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Comment by stephenr | Hacker News Reader

What searching? The developer links you directly to their app in the store.

For free apps you don't necessarily need to enter a password, for paid apps it's still simpler than whatever payment system the developer might be using.

With the MAS you can go from viewing the app/developer website to the app being installed in as little as two clicks.

How is that worse ux than manually downloading an archive/image, opening the file, moving the .app bundle or running the installer.

There are some valid criticisms of the MAS. UX on the install process is not one of them.

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Installing apps from web:

    wget http://example.com/app.zip
    unzip app.zip -d app_files
    mv app_files/App.app /Applications
    rm -rf app.zip app_files

With Mac App Store, I have to leave the CLI and use the mouse like a filthy peasant.

And I pirate paid apps. Way easier UX there, because I don't have to spend any money.

> With Mac App Store, I have to leave the CLI and use the mouse like a filthy peasant.

I found https://github.com/argon/mas in about 5 minutes.

Also, that tool will show you app id's from a search. What's the wget command to identify the correct download link for a given domain, assuming you even know the domain name for the app you want.

> And I pirate paid apps

Right so at this point your opinions are essentially worth less than nothing.

> Right so at this point your opinions are essentially worth less than nothing.

Just because I don't believe in intellectual property?

I'm a programmer just like you... piracy also "hurts" me. As long as you support the authors in some way, then it's okay in my book.

Also, that Github project may have swayed me.

> Just because I don't believe in intellectual property?

So release your own projects as open source or public domain or whatever you want.

> As long as you support the authors in some way, then it's okay in my book.

Given that you're using someone else's work, it doesn't matter what's "ok in your book", it matters what's ok in the developer's book.

> it matters what's ok in the developer's book.

Why?

Does it matter to you if I come into your house and shit in your fish tank?

A better metaphor would be: "Does it matter to you if I made an exact copy of your fish tank, and then shat in it?", in which case, I wouldn't care.

and that high horse is why I didn't comment further initially lol. some people just don't like using apple's platforms. deal with it. just downloading a .dmg is way less overhead, by definition. I don't even like having to auth with appleid.

> and that high horse is why I didn't comment further initially lol

Since when is asking for actual reasons ("I don't like it because I don't like it" is not a valid opinion, in my eyes) a "high horse".

> just downloading a .dmg is way less overhead, by definition.

That's a very subjective opinion. Each time I do a fresh install of OSX, the MAS apps are always the quickest and easiest to re-install.

The only valid (but not really defensible) argument I've seen yet, is the one about not paying for commercial apps. Every other claim that the manual method is easier, just doesn't hold up.

> Since when is asking for actual reasons ("I don't like it because I don't like it" is not a valid opinion, in my eyes) a "high horse".

Saying things like your opinion is worth less than nothing, being all sanctimonious about being able to "defend" the position, and acting like you're somehow the arbiter of what worth is, is what I was referring to by high horse.

> That's a very subjective opinion.

It's not at all subjective. MAS is an entire platform. A .dmg is just a .dmg.

..defensible? why is there even a need to "defend" a position? I, along with others, prefer to avoid the MAS when possible. period. fact. end of discussion. there's nothing more to say. I very rarely pirate software so that has nothing to do with it. it's just a personal preference. deal with it.

> it's just a personal preference. deal with it.

It saddens me how some people fail to realize this. It's like they think that their opinion is objectively right, and everyone else is objectively wrong. How do you expect to make any friends with that attitude? :/

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