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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

is this actually happening? I download directly whenever possible so the dev doesn't have to pay commission to Apple and I've never had a download blocked.

EDIT: I see from the comments I wasn't adequately clear: yes, I get the notification but it's hardly a "block" as the the comment I was replying to said. It is by design trivial to bypass.

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The Gatekeeper checks still apply to direct downloads. If you don't get a warning (that's intentionally a little difficult to bypass), the dev still signed and notarized the binary via Apple.

https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/security/sec5599b66df/...

You get a warning popup and the application is blocked from running if it is not signed by an Apple Developer Account ($100/yr) and countersigned (i.e., notarized) by Apple.

This is separate from the 30% App Store commission.

I edited my comment to point out that Apple made it pretty trivial to run such an app. It just calls your attention to a drive by download of an executable (though I do wonder how many people try to run such things)

You should get a pop up asking if you want to launch the app or need to go into system settings to approve it. It’s a minor speed bump and is probably for the best for non-savvy users.

If you right click then click open you can skip going into system settings.

I get various degrees of warning for reasons I don't know: "the developer cannot be identified" can be bypassed via right-click open but some app get a worse warning like "this app is malware" or "this app is damaged and cannot be opened". For those I need to de-quarantine them with a xattr command.

For example, try installing librewolf via homebrew.

Thanks for an example. I have literally never experienced those latter two.

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