What is the crowd's opinion of
Mac App Store?
From 3.5 billion comments
3 reviews of this app found across the web:
My question is for apps I've already bought that will be in the store. Can I validate my install somehow to get updates through the App Store and download the app on other computers through the App Store?
On an unrelated note, I'm not a fan of the Close/Minimize/Zoom buttons being vertically centered vs near the top like they should be.
> Perhaps windows and mac have ways of installing software/managing software as easily but I am not aware of them.
Perhaps a little advance research would help you think of better ideas. The Windows equivalent will be called the Windows Store, and the Mac equivalent is called the Mac App Store.
There is Ubuntu-branded software coming for Windows, namely an Ubuntu One client.
I'm really surprised that no one's mentioned the Mac App Store yet.
This picture is from the time when the whole hulabaloo was being raised over iOS's (as opposed to OSX's) locked down nature around time time of the Ipad's release, and at the time I essentially scoffed at such assertions. However, Apple's much pushed "future of software distribution" features the same restrictive ToS as the iOS app store for desktop software (remote deletion; no betas, free software, demos, ect.).
Apple isn't a bad company; they've been a consistent engine of innovation and often have great hardware design, build quality, and UI's. But, I also don't think anyone would disagree that they're extremely concerned with (controlling the user experience)/(offering a curated user experience), and that they've leveraged their ecosystems to exert what they feel to be the maximum tolerable level of control possible.
Now, I'm not in any way claiming that Apple is removing features to diminish freedom user in Lion (OSX 10.7), but they are baking in an app store with a heavily restrictive ToS and are actively working to see that it will be the primary vector for software purchases going forward.
Right now OSX is a robustly flexible operating system with a great deal of quality free (as in liberty) software - The question is : does want this to remain it's state going forward post-Lion/post-OSX?