[zepto]

> Companies buy out smaller software projects and add spyware to them fairly often (on the iPhone this usually happens via dylibs rather than the App publisher purposefully doing it.)

Yes.

and Apple has removed one of the only ways to catch this without an adequate replacement.

No - these can be scanned for during app review.

> The effect is much worse overall security.

No, consumer software outside the App Store is rarely examined by experts who have access to the source code.

This certainty is not a general practice.

[swiley]

I would be willing to bet money that there is more malware on the App Store than in the official Debian Repos.

[zepto]

So what? There is more malware in the App Store than on floppy disks for the Atari ST too.

The Debian repos are not a software store.