[Bf-committers] Blender on the Mac App Store

[Alexandr Kuznetsov]

I don't understand the purpose of Mac App Store. You can simply download
.zip from the web and drag it on desktop. What can be simpler?  On the other
hand you need to get in iOS App Store to be on iPhone. There absolutely no
reason why we must or want to be in Mac App Store. Mac App Store probably
inherited long and tedieous review proccess. And even if Blender can pass
it, there will be literally weeks of delay before updates. Look at Ubuntu
Software Center. Blender is 2.49 there.
Moreover, downloading from website, gives the feel of community. Users can
discover wiki, video tutorials, gallery, forums which are undoubtedly major
sources of learning and inspiration. Differently, App Store gives a feel of
no community and no development engagement. Granted, Blender can easily be
in top 20, but user base will be very pretty random. Many will complain why
Blender doesn't do X and does Y differently. Most of those users will
uninstall faster then they feel the potential and never try it again.

Alex K

On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 3:57 PM, Shaul Kedem <shaul.kedem at gmail.com> wrote:

> If that is the problem then the solution would be to provide a link to
> the source, problem solved. There is no reason apple will object to
> that and there is a link to the developer anyway. Btw, It's debatable
> whether or not apple has actually any part here, in the sense meant in
> the GPL. The developer chooses to use the app store as means of
> distribution, like a DVD or steam or other pipelines, if the GPL meant
> to burden every link in the chain with taking on the GPL it shoots
> itself in the foot. What's next? we'll ask ISPs to provide the source
> code and attribution because the code flows through their servers?
>
> On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 3:43 PM, Mathias Panzenböck
> <grosser.meister.morti at gmx.net> wrote:
> > I might be wrong, but as I understood it the problem is that the GPL
> requires the distributor to
> > also provide the source of the application. In the case of the App Store
> Apple is the distributor.
> > But they have never thought that anyone would like to distribute source
> code through their system
> > and I think they think it's not the right place for the source anyway.
> >
> > I wonder why it should not be enough to provide a link to the source in
> the description? After all
> > the binary in the App Store would be the same as on blender.org (binary
> compare would match), so one
> > can be sure it wasn't tampered with (if you really want to test that).
> >
> > But I haven't read the GPL or the App Store license. That's all just what
> I take from all the news
> > articles about this incident.
> >
> >        -panzi
> >
> > On 07/21/2011 06:01 PM, jonathan d p ferguson wrote:
> >> hi.
> >>
> >> As far as I know, the GPL is *incompatible* with the terms of the Apple
> App Store. VLC was pulled because the GPL is incompatible with Apple's terms
> [1]. It is Apple who needs to liberalize their terms, not the FOSS
> developers. We must all respect the terms of the GPL, and encourage Apple to
> be more liberal with their terms.
> >>
> >> Given that Apple's Lion Operating System will be deployed through the
> App Store only, and given that Lion includes a substantial amount of GPL
> software, perhaps these changes are already afoot. Perhaps not.
> >>
> >> Thanks.
> >>
> >> have a day.yad
> >> jdpf
> >>
> >>
> >> [1]
> http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/01/vlc-for-ios-vanishes-2-months-after-eruption-of-gpl-dispute.ars
> >>
> >> On Jul 21, 2011, at 11:26 AM, Shaul Kedem wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi,
> >>> As I understood, the VLC incident was because of the original authors
> >>> of VLC not wanting their software to be in the App store, apple just
> >>> followed the original copyright holder's request.
> >>>
> >>> As for the license, we need a lawyer for that :)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 6:16 AM, Sergey I. Sharybin<g.ulairi at gmail.com>
>  wrote:
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>> Personally, I don't think it's a good idea. App Store isn't compatible
> >>>> with GPL license. Even more, it was accident with VLC already -- Apple
> >>>> simply removed this application from App Store due to license
> >>>> incompatibility.
> >>>>
> >>>> Markus Kasten wrote:
> >>>>> Hello everyone.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> what about putting blender on the App Store (the one for Mac
> applications of course, not for iOS)?
> >>>>> Blender could reach a lot more popularity.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Markus K.
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
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