I was excited to see Apple's announcement about the OS App Store. It even got me thinking..what if I wrap up that nice little piece of software that I wrote last month..I could generate some additional revenue without having to worry about all of the hassles of doing a new commercial product line. Just write the software with some decent docs and deliver it. Neat! Oh, wait a minute..from what Tim Anderson is reporting I can't do that because Eclipse applications aren't going to be allowed on the App Store. In fact, Apple looks to be more or less elbowing Java out the back door and then locking the exit.
I'll admit it..I'm a sucker for Apple -- I worked at a University in high school in 1984 where we had one of the very first Macs -- in fact it was actually a Lisa, converted to a Mac XL. I went to MacWorld in 1991 and was pretty much the last rat off the sinking ship in the late nineties. I actually requested a Mac Laptop as part of a hiring negotiation. And frankly, being a Mac database developer in those days was a pretty good gigue -- there just wasn't a lot of competition and the customers were generally more interested in quality and service over cost. I like good design that works efficiently -- the fact that the Command Key is a lot more accessible than the Windows Ctrl key really matters to me. So I'm one of those guys..and willing to suspend judgement on a lot of things that I'd complain about if any other company did them.
Lately though, I've been thinking that a lot of those traits that are endearing in a scrappy, iconoclastic company can become really obnoxious when that company becomes the dominant innovator. There is still something really admirable about a company that pursues platform quality over everything else, and I think the argument for an integrated software and hardware platform is really convincing. You know, a lot of Android devices are kind of crappy, and I can't imagine having to use a Windows laptop ever again. So Apple, go ahead and do what you do best -- make insanely good platforms for people to do insanely cool things on.
But please, don't tell me what I can or should put on my computer, OK? And definitely never ever ever tell me what kind of software I can and can't write for that computer.
Now, I'm ok with a bit of lock-in for mobile devices. If I want you to help me deliver software on your platform, I need to follow certain guidelines, and I expect you to make reasonable judgements about security and integration. But I also expect an even playing field, and when it begins to look like the company controlling the platform is controlling distribution purely for its own narrow interests, that's when alarm bells start going off. Apple isn't there yet, but they sure seem to be getting closer and closer to that edge every day. I'm just happy that I made the decision to develop for a truly open platform -- because freedom trumps good looks any day.
So, how can the Eclipse community respond to all of this? That's easy, we just need to get the Eclipse App Store up and running. Hey, kind of like the Android Market for desktops...hmm...maybe Google would be interested in giving us a little hand setting that up..
o "in 1991 and pretty much the last rat"
ReplyDeleteInsert "was"?
o "thinking that a lot that traits that are endearing"
Replace "that" with "of those"?
o "we just need our to get the Eclipse App Store"
Delete the "our"?
OK, OK Glen, you're hired as my copy editor! Seriously, I need one..
ReplyDeleteActually, the line in the ""Mac Developer Program License Agreement" reads as follows:
ReplyDelete3.3.1 Applications may only use public APIs and frameworks included in the default installation of Mac OS X or as bundled with Xcode as provided by Apple, deprecated technologies (such as Java) may not be used."
(here cited from http://www.devdaily.com/mac-os-x/java-mac-os-x-deprecated-mac-app-store)
We really needed Apple to tell us that Java is one of these "deprecated technologies". I figure other deprecated technologies might be non-iPhone-mobiles, blu-ray, and probably open source in general. Oh, and fullscreen seems to be the newest technology, replacing these weird windows cluttering my desktop (I'm not a Cocoa programmer.. is NSWindow already marked deprecated in OS X 10.7?)
Cheers,
Jens
Have you looked at the Marketplace Client? Does that begin to look like an Eclipse App Store?
ReplyDelete@Jens Yes, I think that we can safely assume (or we should assume if we want to be safe) at this point that "deprecated" ~= "not made by Apple".
ReplyDelete@Ian Yep, it totally begins to. :) I think MarketPlace is the single most important step in making this happen. But there are a lot of really challenging pieces that need to be there for this to work, most importantly support for transactions and consumer oriented marketing and promotion, though admittedly the latter is kind of a chicken and egg thing. See my referenced blog entry above for more on that. Mike Milinkovich mentioned that one of the largest costs was actually legal and administrative. There do seem to be some aspects that would require a lot of resources, i.e. not foundation level but corporate strategy level. So whaddya think -- can we get our friends at Google or IBM to pitch in? ;-)
It seems Apple wants to follow the mobile model or more accurately the gaming model. If you are writing Android or PS3 apps, you will be similarly limited, no?
ReplyDelete@Tim Well...no and yes. The whole point of the Android model is to be software vendor and content neutral. But yes, PS3 is an explicitly closed system.
ReplyDeleteBut to your larger point, I think you've hit the key concern. Is Apple trying to turn the Desktop into a captive platform? If that's the case then it means subverting the very core of what general purpose computers are.