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Comment by goerz | Hacker News Reader

I'm a little confused. Do they exert creative control over things that are submitted for notarization? I was under the impression that only apps submitted for the App store are "reviewed", while notarization is a fully automated process that only does a basic malware check. I do think that charging $100 for access to notarization is preposterous, but it's not the same as having to submit to App Store guidelines.

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> Do they exert creative control over things that are submitted for notarization?

No, they don't, but the article covers two different topics: notarizing apps for macOS desktop (for which you have to pay the developer fee, where previously there was no need to), and distributing apps through the iOS app store (for which you have to pay the developer fee and lose creative control). Presumably the app store is relevant because there is no other way to distribute apps for iOS.

But notarizing apps for macOS is free?

Not according to Apple.

If you try to notarize an app, you chase links for a while untyil you get to https://help.apple.com/xcode/mac/current/#/devac02c5ab8, and then to get a Developer ID, you chase links for a while until you get to https://developer.apple.com/support/purchase-activation/

If it's free, it's pretty well hidden, like US tax prep companies' legally mandated "Free File".

Huh. When they talked about notarization at WWDC it sounded like it'd be available as a free service for anyone, but I might be misremembering.

To get a developer id, I believe you sign a contract with apple.

Who know what apple will decide next year. Despite announcing Apple computer where switching to ARM in 2021 or 2022, leading to obsolescence of intel apps in near future, they annouced they would stop support for 32 bits apps... Every other os platforms still support 32 bit applications : Windows, BSD, Linux. It's no big deal to run 32 big application on 64 bits platform.

But there is still a slight overcharge in work comparing to 64 bits only platform. So Apple, one of the richest company in the world, decided to cut the cost, once again.

I came to believe that every decision apple is making regarding its products, hardwares and softwares is about cutting costs at every corner and maximizing profit.

Switch to in house ARM processor from standard Intel ? No need to pay intel anymore...

These new keyboards ? Well, may be it's about slim design but, having be able to use them for 3 years and having had to remove some of the keys occasionally and comparing them with the ones of the macbook pro 2015 i bought on ebay 2 month ago (I hade to convert the Querty keyboard to an azerty keyboard by switching some of the keys), I can say the quality of the material and the cost of manufacturing of these 2 keyboard are not the same.

This sounds much like the arm wrangling over the PPC to x86 shift. I had just acquired a 17" macbook back then too. Color me pissed... but that's Apple for ya (insert-shrug-emoji)

Notarization implies permission.

Additionally, don't you have to sign a contract as a developer to use the notarization service?

Notarization is automated and similar in principle to something like LetsEncrypt. This could serve as a backing off from the push towards sandboxing and in review.

Today it is a layer on top. But my hope is that Apple comes to peace with non-AppStore distribution, with automated notarization and waiving of the $100 fee for open source, students, etc.

Mac OS X was such a joyous platform to learn to program on. But macOS is throwing up more and more obstacles to native apps. When you squeeze a balloon, the air goes to the other thing.

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