[tptacek]

I think one thing that's happening is that people have forgotten (or are too young to have really experienced) the absolute torrent of crapware that preceded the closed mobile app ecosystem. Almost no app developers had your best interests at heart, and some of the few who did ended up selling their apps to developers that didn't. If that risk seems remote now, it's in part because of the App Store.

[userbinator]

I remember, and would still prefer that "torrent of crapware" which one could make up one's own mind about, rather than the dictatorship of the walled garden.

It's not like the App Store review process is particularly trustworthy either. There have been plenty of stories here and elsewhere of that.

Almost no app developers had your best interests at heart

Neither does Apple nor the developers of apps in the App Store. In fact, given the fees, they have even less incentive to avoid greed.

[tptacek]

Absolutely. I'm glad you have the choice to use platforms that don't block crapware!

[nottorp]

> preceded the closed mobile app ecosystem

Just because the app store is closed it doesn't mean it's not full of crapware?

All the "games" are IAP fests. Every time you search for some big name app you get the app (if available) and a bunch of results that are named so deceptively that you're afraid to click on them.

Every week there's another story about a flashlight app that charges a 50/month or 9.99/week subscription.

So tell me how Apple's app curation helps?

> If that risk seems remote now

Maybe to you? I haven't looked at iOS games since the days of the iPad 1, when Apple hadn't pushed all game devs into IAPs yet.

And the few apps I bought, they were mentioned on forums not connected to Apple. And as you said yourself, there's always the chance the app gets sold and the terms change, and the walled garden won't help a single bit.

[tptacek]

Who cares if games have IAPs? That's not what crapware is.

[nottorp]

Sounds like you don't play games :)

[tptacek]

Not so much, no, but if you'd said in 2005 that there'd be a mainstream platform for general-purpose computing where the worst problem was that a lot of the games had in-app purchases, nobody would have believed you.

[nottorp]

Conveniently ignoring the subscription flashlight apps and the still existing chance that apps get sold and become predatory on the next update, I think…

[luuurker]

Do you know anyone that has any of that old crapware on their Macs or had their Mac infected by malware in the past 5 or 10 years? I don't. And they can go to a website, download and install any app they want.

What about Android, which lets you sideload apps? How many people do you know that sideload apps or have installed a malicious app from outside the Play Store?

Yes, the App Store was and is important, but you need to look at other platforms if you really think that Apple allowing app sideloading (proper sideloading, not that shit they're doing in the EU) is going to take us back to the days of browser toolbars. iOS is not Windows XP.