Hacker News Reader

Comment by dathery | Hacker News Reader

Don't you have to pay an annual fee to Apple to sign software? It looks like they have a fee waiver program but for some reason it doesn't cover open source or even let an individual person apply at all: https://developer.apple.com/support/fee-waiver/

I'm not sure it is reasonable to demand that open source devs pay a fee to Apple so that you don't have to right-click the app and whitelist it...

View on HN

I thinks it's very reasonable. They provide an important security service, also the windows equivalent is many hundreds of dollars per year, per application, vs $99 per year which would cover any number of applications.

My comment was about whether it is reasonable for random people to demand open source devs pay a platform fee, not about whether the fee itself is reasonable.

Quoting the last line of my comment again with added emphasis in case it was confusing:

> I'm not sure it is reasonable *to demand that open source devs pay a fee to Apple* so that you don't have to right-click the app and whitelist it...

Oh yes. For sure. Agree completely.

It has nothing to do with open source, it's about security. Installing an app with no connection to anything invites lots of people to build apps that steal your stuff (sure this app might be trustworthy, but not all). Every Mac and iOS developer has the same requirements. Installing an app with no signature is asking for people to get hacked. Do you leave your house open so that some contractor you don't know can enter your house and do whatever they please? $99 a year means Apple can trust that they at least know who the contractor is. There are people who want to steal your stuff (or your mom's) much smarter than you or I. This isn't an onerous requirement at all. I shipped my first Mac app in 1987, back then security was not an issue. It is today.

It really is for some developers. $99 goes a long way in some places, and not everybody has a credit card either.

Also, how does paying $99 mean that Apple “knows who you are”? It identifies you as somebody willing to spend $99, nothing more. I bet that’s not a problem at all for many bad actors.

If it's that important for you, contact the dev and pay them the 99$.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com