Apple keeps adding restrictions to what free developers can do, which makes this less and less viable. They also made a major change to their authentication mechanism for these free developer accounts last year, which (to avoid a lot of reverse engineering of highly obfuscated--and notably "well" obfuscated--Apple code) required a pretty obtuse workaround from AltStore on macOS where it injects into Mail.app as a plug-in... I am shocked Apple hasn't figured out some way to restrict this yet (it could be that it didn't occur to them there is still work to be done upping the ante here?).
> required a pretty obtuse workaround from AltStore on macOS where it injects into Mail.app as a plug-in
Why are people still putting up with Apple? People who can figure out such tricks are smart. Why are they still customer to a company that has shown to be hostile to the freedom they want to assert? GNU/Linux is getting better by the day.
Honestly? The average person had a different value system.
The freedom some developers want isn’t something the majority of users want.
Personally, I haven’t been significantly limited by Apple’s rules. I like that Apple controls the billing, so I don’t have to deal with credit cards being stolen or companies making unsubscribing difficult. I like that they at least have some review process and will pull bad apps.
I like that I can go to my local Apple store for support. Google? They are possibly the most user hostile company I know.
I like that someone actually gives a damn about privacy and security when online services are getting hacked left and right.
Apple is far from perfect but they will fight a big companies and governments for violating their rules or endangering user privacy. They’ve told publicly EA, Facebook, and the US government to pound sand. (China is a no-win situation, Apple decided to play ball to keep that market.)
So yes, I’ll happily trade some freedom for safety and security.
Because the market of users has macOS (and Windows, where the workaround isn't as "obtuse" as nothing is locking you out of doing it, but is still ridiculous: I think he injects code into iTunes), and apps that don't have users are kind of pointless (if not high quality ;P)? You don't get to choose the platform used by your users, and the people choosing that platform are often doing it for reasons that aren't even necessarily in their own best interests (as they aren't fully informed of the consequences).
A question for the ages. A guess would be they really really really love the hardware, as it's the only thing that rationalizes how many of these groups are doing amazing things for free under Apple's severe watch.
The hardware is great, but most of macOS and iOS is pretty great, too.
For the low hanging fruit: font rendering on macOS/iOS looks better than any type I’ve ever seen on any other OS or platform, right out of the box, and still looks better even when those other platforms are tweaked with additional fonts and rendering settings.
I’m dreading my impending switch to Android and/or a mobile Linux next summer for this reason.
As someone who works all day, every day with text on my screen, I care about this as much as I care about my bed, chair, or keyboard.
No question that it is, but it still has far enough to go that it's an acquired taste at best. Switching platforms also means switching apps in many use cases. Combine those two and it becomes easy to see why individuals who aren't compelled by the ideology behind GNU/Linux might not see it as a particularly appealing option.
AFAIK they did block that with the Big Sur rewrite of the Mail app--the Big Sur-ready beta of AltStore requires you to temporarily disable SIP/AMFI and patch the operating system to get access to the account.
