Say Goodbye to the Mac App Store

[cyanzhong]

Obviously, the Mac App Store is no longer somewhere I would like to stay.

There are many reasons, the most important one is that they refuse to get my name right. Also, I don't want to publish apps to some regions where I need to get a license to do so.

Since MarkEdit is an open-source project, I don't think anyone should censor my work again and again. I started thinking about non-MAS distributions.

Related: https://github.com/MarkEdit-app/MarkEdit/wiki/Philosophy#be-a-good-macos-citizen.

[cyanzhong]

I will start this by making a "final" version on the MAS.

The next step would be making notarized distributions, still hesitate about adding Sparkle though.

[cyanzhong]

Including Sparkle would make the installer bigger, also I don't like having unnecessary dependencies.

Maybe, just rely on GitHub Releases to notify updates, manual installation is required. It should be fine as the installer will be about 2 MB gzipped.

[cyanzhong]

I will leverage GitHub Releases to put binaries and compare versions, the final MAS version will be notified once there're available releases, which ensures a smooth transition.

• Notarization: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_macos_software_before_distribution
• GitHub API: https://api.github.com/repos/MarkEdit-app/MarkEdit/releases/latest
• Packaging tool: https://github.com/sindresorhus/create-dmg (better with an icon)

Alert options: Learn More, Remind Me Later, Skip This Version.
Menu options: Check for Updates, Version History.

Update README, add wiki to explain why the change. Also, https://markedit.app now redirects to this repository.

The timeline would be some point in early 2024 as soon as possible.

[philipp-heinrich]

Any plans to get it installable via brew instead?

[cyanzhong]

Any plans to get it installable via brew instead?

Actually, brew was one of the options I tried out. I spent some time reading the homebrew-cask doc and I... gave up.

I am also too lazy to manage multiple release channels, sorry about that.

[cyanzhong]

@philipp-heinrich FYI, tomy0000000 in this thread #447 (comment) has kindly submitted MarkEdit to brew.