Mac OS X 10.7 Will Only Allow Apple Approved Apps?

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Posted April 23, 2010 at 2:10pm by Shalom Levytam

A new report suggests that Apple is planning to lock down Mac OS X 10.7 in a similar manner to the iPhone, iPod, and iPad.

According to Rixstep, Developers planning on marketing software for 10.7 will submit their products to the App Store as iPhone and now iPad developers have already done. 10.7 will have kernel support for ('insistence on') binaries signed with Apple's root certificate. No software will be able to run on Mac OS X 10.7 without being approved and signed by Apple, Inc.

Apple will supposedly begin signing up independent software vendors (ISVs) for the 10.7 developer program by early autumn 2010. Rixstep expects that there will be efforts to jailbreak OS X 10.7 just as there have been with the iPhone.

No information is provided about the source of this speculation...

Read More [via MacDailyNews]

Mac OS X 10.7 Will Only Allow Apple Approved Apps?

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Mrman - September 18, 2010 at 11:15pm

I love Macs ...... but like everyone else is saying.... I WOULD NEVER BUY ANOTHER ONE AGAIN...... if they committed this atrocity. The reason I love macs is because you can do ANYTHING on them...... I will not have what I do on my comp restricted by the people that sell it. Old macs without 10.7 or that have been downgraded would multiply in value!!!

Rodrigo - June 5, 2010 at 5:18pm

Nonsense. If Apple do this, they're ridiculous.

indga - April 26, 2010 at 1:45am

This is ridiculous if it's true. I love Apple products, but I will walk away from Apple without a backward glance. We are not communists to have our computer lives dictated by Czar Jobs. Screw Apple! Let their stuff rot on the shelves.

Chris Mills - April 25, 2010 at 10:11am

I'm sure this is complete BS on the side of Rixstep.

Mac User - April 25, 2010 at 4:49am

Bye bye Mac OS X. Welcome back to my main spot Linux.

Dave - April 24, 2010 at 4:02pm

I'm going to start selling all my shares on monday as soon as the market open I don't want to run out of money guys!

Alex - April 24, 2010 at 6:48am

This must be some sort of bad joke! I love my Mac but not so much that I can't go back to Windows or try Googles new OS or something else if this comes true.

Yukas - April 24, 2010 at 5:33am

When I moved to Apple computers 3 years ago you had to choose between Mac OS X and Vista. Now windows 7 have covered a lot of space. If apple envisions a world of computers similar to the iphone locked down platform, is going to stay alone IMO. At least I will sell all 6 macs I own and move to another system. There are other companies out there making good products, see google, sony, they shouldn't think they are the only ones.

Robert - September 16, 2010 at 4:40pm

Sony hasn't come up with anything worth buying since the PS2. Are they still even a company? Like what do they even make?! Disgusting-looking laptops and proprietary media players? No thank you. Maybe they'll make a comeback that installs more Rootkits on your computer!

turim - April 24, 2010 at 5:23am

Just... just STOP!!! Actually, I don´t believe this nonsense... This would probably end my Mac-relations in my home, but I guess Mac would still be used at work. As someone said, maybe I should consider looking into Linux - at least if this is the future of Mac OS X.

detective sims - April 23, 2010 at 11:20pm

Got everything right there!

Noman - April 24, 2010 at 3:58am

Agree 101%

yup - April 23, 2010 at 8:07pm

I really hope apple realizes that this will kill OSX. The consumer market holdings for macs will plummet, and they will no longer be "computers," but now "limited function terminals." **The iPad already exists, people!!*

blls - April 23, 2010 at 8:04pm

Optional enforced driver signing for big name apps that can be disabled if desired? Sure, better quality apps for the most part. BUT locking out every app that isn't apple approved???? ....MacBook Pro for sale, $200 OBO, PM me.

SuperTiti - April 23, 2010 at 7:44pm

iClarified is already preparing a tutorial about how to jailbreak you Mac Mini ! :-D

djdjek - April 23, 2010 at 6:19pm

That's a joke, right. If no, I will be thinking of coming back with Windows.

fenrry - April 23, 2010 at 5:11pm

Got to love Win!

Ram - April 23, 2010 at 3:22pm

if this happens, sure I'll move to linux. Everyday things are getting complicated with all Apple products.

Rich - April 23, 2010 at 3:21pm

Where would this leave the whole bootcamp dual boot scenario..? Surely if you are still going to be able to install windows then that kind of defeats the purpose of locking down OSX

joey - May 3, 2010 at 4:13pm

This is not happening people, stop worrying! According to Macstories.net, developer Fernando Valente asked Steve Jobs if this was true, and he responded, "nope." Apple knows that their app model for phones can't carry over to desktops, not in a million years. They know if they try to do this that nobody would continue to use Macs. They're not that stupid! The comments about switching to Linux are a little humorous though. In Linux, it's next to impossible to install software that's not listed in the distro's software installation program.

Horst - April 23, 2010 at 3:06pm

Apple has turned from "the good guys" to something that makes me anxious for many reasons. They've learned a lot from M$, and they go even much farther in a very dictatorial direction, as seen with iPods (mild), iPhones (heavy dictatorial). They will not hard-block apps on the Mac, that would hurt them too much. Though, with the recent insane actions (i.e. blocking other development environments on the iPhone) they could indeed create such "approving"-nonsense and make this way "non-approved"-apps "second class" apps. As a Mac developer I have very very bad feelings since some time. I don't do iPhone apps, as 70/30 income sharing is ridiculous! For what do iPhone-app-developers pay 30% to Apple? For being observed & controlled + possibly locked out by Apple. For having zero business privacy. Sheeps. I'm a Mac-user since '92. I can't believe what I think: I may have to look at Windows or Linux some day. That would be a very sad day.

Telia - April 23, 2010 at 2:50pm

Well there is a benefit in that if Apple "signs" any application you can be guaranteed that it will work and won't crash you're system. But the benefit of Apple approved application do not outweigh the disadvantage of a limited selection and banning of certain types of apps (P2P etc). I wouldn't upgrade if this was the case. I think that there are plenty of great applications like VLC and uTorrent which I don't think Apple would approve.

Matthew O'Connell - April 23, 2010 at 2:37pm

Don't know if it's true, but it certainly fits with what we've seen with the Apple Downloads section over the past couple of weeks. Fist, no new entries and then restricted access.

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