I’ve noticed that Apple seems to be pushing the creation of MacOS ‘Apps’ that can only be downloaded through their App Store. Even Safari Extensions are no longer immune as Apple abandons the emerging WebExtensions API standard. I’ve also noticed that the apps are almost always inferior to the applications they’re meant to replace. Reduced functionality and support as well as being buggier.
To me, at least, this seems like a backwards step. What do you think?
Frustrating. Especially the requirement that extensions be distributed via the App Store with Safari 12. uBlock Origin worked perfectly, a brilliant piece of software, disabled in Safari 12. The Mac App Store version doesn’t perform anywhere nearly as well, and adding insult to injury, for seemingly no reason Safari will disable it from time to time without warning (or it remains enabled, but stops working, and needs to be disabled and re-enabled to make it work again).
These requirements and policies were handy when allaying concerns about security to customers (although in reality they make little difference, scammers still manage to gain remote access and compromise bank accounts through social engineering, and malware on macOS is becoming more common and more difficult to remove than ever), but they definitely aren’t for me.