We published to the App Stores to see if that would lower the barrier to adoption. We learned that that while they are convenient for most folks, some can't access them, in particular the Windows Store, due to firewalls, corp policy, etc. So far, this seems to be a bigger problem for Windows than Mac in general.
To be transparent, we want to automate all the App Store publishing. It is currently a semi-manual process. It turns out that the Microsoft Store process is easiest (mostly uploading an MSIX file, which they sign for you). Signing for the Mac App Store was brittle for us, and became more manual. Notarizing for standalone builds has additional steps on top of that. Hopefully, Xcode Cloud will eventually solve all these problems.
BTW, another easier way to build might be to fork and use the GitHub actions:
GP here. This is a late reply. As a user who cannot go through build processes and prefers direct downloads, I’d still like to see direct download links on the main site’s pages for the Windows and macOS versions (in addition to the app store links).
We published to the App Stores to see if that would lower the barrier to adoption. We learned that that while they are convenient for most folks, some can't access them, in particular the Windows Store, due to firewalls, corp policy, etc. So far, this seems to be a bigger problem for Windows than Mac in general.
To be transparent, we want to automate all the App Store publishing. It is currently a semi-manual process. It turns out that the Microsoft Store process is easiest (mostly uploading an MSIX file, which they sign for you). Signing for the Mac App Store was brittle for us, and became more manual. Notarizing for standalone builds has additional steps on top of that. Hopefully, Xcode Cloud will eventually solve all these problems.
BTW, another easier way to build might be to fork and use the GitHub actions:
1. Fork the Focalboard repo
2. Go to the Prod-Release Action in your fork (https://github.com/YOURID/focalboard/actions/workflows/prod-...)
3. Enable it if needed (the first time)
4. Run
5. Download the generated packages
I haven't seen this widely used, but might be a great way to try out new projects initially.