My longstanding prediction that Gatekeeper will ever so slowly tighten so that people don't realise like a frog boiled in water is continuing to be true.
People did realize when the actual Gatekeeper change happened a year ago [1]. But your prediction still holds because frogs do realize when they're boiled in water [2].
The point is that by the time Gatekeeper closes tight enough that everything must run through Apple and it can't be disabled, most people wont notice and will be stuck with it.
Fortunately, Linux laptops are getting better and better. I'm hopeful that by the time my M1 macBook Air gets slow enough to annoy me (maybe a year or two from now?), I'll be able to smoothly transition to Linux. I've already done it on the desktop!
Just did this. I am so much happier. As a lifelong Apple user, and side-quest Linux user the choice is a no-brainer nowadays. Desktop Linux is honestly great now. I love(d) Apple but Tahoe was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
My family have bought macs and been apple fanboys since the "Pizzabox" 6100 PowerPC. My dad handed me down a DuoDock when I was in middle school. We bought a G4 Cube, I had an iBook and Powerbook throughout college and throughout the 2010s.
In 2017 I built my first desktop PC from the ground up and got it running Windows/Linux. I just removed Windows after the 11 upgrade required TPM, and I bought a brand new Framework laptop which I love.
This is to say that Apple used to represent a sort of freedom to escape what used to be Microsoft's walled garden. Now it's just another dead-end closed ecosystem that I'm happy to leave behind.
Apple does not support running other OS's on their hardware. This is bad in many senses but it is specially bad since it weakens competition and reduces incentives for Apple to improve their own OS, meaning it is bad even for their users in the long run.
If you choose to buy hardware from apple, you must consider that you're encouraging a behaviour that is bad for everyone, including yourself.
I'm not sure what you're talking about. Their bootloader explicitly supports other OSes. They make it easy to run Windows (even through a built-in app that helps you set it up). There are plenty of reasons to criticize Apple, but they literally don't do anything to prevent you from running another OS.
Neither does any other hardware vendor, even the likes of Dell, Lenovo and Asus clearly state on their online shops that their laptops work best with Windows, even when something like Ubuntu or Red-Hat is an option.
> Gatekeeper will ever so slowly tighten so that people don't realise like a frog boiled in water is continuing to be true
Gatekeeper can be disabled. Given Cupertino’s pivot to services and the Mac’s limited install base relative to iPhones (and high penetration among developers) I’m doubtful they’d remove that option in the foreseeable future.
It really bothers me that Apple removed any convenient shortcut to bypass Gatekeeper like the old Control-click [1] hotkey. Apple's relentless ratcheting of the difficulty/annoyance of Gatekeeper has just about pushed me over the edge to completely disable it, despite the risk.
The ridiculous song and dance of "File is dangerous, delete it?"->No->Settings->Security->Open Anyway->"File is dangerous, delete it?"->No is getting ridiculously old after literally doing it a hundred times at this point. And soon enough Apple will inevitably come up with some additional hurdle like, idk, closing Settings three times in a row while reading a fingerprint during an odd numbered minute.
So in the name of "increased security" they've needlessly turned it into a binary thing where it's completely unprotected or accept my own computer that I paid for will deliberately waste my time constantly. It makes Windows 11 seem elegant in comparison where all I need to do is run Win11Debloat once on install and it gets out of my way.
Gatekeeper isn’t changing. Homebrew’s policies are changing.
It also only applies to casks. If you don’t use homebrew casks, nothing is changing for you.
You can also disable Gatekeeper entirely. It’s very easy.
I don’t see what you think you’re predicting, unless you’re trying to imply that that Gatekeeper is a conspiratorial plot to turn your Mac into an iPhone. I predict we’re going to be seeing those conspiracy theories for decades while it never comes true. Apple doesn’t want to destroy the market for their $5000 laptops so they can sell us a $1000 iPad as our only computing device or send customers to competitors. This is like a replay of the sky is falling drama when secure boot was announced
armchairhacker|3 months ago
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/macos-15-sequoia-mak..., https://www.macrumors.com/2024/08/06/macos-sequoia-gatekeepe..., https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/08/07/mac-os-15-sequo.... Top HN comment on Sequoia's announcement mentions it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41559761
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog#Experiments_and_a...
seanparsons|3 months ago
bbkane|3 months ago
JCattheATM|3 months ago
It should be good for at least 5 years from now, if not more.
zackb|3 months ago
i use arch btw
spaceribs|3 months ago
In 2017 I built my first desktop PC from the ground up and got it running Windows/Linux. I just removed Windows after the 11 upgrade required TPM, and I bought a brand new Framework laptop which I love.
This is to say that Apple used to represent a sort of freedom to escape what used to be Microsoft's walled garden. Now it's just another dead-end closed ecosystem that I'm happy to leave behind.
marcodiego|3 months ago
If you choose to buy hardware from apple, you must consider that you're encouraging a behaviour that is bad for everyone, including yourself.
cweagans|3 months ago
Aurornis|3 months ago
The bootloader was intentionally left open to other OSes. You should look into Asahi Linux.
pjmlp|3 months ago
Also they hardly ship any updates.
zackb|3 months ago
1. https://asahilinux.org/
JumpCrisscross|3 months ago
Gatekeeper can be disabled. Given Cupertino’s pivot to services and the Mac’s limited install base relative to iPhones (and high penetration among developers) I’m doubtful they’d remove that option in the foreseeable future.
ewoodrich|3 months ago
The ridiculous song and dance of "File is dangerous, delete it?"->No->Settings->Security->Open Anyway->"File is dangerous, delete it?"->No is getting ridiculously old after literally doing it a hundred times at this point. And soon enough Apple will inevitably come up with some additional hurdle like, idk, closing Settings three times in a row while reading a fingerprint during an odd numbered minute.
So in the name of "increased security" they've needlessly turned it into a binary thing where it's completely unprotected or accept my own computer that I paid for will deliberately waste my time constantly. It makes Windows 11 seem elegant in comparison where all I need to do is run Win11Debloat once on install and it gets out of my way.
[1] https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=saqachfa
Aurornis|3 months ago
It also only applies to casks. If you don’t use homebrew casks, nothing is changing for you.
You can also disable Gatekeeper entirely. It’s very easy.
I don’t see what you think you’re predicting, unless you’re trying to imply that that Gatekeeper is a conspiratorial plot to turn your Mac into an iPhone. I predict we’re going to be seeing those conspiracy theories for decades while it never comes true. Apple doesn’t want to destroy the market for their $5000 laptops so they can sell us a $1000 iPad as our only computing device or send customers to competitors. This is like a replay of the sky is falling drama when secure boot was announced
JohnTHaller|3 months ago
4ndrewl|3 months ago
jdxcode|3 months ago
GaryBluto|3 months ago