[snyp]

Apart from the article, I am pretty sure a lot of the arguments against the AppStore would disappear if Apple just paid more to the developers and reduced it's cut. I hope they find a good middle ground, we definitely need an App Store for the majority of the users out there, something that is relatively safe and allows for massive distribution but also keeps out a lot of malicious actors (its not perfect but its better than a lot of other options). It would be nice if developers also got paid a lot more.

[skohan]

Honestly I don't see how they can justify more than a few percent cut. They offer no value in terms of discoverability anymore, app stores essentially only serve the purpose of a file host.

But even if they were only taking a 5% cut, I think the argument still stands that they have a negative impact on consumers in that they decide what the hardware you bought is and isn't allowed to do. Apple can invalidate entire business models if they disallow an app on their store, and an entrepreneur can spend millions developing a business only to have it rendered inviable by a change to the terms and services which can be made over night without warning.

All of this could be solved by allowing side-loading. It wouldn't even have to be made easy to do - go ahead and bury it deep in the settings behind a bunch of scary warnings. But I see no excuse for not allowing this at all.

[aabbcc1241]

Ubuntu, Archlinux, centos, npm, conda all have 'official app store'. They work well as gatekeeper to avoid majority users getting malicious software.

At the same time, those 'app store' are not exclusive, they allow 3rd party 'app lists' or at least allow other means to distribute 'apps'.