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Comment by sneak | Hacker News Reader

It's a major bummer when devs don't even let you download the app from their own website, instead suggesting that you dox yourself to Apple to use their software. :(

Mattermost (the company behind this) also builds spyware into Mattermost (which is not well documented) and I would be unsurprised to find the same nonsense going on with this.

Is there a term for companies that are "open source in license only" that ignore all of the values of the free software community?

If you download the app store version, and you edit the source code of the downloaded app to, say, scratch an itch, it will not run any longer because the app bundle signature verification will fail. Distributing unmodifiable applications defeats the whole purpose of a free software license.

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Did you check the repo? You can download and build your own app easily, they have instructions for all 3 platforms:

https://github.com/mattermost/focalboard#building-and-runnin...

I am aware that one can build the app from source; my comments were orthogonal to that.

It is customary for open source projects that involve complicated or proprietary build processes to provide binaries which one can simply download and run. App Store releases are decidedly not this: they include DRM, and have as a requirement the provision of personal information to (and agreement to an onerous legal contract with) a third party: the app store vendor. You can't get free apps from the mac App Store without giving Apple your phone number and email address.

In the case of interpreted software (such as this) those interpreted (but nonetheless runnable) files should be modifiable. You shouldn't have to set up a toolchain (which on macOS is proprietary and requires its own EULA) to try out this software if you don’t have or want an AppleID.

If you do jump through the App Store hoops, you can't edit the app and then run it.

Focalboard team here. Added a feature idea on providing binaries: https://github.com/mattermost/focalboard/issues/99

Thanks for your feedback!

We'd love to hear more. We just setup this page with links on how to get more involved: https://github.com/mattermost/focalboard/wiki/Share-your-fee...!

Rip out your spyware first, it's a bigger problem than forcing users to the App Store.

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