I knew this was coming before the Mac App Store was announced. Few believed it back then. When Apple first announced its Mac App Store, more believed it. Now that Apple has set a deadline for sandboxing, some people still don’t believe it.
I believe that I should be allowed control over my computers. This is not dependent on the distinction between client and server, or between web and native. I also don’t buy the argument that it’s different when talking about so-called appliances like the iPad, which are really just crippled general-purpose computers.
One of the first things I’m going to do about it is to switch to something other than Mac OS X or Windows for desktop computing.
You shouldn’t be that surprised that the mac app store is made to function in a similar manner to the iOS app store. But at least you don’t have to use the app store to download all software. I probably wouldn’t use be using OS X now if it had the same restrictions as iOS. Windows and Linux are should run fine on your Apple hardware, but I think you’ll go back to Mac OS X in time. Or you could just tripple boot….
Henry, I think it’s Apple’s intention to block installation of apps outside the Mac App Store at some point. There are several ways they could do this. They could have installation blocked by default and allow users to switch on development mode. They could have people join the Mac OS X developer program and turn on development mode. They could make most Macs “appliances” like the iPad but have high-end macs have a way around the default security model. But I think they’re going to play up the security of the Mac App Store, and I don’t think they’ll provide the security of the Mac App Store for third-party application stores like Steam.