Yeah, It's That Time Again...

If you point your browser at this little gem, you’ll be rewarded with an interesting insight in to Apple’s continual process of legacy software pruning. They learned long ago (c. OS 9) that it is far easier to just not support older software rather than try to work it in to whatever current version of their OS they’re building.

To be fair, this is a continual source of headaches for Redmond, and a big reason that Windows is so full of security holes. Apple has different problems, of course, but life as a developer for OS X is basically a long string of beatings. We all have Stockholm Syndrome at this point, and anything like this is met with resignation, and a muttered “thank you sir, may I have another?”

For those that don’t see what I’m talking about, Gatekeeper is a new whiz-bang feature in OS X 10.8 that essentially won’t let the user install any software that isn’t digitally signed. The user can turn this feature off, theoretically, but it is on by default. If you use a piece of software that is not currently supported by whomever made it, you can pretty much write that software off with respect to 10.8.

For plug-in companies that have a large product line (like, oh, I don’t know, Audio Damage?) this means a rebuild of everything, yet again, plus we have to buy the ridiculous Mac Developer License at $99 a seat to get the signature in the first place. The only other option is to continue to sell our products unsigned, and hope that our customers decide to run Mountain Lion with Gatekeeper disabled.

Adam and I haven’t discussed this issue at any length yet, but I imagine we’ll go ahead and get the signatures and such-like, because that’s the pro thing to do. But expect us to complain about it at length. (A question: if the host is signed, why does the plug-in need to be signed?) Also note that, in the event we do this, we will NOT be rebuilding and signing our own legacy products. This means that if you want to continue using, say, Discord2 or the original Kombinat, you need to stay at 10.7 or earlier.

Gatekeeper? Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!