[anko]

nobody complained about this junk when it was nintendo and sega doing it, for a lot more. It's just that this time; 1) people have this illogical apple hatred and 2) people buy into google's spiel about being open.

The app store, is a tradeoff. It's some inconvenience for developers in exchange for a trusted, safe marketplace for applications for consumers.

[Mikeb85]

> nobody complained about this junk when it was nintendo and sega doing it, for a lot more.

I'm sure someone did, but they didn't have the internet to vent their frustrations.

> 1) people have this illogical apple hatred

I'd say there's valid reasons to dislike Apple's stance on many issues.

> 2) people buy into google's spiel about being open.

Every OS Google has is open-source - Chrome OS, and Android. Yes, we know they do have services that aren't, and some that require payment, but you can use, fork, and hack on Android or Chromium if you want to.

Is Google a 100% open source company? No. I would personally prefer Firefox OS and Ubuntu become the major smartphone players, but Google is better than Apple or MS.

> The app store, is a tradeoff. It's some inconvenience for developers in exchange for a trusted, safe marketplace for applications for consumers.

It's not about the app store. It's about restrictions on side-loading your own app onto a device you own. With an Android device, I can test my own apps without having to sign up for anything. I hear Firefox OS is just as open, and they make it very easy to test out your HTML5 apps (even without it being hosted on a website).

[anko]

This is a late reply, but just in case you read it.

> I'd say there's valid reasons to dislike Apple's stance on many issues.

That's not apple hatred, and it's not what I'm talking about.

> Every OS Google has is open-source - Chrome OS, and Android. Yes, we know they do have services that aren't, and some that require payment, but you can use, fork, and hack on Android or Chromium if you want to.

Read this: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/googles-iron-grip-on-....

I don't know what your argument is, but also consider that apple has an opensource core to their OS too - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system). But they have a closed source shell on top of that? So does android.

> Google is better than Apple or MS.

This is what i'm talking about when I say illogical apple hatred. Google is not better than Apple or MS.

> It's not about the app store. It's about restrictions on side-loading your own app onto a device you own

If people could sideload anything on their devices, it would break trust in the platform. Apple want a platform that people trust, and most people want that too. It's not fundamentally wrong to be different, but just understand that you're a minority on this planet and that people who don't want to sideload apps are the majority.

[BadassFractal]

Using examples from late 80s boxed software is absurd, and you also don't know anything about whether developers at the time complained about the restrictions or not.

Development practices for the web era are nothing like those of 30 years ago, unless you like to do it wrong.

[anko]

What are you talking about late 80s? it's still happening with consoles today. On XBox, for example, you need a dev kit. They have a lengthy sign up process, they don't allow students or universities to get one, etc. It costs $$$.

Yeah development practices have changed, but you also have a choice of platforms.

Any platform has tradeoffs and those tradeoffs have an impact on your development process. That's what a platform is. It's an environment, and that environment imposes restrictions. So there is a tradeoff between restrictions to benefits.