc etc
in this case - ctrl-f for "sandbox" and virtually every single one of the comments is some variant of the same obviously bait/flamewar comment.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39143802
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39141456
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39140427
the discourse is always really bad in these threads and frankly a ton of it is android users who can't help but roll in the shit and sling insults constantly ("apple sheeple who only care about blue bubbles", etc) and we've completely normalized them acting out (both as a society and here on HN) for some reason.
The discourse is on why we accept that browsers can sandbox websites but we can't place the same amount of trust in sandboxing of apps and historically Android has been better at that than Apple because they actually allow you to do it in the first place, the caveat being that it's not really made clear if this is "safe" or not.
Apple is one step behind Android on this but they're _both_ many steps behind making it transparent to the user that "installing any app from anywhere is as safe as visiting any random website".
What, their shitty app sandbox isn't all that good or something? Methinks the real reason is money.
But tbf, even though I can install APKs on Android I don't really do that as there's still the fear of bad actors; maybe the Android sandbox is safe & secure but I don't _know_ that, they haven't _told_ me explicitly about it. And if it's not safe for Android too, then why not?