[Wowfunhappy]

> without disabling security features?

With Gatekeeper turned off, you’ll still get a warning on first launch which you can easily click through. (Unless Apple changed something in the last few versions—let me know if that’s the case—but it would be out of character for them to remove a warning...)

The “security feature” you don’t want to disable is precisely the thing you are complaining about, so I don’t understand why you’d keep it around.

> The added friction feels more like a way to force developers to pay Apple an annual fee for distributing rather than for my safety.

I don’t imagine Apple makes a substantial amount of money from $99/year developer subscriptions. The App Store is another story of course.

[copperx]

> I don’t imagine Apple makes a substantial amount of money from $99/year developer subscriptions. The App Store is another story of course.

It has a chilling effect on releasing free apps.

It's going to be an interesting time soon, when even your dog will have a vibecoded app he'll want you to use.

[Wowfunhappy]

I'm not saying it's good or that I like it, I just don't think Apple is doing it for the sake of developer subscription revenue, it's not enough revenue.

(To be clear, my position is that most people should probably turn off Gatekeeper and then developers don't have to pay Apple anything, unless they're making very mainstream software which probably generates revenue anyway.)

[krackers]

> substantial amount of money from $99/year developer subscriptions

You actually do get some value, you can file two DTS tickets [1] a year which are (supposedly) looked at by a real apple engineer. Assuming they haven't outsourced it, that feels worth about $100 considering how badly documented their APIs are.

[1] https://developer.apple.com/support/technical/

[enos_feedler]

It also gives you the option of entry into the WWDC lottery for a chance at 2 days at Apple Park. Good networking, food and vibes.