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Not So Far From the Truth?

Collated by Mack Diesel.

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From April:

http://rixstep.com/1/20100424,00.shtml

'Apple will begin signing up independent software vendors (ISVs) for the 10.7 developer programme by early autumn 2010. Membership will cost $99 just as the iPhone programme and will include a number of benefits including free downloads of the Xcode developer tools and access to online API documentation.' 'Developers planning on marketing software for 10.7 will submit their products to the App Store as iPhone and now iPad developers have already done. 10.7 will have kernel support for ('insistence on') binaries signed with Apple's root certificate.'

Fanboys got wind of that article and called BS while clutching their iToys. Say it ain't so, Steve!

Today:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/10/mac-os-x-107-lion-mac-os-x-meets-the-ipad.ars

'Lion will also bring a new Mac App Store for all Mac OS X users. Like the iOS App Store, there will be one-click downloads, automatic installation, and automatic updates. Developers will be able to offer both free and paid apps, and will get the same 70 percent revenue split as they do now in the iOS App Store. For users, the apps are automatically licensed for all their machines.' Dispelling some fears that Apple might 'lock down' app distribution on the Mac as it has with iOS, Jobs was careful to note that the Mac App Store won't be the only place to get applications - just the best place.'

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/20/mac_os_x_lion/

'Although Jobs said that the Mac App Store would contain both free and paid apps, and that the latter would provide developers with the same 70/30 split as does the iTunes App Store, he made no mention of whether non-curated apps would remain available through traditional channels.' 'When reviewing Steve Jobs' comments about the Mac App Store, we discovered that he did mention that apps would be available from traditional channels. After extolling the iTunes App Store, he said: 'and so we'd like to bring it to the Mac just like it is on the iPhone and the iPad. It won't be the only place but we think it'll be the best place'.'

For now. At least until the announcement of Mac OS X 10.8 iCashKitteh. At that event Lord Steve will proclaim how much ISVs *love* the app store model so much that in 10.8 it will become the only way to install apps.

Just like the iOS app store, the Mac app store comes with strings attached.

http://developer.apple.com/news/

'All Mac apps submitted to the Mac App Store will be reviewed to ensure that they are reliable, perform as expected, and are free of explicit and offensive material. To assist you in preparing your apps, we have detailed the review criteria in the Mac App Store Review Guidelines.' 'If your app does not follow the Guidelines, the App Review Team will notify you about the changes you need to make before it can be posted to the Mac App Store. Visit the App Store Resource Center to learn more about the app approval process.'

http://developer.apple.com/appstore/mac/resources/approval/guidelines.html
http://developer.apple.com/programs/mac/

Sure enough, you must leave an annual charitable donation of $99 at the altar of his Lord Steveness.

If you have been watching Apple's behaviour since Leopard and the initial introduction of the iToys, you knew that this was going to happen. What does this mean for those who want to use FOSS from the Fink and MacPorts repositories? (The XCode developer tools set is listed as a requirement specifically for gcc.) Moreover, what is to stop Apple from rejecting FOSS equivalents on the basis of duplicating functionality (Thunderbird, Firefox, Adium, etc)? I'll leave it to you to connect the dots. Or just read Mark Pilgrim's quote below for the gist of where this is going.

'People haven't figured it out yet, but Mac OS X is on its last legs. By 2015, Apple will make appliances and developer add-ons. Not general purpose computing devices.' - Mark Pilgrim

Don't say you weren't warned.

http://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/27952848548

'For you Apple apologists claiming Apple will never lock down the Mac, step one is in place and you all let it happen.' - Ron Gilbert

'We Pwned Steve Jobs'

Rixstep baited Steve Jobs and the fanboy community half a year ago over precisely this issue.

http://rixstep.com/2/1/20101020,01.shtml

'Publish the article but with a positive slant on the developments, as if everyone thinks they're a good thing, fill out the article with links at the bottom that actually lead nowhere significant at all, then sit back and wait. Flush his Steveness out and force him to deny it all.'

A whistleblower inside Apple wrote to verify that the suspicions of Rixstep, Mark Pilgrim, and others were spot on more than they perhaps believed. Rather than sit on the story and say nothing until the whistleblower produced documents that could be authenticated - something that simply wasn't going to happen - Rixstep ran the story 'as is', hoping to flush out Steve Jobs and force him to deny everything - which Steve Jobs dutifully did.

But Rixstep sat on the story until the Mac App Store was finally announced as they knew it would be.

'Rixstep 1 - 0 Steve Jobs' - and for those who remember how people felt ten years ago when they wanted 007 to take out Bill Gates and his trusty #2 Steve Ballmer: it was hard to conceive back then of anyone more evil. Today they're near forgotten and now it's Steve Jobs breaking the records and giving Judi Dench a nervous twitch.