inessential by Brent Simmons

Après moi le déluge?

Manton Reece notes a growing list of apps leaving MAS:

TextExpander 4 shipped this week, and with the update it breaks from the Mac App Store and instead requires customers to buy directly. TextExpander is the first popular app I’ve seen to do it.

This worries me. I like the Mac App Store, and I definitely prefer to buy my software there. While I don’t have a Mac app at the moment, I’m sure I will again in the future. (I love writing Mac apps too much to stay away.)

If the Mac App Store is known as the home of the hobbled versions of Mac apps — or, worse, is known as the place where good and useful Mac apps just aren’t permitted — then it’s not going to work, and developers and users lose out on the benefits of the Mac App Store.

I have no problem with Gatekeeper, even for non-Mac-App-Store apps. The problem is sandboxing. Maybe it’s fixable — but I won’t consider it fixed until apps like TextExpander can get back on the app store.