Post B9Yas57ehOGcQrAvzM by fsfe@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by fsfe@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #B9Yas57ehOGcQrAvzM by fsfe@mastodon.social
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#Apple has announced new terms for alternative app distribution in the EU (18 August 2026). The reduction of fees is welcome, but the core problems for smaller developers and #FreeSoftware remain there.🧵A thread on why we're still concerned about #DMA compliance.🧵
(DIR) Post #B9Yb014pckLWCZdctU by fsfe@mastodon.social
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The biggest issue: #notarization. Every app must pass Apple's automatic and human review before it can run on iOS, even when distributed outside the App Store, via an alternative marketplace or a website.No channel escapes Apple's gatekeeping. Once notarized, Apple encrypts the binary. Nobody can run, inspect, or share that software freely. This makes it impossible to distribute #FreeSoftware apps, as the freedoms cannot be guaranteed.
(DIR) Post #B9Yb3xw7F5wtcURcp6 by fsfe@mastodon.social
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Entry barriers for developers stay high: despite a waiver for not for profit projects, to open an alternative marketplace you need financial guarantees worth up to €1 million, or must already reach 1 million first annual installs. Small projects rarely meet either bar.
(DIR) Post #B9Yb69tfkCnrIILatc by fsfe@mastodon.social
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On top of that, every developer still needs an Apple Developer Account just to distribute software at all, no matter the channel.
(DIR) Post #B9YbEQMmOYJ8gpu4Lg by fsfe@mastodon.social
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A new fee waiver could help some not-for-profit projects, and we welcome that. But it changes nothing about notarization, developer accounts, or entry thresholds. For #FreeSoftware, this is not the substantial shift the #DMA should deliver, and we have been highlighting this in our report.https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20523420
(DIR) Post #B9YbKN1bjPcq41ps4u by fsfe@mastodon.social
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These concerns were already raised in a complaint to the European Commission filed by @Freiheitsrechte and @article19, which the FSFE contributed to.https://www.article19.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2025.10.22_Complaint-against-Apple-Digital-Markets-Act.pdf
(DIR) Post #B9YbORcsZBAnUbDC9w by fsfe@mastodon.social
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We urge the @EUCommission to scrutinise Apple's announcement closely and reject it as non-compliant with the #DMA.
(DIR) Post #B9YbW5NLB4O0nfaTkO by Gina@fosstodon.org
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@fsfe @Freiheitsrechte @article19 Google looking at Apple's closed ecosystem.
(DIR) Post #B9YbxlnDZwheAqtNK4 by willie_shen@mastodon.social
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@fsfe I heard there are AltStore, SideStore, LiveContainer, etc. which might be GPL-compatible. IDK how usable they are since I don't buy a prison for myself but definitely far worse than what we have in Android. I consider iOS device to be a service (as a software substitute) rather than a hardware since users can't decide what software they can run on it. And unfortunately Android is moving towards it recently.
(DIR) Post #B9YcUzaLJuQ6VSiBFo by Andreas_Sturm@mastodon.social
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@fsfe I have enough of this crap. Everything has become too complicated for me, since Apple and Google set the hurdles so high - in the future I will only tinker with apps in the webstack and no more smartphone apps, all the tracking is also annoying like hell. fu apple, fu google, fu microsoft.I'm thinking about porting an app to Ubuntu Touch as a test, maybe I'll enjoy it 🤔 would also be a way to turn my back on gafam.#bigtech #apple #google #gafam #tracking #appdevelopment #smartphone
(DIR) Post #B9Zd0SuSXL5Xad5XCC by alexr@mastodon.online
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@fsfe @EUCommission Where’s this level of Commission energy about making auto makers be required to offer service manuals and parts? We have that in the US, but apparently EU doesn’t.