‘Why Apple Is Making the Mac Harder to Use’

Michael Schechter commenting on TextExpander 4 having to leave the Mac App Store due to the new sandboxing requirements: >I often complain that this is one of the biggest shortcomings of iOS (JUST LET ME USE TEXTEXPANDER IN THE MAIL APP ALREADY) and I don’t see how bringing the same restriction to OS X is […]

Michael Schechter commenting on TextExpander 4 having to leave the Mac App Store due to the new sandboxing requirements:
>I often complain that this is one of the biggest shortcomings of iOS (JUST LET ME USE TEXTEXPANDER IN THE MAIL APP ALREADY) and I don’t see how bringing the same restriction to OS X is better than finding an intelligent way to make useful software safe for the average user.

[Chuck Skoda](https://twitter.com/skoda/status/215895982943113216) commenting on Twitter on the same issue:

>Why does it seem like this isn’t clear to everyone? Apple doesn’t want things that change system behavior on the App Store.

Yep. Moreover as users we shouldn’t want it either. By choosing to use an app like TextExpander, Moom, and others that lift up OS X’s britches is to make the choice that you *want* that functionality. It’s not something that you *need* to make things work, it just makes things work better. Schechter wants these apps in the App Store, but they should not be there — plain and simple.

The App Store is for the average user. Apps that don’t fit in the App Store guidelines are simply not for the average user. That matters because the apps that don’t fit those guidelines can/will/could cause a massive support headache for not only Apple, but for the resident family geek. ((Who is probably you.)) Users should be able to make the reasonable assumption that anything they download from the App Store cannot and will not mess up their computer in any way that uninstalling the app won’t fix their computer. Now, TextExpander probably won’t screw up a person’s computer, but then again, what if a user can’t figure out how to stop TextExpander from launching snippets, because they hid the dock icon and menubar icon — perhaps they don’t even know that TextExpander is the culprit? And there’s your problem.

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