It wasn't even this way just five years ago. But you do get a number of benefits with the subscription, and since the Mac and iOS developer programs merged into one today, at the same $99 as each previously was individually, if you develop for both the price just halved. Of course, this trail could be achieved with a lower price. But they did promptly thank me for my report, and I bet they ended up doing something about it (I ought to check) - and thanks to Developer ID, they at least had some kind of payment trail as well as a name, likely making it harder for the same person to get additional certificates. It turned out that someone else had written an article about the same malware five days ago, and reported it to Apple, yet the certificate was not revoked yet - so it doesn't seem that Apple has a 'rapid response' system in place currently (or then, anyway), perhaps because incidents are still relatively uncommon. Whether this feature is being used wisely is another question.Ī few months ago I sent Apple security an email about a fake Flash installer with a valid Developer ID certificate. It is not just rent it is a security feature. Apple has gotten worse and worse about this over the past decade. I was one of the early adopters of OS X, and one of the things I loved about it was how open it was, so even some kid like me (at the time) could easily make software. > Remember, this is Apple's OS, Apple's ecosystem, and Apple's SDKs. There are many, many people who are really not stupid, but get flustered when doing unfamiliar tasks on a computer. I have to wonder if you have had to do a lot of support work, because I think you're trusting users way too much. It turned out that she'd gotten a new home computer and Bing was the default search provider, and she couldn't figure out how to operate Bing because it wasn't Google. I remember patio11 once shared an anecdote about a school teacher who called his support number because she thought Bingo Card Creator had broken Google. And then they'd do it again the next day. I would frequently get called to people's desks because their computer wasn't working, only to find that their email client had put up a dialog with the message "The email address is not a valid address", I'd have to verbally tell them they mistyped the address - sometimes, even after this, they'd just stare at me like a deer in the headlights and I'd have to type in ".com" for them before they felt like they could use their computer again. I used to do tech support for a medium-sized office. It's not like it's a hard thing to do, and it only needs to happen once. If you don't trust your users enough to click twice, then maybe you need to learn to trust them more. "might not even be able to run" is taking it a bit too far. > Plus, once again, you're being way overdramatic. They create a problem and then charge you to fix it. If you have the revenue, then it's simply a cost of doing business in the Apple world. Your entire "expecting the user to do so" point completely goes out the window the second you said it's a paid app. > Honestly, if you're charging users, then there's absolutely no question about it, you get the membership. I'm sure that it lowers the chance of accidentally executing viruses by quite a bit and also slowly is teaching users to think before they execute (especially if you have to right click and click Open). Honestly, be happy they haven't moved the default to the much more restrictive "Mac App Store" yet.Īnd to be fair, I see where Apple (and Microsoft, IIRC they have SmartScreen which does the same sort of thing but to a lesser extent) are coming from. As long as you are developing for their platform, you have to play by their rules. They will always have the upper hand because they're the ones providing the user base and all the tools necessary to get the apps out there and onto their machines. But as with all major companies, it never is. That's the way it's always been, and that's the way it will probably always be (but never say never, look at Microsoft, they're doing things nobody would have ever expected). Remember, this is Apple's OS, Apple's ecosystem, and Apple's SDKs. Plus, once again, you're being way overdramatic. Honestly, if you're charging users, then there's absolutely no question about it, you get the membership. I don't feel comfortable charging people for something they might not even be able to run.
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