The main reason many apps aren’t available on the Mac App Store is the “ sandboxing” requirement. The Sandbox, or Why Many Apps Can’t Be On the Store Many popular Mac apps just wouldn’t be allowed into the app store. It’s not just that the Mac App Store is incomplete - it has restrictions that don’t match what a desktop operating system like Mac OS X is all about. In fact, Apple’s choices around the Mac App Store have discouraged many developers from putting their apps on the Mac App Store. By default, Macs are configured to allow apps either from the app store or apps that have been signed by an approved developer. The Mac App Store isn’t the only way to get apps. Mac users have always gotten apps directly from the developers’ websites - or on software installation discs long ago - and that continues. The desktop version of Mac OS X debuted in 2001, so OS X had ten years to develop without a centralized app store.Īll those OS X apps are still around. But the Mac App Store debuted in 2011 as part of Mac OS X 10.6.6. The Mac Software Ecosystem Goes Beyond the StoreĪpple’s iOS has had an App Store built into it from the moment it first allowed third-party applications back in iOS 2, released in 2008.
