Anyone else as worried about this as I am?

matobo

matobo

Member
MacStrategy > Blog Posting > Apple's Lion is out of the cage, so where to now for Apple? (18 August 2011) (made the important bits bold)

Mac App Store Software Installation
In the future the only way to install software on a Mac will be via the Mac App Store. And this will ultimately be the make or break scenario for some people. But these people won't stop Apple doing this. Why? Because right now Apple sells way more iOS devices than Mac OS devices and the number of people who won't like this will be minuscule compared to the number of people who do like this scenario. Hey, it will actually be that computer for "the rest of us", right?

So why could this be a problem for you? Well basically if you use the Terminal (or other tinkering software e.g. TinkerTool, Deeper, Onyx), non standard software environments e.g. Java, or even software that does not install in the simplistic way that the Mac App Store utilises e.g. Adobe Creative Suite and individual apps, then trouble may be looming. The future of these products are dependant on two very important things: software developers rewriting their installers for the Mac App Store model and Apple approving such software. If these two things don't happen you won't see that software in the future and that may mean saying goodbye to the Mac platform…

So the big question in the future might be "can you 'jailbreak' a Mac and get to the UNIX underpinnings or not?"…

The people that should really, seriously think about all of this are:

  • Those that use the Terminal regularly
  • Those that like to tinker under the hood of the operating system
  • Programmers (unless you are exclusively using Apple's own Xcode development environment)
  • Those that use software not currently available on the Mac App Store e.g. graphic designers/publishers/people working in media/science
  • In a business that requires serious server implementations and/or processing power hardware
And, yes, a lot of the people affected will be those very media people that actually kept Apple going in the 1990s but frankly Apple doesn't give a damn about you anymore - there are many more of those glassy eyed, consumer zombies out there than there are of you. If the software you need doesn't get made available on the Mac App Store and doesn't get approved by Apple, Apple may be waving you goodbye very soon, as they walk you out via the glass door and point you towards the local Microsoft store…
Click to expand...

I can't bare the thought of possibly having to design on a PC in the future because as a Graphic Designer I am now considered a minority in Apple's user base grand scheme of things...
 
This has been coming for a long time. Apple wants to 'own' its customers/consumers under a thinly veiled idea that they are doing because they 'care about the user experience'. There have been inklings of it in the ether for a while.

Do I care? Not in the slightest. If Apple users are too blinded by their 'shiny white boxes' to see what is really going on then so be it. For too long we've heard 'Apple care about us' like they are a few guys sat in a shed somewhere hand-crafting the best PCs in the world. Well, they are a multi-national corporation that is hell-bent on making money and nabbing 'consumers for life', just like Microsoft in the 80s and 90s.

I am not getting into the 'usual' debate as I know that Macs are fantastic and well thought-out computers and OS and I absolutely see why they are the best machines for design. Truth is that Apple sell their products like crack and now, you can only get your fix from them. :icon_wink:
 
Widely forecast. At least they're being fairly up-front about it. In the future will become a case study to demonstrate how not to build relationships with customers and gain advocates.
 
Whilst apps from the app store works well on iPhone and iPad, any attempt to do the same on Macs would be a complete disaster and I think Apple would struggle to maintain the level of control they have over iOS devices. The long and short of it all is that as much as they'd like to force us to be restricted to the App Store for everything, the truth is they wont be able to.
 
Windows is getting better all the time and already PCs / Laptops are starting to look like nicely designed objects. This was previously a unique selling point exclusive to Apple. If Apple starts treating OSX like iOS (i.e lock it down to just the mac app store) then as mentioned all the pros will simple jump ship I’m sure. It makes sense for the average noob consumer user to force them to use the mac app store since it adds to the simplicity of the experience and they probably wouldn’t notice that they are totally locked into submission. Apple seems to be all about the general mainstream non tech savvy user now which makes me wonder how 'Pros' are going to fit in?
 
Something I really like about OSX is the ability to find stuff, chop and change the way it works and get into the guts of the system. Apple understood that alot of mac users need/wanted to do this and so trusted them to get on with it while Microsoft created an idiot proof operating system and locked users out of the balls of the thing. Apples iOS is a great mobile platform but (as with older windows platforms) takes control away from the user with the only option for recovery being 'force restart'. At the moment Lion is a great ballance of OSX and iOS but I hope Apple dont move any further away from the needs of the hardcore mac users to pander to the word processing web surfing mac mini owner.

I am a self confessed Apple fan boy and think the sun shines out of Steve Jobs arse but in the age of consumerism brand loyalty is a fickle thing and I'd happliy jump ship if something else comes along that better meets my needs.
 
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