Thanks for sharing your experience. I also work on a free utility for macOS that I'm not paying $100 each year to release. As a result, macOS treats that app like it's radioactive.
It's a disservice to users who intentionally download the app to improve their experiences, only to find out that the program is a second-class citizen on macOS, and they need to perform a security ritual to use it. If the users don't know what the ritual is, to them, the app is just broken.
I recognize the writing on the wall, though. macOS isn't a platform to hack around on anymore, it's Apple's platform to extract rents from its developers and users. If your app or use case doesn't fit into that ecosystem, that's just too bad.
That’s pretty cool.
It’s nice to see that people are willing to pay for simple but effective utility apps on MacOS.
I feel like that type of paid app is almost completely gone from Linux and Windows.
I’ve switched to MacOS last year and have been tinkering away on a few things to improve my own workflow as well as dip my toes into native Mac programming with swift.
I would never have thought about polishing it up and trying to sell it had I developed it for Linux, but seeing stuff like this makes me want to give it a shot even if it’s just to see the whole process through.
This is not as bad on the Mac platform as it is on Windows.
Anyway if a few devs can quickly slap together a functional open-source clone of your apps you might want to ask yourself if your app really provides enough worth to your users to pay for it.
Users don't know that, though. macOS treats the app that they want to use like they're radioactive and don't work, and doesn't give them the explicit option of running what they want anyway. They have to know some magic ritual to open it.
thanks for the feedback. personally, not sure if it's because i've been using the apps so much while developing, but i can't use macOS without them now. it's a bit like Alfred to me. as soon as i start my Mac, i need those running. anyways, whether paying or not, i'm happy that they're useful to you. i've spend almost three years fulltime building them for myself for various reasons. the fact that they help other people is definitely a massive bonus!
I've recently moved to Mac OS after a life on Windows and Linux (because M1 seemed quite good). I was honestly a little shocked by all of the paid apps (both one-time fee and subscription) on Mac OS. For example, Bear, RogueAmoeba apps, Fantastical, Paw, etc.
Have I been spoiled by FOSS? And am I being selfish for wishing these high-quality apps were free?
Also, an opinion question: would it be unethical for someone to clone (non-unique) features from paid apps and then release the software for free? If you spend a lot of time and effort on that, you could potentially screw over another dev's source of income, but would it be better for everyone if high-quality applications were available to all for free?
I‘m a developer myself and i have the money, that is not the problem.
I have no mac myself, so not a use case for me, but and don‘t get this wrong ...
Design of the app is good, website is 10/10 ... but a subscription for a monitor control app is a hard sell.
One time i would say:“well, why not. i use it and there is no better way“ but my lizard brain says:“23$ or euro every year for like 5 or 10 years ... thats money. Nope. One time developing it and a few minor fixes ... “
I have no idea how bad every mac os update f+++s with your app and maybe its a pain, but well lizard brain
And that's totally fair, but this app is honestly rather trivial.. I think the surprising thing is that there are fewer Mac devs spending time making free software. I don't think Apple makes things better either by forcing devs to pay for a dev account to sell signed apps through official channels.
Mac devs have been complaining for a long time that Xcode and the entire developer experience sucks. It sucks (1) in the way that most native development sucks, and (2) an extra layer of suck on top of that.
The Mac platform also used to be very insulated; the culture meant that the prospect of creating an app or simple utility and selling it was viable much longer than it was on Windows, where the culture is that everything is either gratis-style free or warez-style free. The invasion of the Web means that Mac users are increasingly being conditioned to get things for free, too, so the viability of paid apps has taken a big hit. SaaS is the way to make money now.
I use a different set of platforms, but there are a couple of iOS programs I run under MacOS.
In general the experience is worse than using a real macos app but it as terrible than running in Web browser/electron (e.g. Slack, Spotify), or a macOS app that looks like it was written under duress by someone who didn’t give a shit (e.g. WhatsApp)
Part of the benefit of macOS apps is that you can just put them in the trash and they're gone. Breaking that contract isn't like awful but it is frustrating.
Apple provides a free storefront for Mac apps. It is by no means the only way to purchase Mac apps. A glitch occurs that removes a piece of software from the free Apple-provided storefront.
...
I'm having a really hard time figuring out the part here where Apple is some evil entity depriving a developer of their livelihood. Sure, this sucks, but it's not like nobody can buy your software. There's plenty of Mac software out there that isn't even on the Mac app store to begin with, so I'm having a hard time figuring out why this developer is having such a huge problem that he needs to resort to begging for donations.
I'm surprised people keep trying to touch macOS apps like this. macOS productivity app users are some of the most keen and aware users on the market.
Trying to pull a move like this and trying to hide it away like a quiet fart? We can smell enshittification from a mile away and we already know it smells like shit in here.
Thank you so much for the response. It's really insightful. I haven't read too much about developer experiences on the Mac App store, so I'm really looking forward to your next blog post. Thanks again!
It's a disservice to users who intentionally download the app to improve their experiences, only to find out that the program is a second-class citizen on macOS, and they need to perform a security ritual to use it. If the users don't know what the ritual is, to them, the app is just broken.
I recognize the writing on the wall, though. macOS isn't a platform to hack around on anymore, it's Apple's platform to extract rents from its developers and users. If your app or use case doesn't fit into that ecosystem, that's just too bad.
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