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Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by LorenDB on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @09:48AM (#40584718)
This is why open-sourcing everything is the way to go. Hostile takeovers can be combated by forking the code.
Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by Aurornis on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @09:53AM (#40584789)
It’s a $22 paid app. Of course it’s not going to be open sourced.
Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by orhmeh09 on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @10:00AM (#40584890)
I think there are some open source macOS apps that provide code but sell binaries on the App Store, no?
Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by Aurornis on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @10:52AM (#40585555)
Yes, but it was sold to an acquirer by the original author.

Making it open source would have interfered with the author’s profit goal. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make profit from your work and protect the source.

Likewise, you’re free to avoid software that isn’t open source. However, it’s useless to make these demands that someone should have open sourced their work when that clearly wasn’t in the best interests of their goals.

Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by Hamuko on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @10:35AM (#40585308)
I know at least of Textual. Open source but you can buy a pre-built binary for $10. Compiling it yourself was fairly easy when I tried it out once though.

https://github.com/Codeux-Software/Textual

Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by aaronyarborough on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @10:02AM (#40584907)
I think the point was that open-sourced apps aren't vulnerable to an attack vector like this, which is true. Of course, not everything can be open-sourced, but the poster's point still stands.
Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by Aurornis on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @10:53AM (#40585579)
Open sourced apps are absolutely vulnerable to this “attack vector”

Did you already forget about the back door in xz utils?

Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by Hamuko on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @10:15AM (#40585057)
Except that it's not really true, since open-sourced applications can and most definitely have changed maintainers. And even if they don't, there's still a risk. Do I need to remind everyone of the xz incident when it's so recent?
Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by banish-m4 on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @10:23AM (#40585146)
It is/was also available through a SetApp subscription.
Re:Popular Mac app 'Bartender' acquired by new unknown devel... by jrhey on Wednesday June 05, 2024 @12:39PM (#40587101)
Yes, just give us your software for free before you sell it to mystery buyer