This was posted earlier and is the venting about this issue by the developer of a rather popular extension.
They make the following point which deals with your concern:
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OS X El Capitan to Bring New Safari Extensions Gallery as Part of Unified $99 Developer Program
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This was posted earlier and is the venting about this issue by the developer of a rather popular extension.
They make the following point which deals with your concern:
Forcing someone to pay for the ability to distribute something for free is clearly not the brightest idea, Apple ever had...
I do understand, however, Apple's intention to merge all developer programs just to one place, but why not doing it differently?
For example:
- access to all developer programs is to be free for everyone. Developers would have to pay the subscription only, if they want to submit their non-free apps to the iOS/Mac Store. Free apps are not to be taxed.
I think, it would be win-win for everyone: Apple would collect the fees from every single contributor and developers would get a hassle-free distribution of their apps.
- OSX and iOS betas only for paying subscribers.
I do understand, however, Apple's intention to merge all developer programs just to one place, but why not doing it differently?
For example:
- access to all developer programs is to be free for everyone. Developers would have to pay the subscription only, if they want to submit their non-free apps to the iOS/Mac Store. Free apps are not to be taxed.
I think, it would be win-win for everyone: Apple would collect the fees from every single contributor and developers would get a hassle-free distribution of their apps.
- OSX and iOS betas only for paying subscribers.
The dev programs are free for everyone right now. You only pay 99$ if you want to distribute the apps at the App Stores and Safari Extensions Gallery. The problem the Safari extension developers are having is that they need the distribution certificate to build an extension to share with users freely (outside of Safari Extensions Gallery), which at the moment requires a paid dev account. Betas are already restricted to paid dev accounts.
All Apple needs to do is allow Safari devs grab the certificates for free or charge 5$ once like Google. If the devs want to distribute their extensions at Safari Extensions Gallery, they can pay for it.
Google charges 5$ once for every extension hosted at the Chrome Web Store, which soon will be the only place you can install extensions from.
Well, I was not aware about Apple dev. programs became free. I personally paid 99$ for iOS and 99$ OSX programs respectively for one of our developers not too long ago. Safari was free ever since (until now)...
Having had to remove browser hijackers for dozens of average users who think they're viruses, it's about time Apple stepped in to prevent unsigned extensions that come along for the ride with garbage software that's being pushed down their throats by the likes of zeobits
Apple probably spent more on the lawyers to rewrite the terms than they'll ever make from the fee. The fee is only there as a filter. Looks like it's working ;p
Apple probably spent more on the lawyers to rewrite the terms than they'll ever make from the fee. The fee is only there as a filter. Looks like it's working ;p
Your wrong, the free developer account is actually better this year. You can download the Xcode 7 betas with it and test on your iPhone / iPad.
Last year it cost me $ 99 todo the same thing with Xcode 6.
Just follow Google's example, they charge a one-time fee of 5$ for each extension you have.
100$ per year is definitely insane.
Safari's current collection of extensions is why I've yet to make the full switch to it on both desktop and mobile. I really want to leave Chrome as it is a resource hog on my MBP.
Unfortunately, Safari's problem has nothing to do with the developer program but the fact that the APIs just sucks. It is not as featured as either Firefox or Chrome. I see nothing in Safari 9 to suggest this has changed, the only thing is the content blocker and shared links.
I don't see this as the case. To each their own, but I primarily use Safari, sometimes Chrome. All the built in features, such as the fact that I can pull up tabs I have on my home computer at work or on my iPhone is awesome.