As a reminder, Mac software distributed outside the Mac App Store must be notarized by Apple in order to run on macOS Catalina. To make this transition easier and to protect users on macOS Catalina who continue to use older versions of software, we’ve adjusted the notarization prerequisites until January 2020.
But unless I am missreading this. Come 2020 it will be impossible to distribute your own apps to macOS users running a recent version of macOS without Apple’s explicit blessing. Even if not using their app store.
I know theyve been angling for it for a while, but the idea of having a personal computer platform where you have to play mother may I when distributed your own software you wrote…
I think theyve got some mechanism for ensuring code which compiles on your local machine can still execute on your local machine sans signatures. So as long as homebrew builds its packages on the host machine, it only has to worry about signing itself.
Of course that requires a developer account which I think is now a $100 a year tax on open source software effectively…
While I had no plans on running macOS I was/am learning Qt to be able to build cross platform binaries of my own apps… this whole thing frustrates / angers / depresses. Mostly because I feel like the industry tends to follow apple’s lead on these sort of things.
I cant help but feel like weve lost the debate on this crap, atleast in terms of non-linux non-bsd platforms. Which is still how most people interface with and learn about tech.
I know its all doom and gloom here, but on the bright side I can officially stop supporting Apple products. I already ignore iOS, so this is one more thing to dismiss.
I’m worried about the web, as ever. Maybe this will be a push to move over to web stack apps… I’m not encouraged by the current pool of Apple developers making good choices as a demographic. Meanwhile, several executives on the Chrome team have to wear bibs to work from all the drool.