[oblio]

Apple is turning into a services company, though, look at their numbers.

And one of those core services is the App Store.

[Gaelan]

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Mac apps still aren't distributed on the App Store. The Mac App Store almost certainly isn't a big money-maker.

[heavyset_go]

They're turning the screws, the ARM Macs are the first Macs that will not run unsigned binaries.

It's already at the point where macOS will treat apps as if they're radioactive if the developer didn't pay the $100 Apple tax before distributing it.

[comex]

They don’t run unsigned binaries, but they run self-signed binaries (to the same extent that Intel Macs run unsigned binaries) and the linker automatically does the signing. It’s an architectural simplification, not a substantive tightening of the screws.

[heavyset_go]

Self-signed applications are treated as if they're radioactive by macOS, too[1].

[1] https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/unsigned.html

[comex]

Yes. My point is that blocking truly unsigned applications on Apple Silicon is not a substantive change from the status quo on Intel Macs.

[saagarjha]

Programs on Intel Macs can do some funny things to invalidate their code signature in was that Apple silicon won’t support, which I guess you could call a change. But I agree that the transition was probably mostly made for simplicity.

[ric2b]

Yet.