And I am sure the 30% cut and $100 annual fee has nothing to do with the decision either. Apple only cares about customers, not money. /s
Apple - "we want to keep it simple to our users"
Google - "AI doesn't have any control over data we've collected"
Facebook - "Every company is spying on their users"
Amazon - "we control mere 10% of global economy"
Salesforce - "you can ‘easily’ export your data from our completely proprietary platform"
Yep. And when Apple does it, HN will celebrate. There's a certain type of person who's terrified by independence and freedom and who craves the comforting safety of rules and control. macOS will be the OS for that kind of person.
Apple has all but guaranteed that my current Mac will be my last. I have been using Macs since the Mac IIx, and my first Mac laptop was the Powerbook 190.
The only reason that I have my Mid 2018 Macbook Pro, is that I bought it in Budapest after my previous machine died, and the reseller Apple store was the only one that stocked English keycaps for the keyboard (they did have to unbox and change the keycaps).
My technology choices are starting to feel frustratingly niche. I am using Apple over Linux because I tired of having to mess around with the systems constantly to get things working. ItJustWorks™ is a powerful driver.
If I'm being honest with myself, it's also a question of access to paid apps. If I list all the apps I use on a daily basis, a bunch of them are Mac only, and an even smaller set run on Linux (even if they have a Windows version as well).
People have been repeating that for years, since the Mac App Store was announced. It’s not in Apple’s interest to do it. There is a ton of software, open source in particular, that Apple benefits tremendously by. It costs Apple nothing to maintain the status quo.
Going Mac App Store only would drive tons of developers off the platform and do absolutely nothing to increase sales on the Store anyway. It would be widely panned as a ham-fisted move.
The GNU/Linux developers that have been giving money to Apple for a shinny UNIX, might go to Windows with WSL, which I doubt unless we are speaking about the crowd that only cares about POSIX and keeps calling that "Linux".
The GNU/Linux developers that have been giving money to Apple for a shiny UNIX instead of sponsoring OEMs, now they finally learn how Apple has always been, including before the days of almost getting to close shop.
That crowd can turn on to their Pandora, GPX, Arduino, Raspberry, whatever SOC is going trendy.
As for Unreal I wish they learn their lesson, or be honest and create a lawsuit against Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.
I think an argument can be construed that (one of) Apple's interests is to control what and how users can do on Apple devices. iOS-like lockdown seems entirely in line with that.
> Going Mac App Store only would drive tons of developers off the platform and do absolutely nothing to increase sales on the Store anyway.
And others would fill in the gap. The Store sales would inevitably have to go up – it would become the only way to get software on the device. Not like every user would immediately drop the Mac. I can imagine a non-trivial fraction of users wouldn't even notice that something has changed.
It wouldn't happen right next year, or in one go, but the more I think, the more I am growing convinced that it's sneaking up.
> It would be widely panned as a ham-fisted move.
If it doesn't affect the bottom line, it doesn't really matter. They got away with 4 years of perhaps the worst laptop keyboard of the decade; are getting away with inflicting the TouchBar price tag on tens of thousands of users(1), making devices unserviceable, and even with the matter in question.
Given Apple's size and user base, I'm afraid that outside of straight-up illegal activity, there's little Apple can't get away with. Especially if the janky move is factored into small, cruddy steps.
(1) I realize it's a lame point, but it annoys me personally
The most obvious reason is that it would utterly destroy the Mac among influencer communities and developers.
But perhaps the most underrated reason is that Apple already has a managed computing platform in the iPad. Rather than the Mac becoming more locked down, I expect the iPad will become ever-more desktop-like and take over more and more market share from traditional computers.
I’d contend that an iMac-like desktop iPad is a more likely future product than a fully locked down Mac.