waffle

Thomas Thwaites builds a toaster from scratch.

I think it’s obvious that I’ve been a bit negative and aggressive in some of the past few posts. It wasn’t planned ahead or intended, but it still ended up happening.

I wouldn’t carte blanche say that I was wrong on every point I tried to make, but the slightly uneasy feeling I’ve been having was amplified and put in a context by the aggressive acts happening in the world. It’s a long walk from here to there, but that’s what hate and discord run wild does to people. The same feelings, writ large — marinated in the mind of the wrong man, yes, but made so much easier by an unpleasant and enabling atmosphere.

I’m not a fan of constant positivity, but I think that cynicism is one of the worst tools available. I don’t want to get angry at everyone I disagree with, I want to talk to them, understand what they see, how they see it, why they see it and why it’s different from what I see. When Chucky or JulesLt or n8 restarts one of our favorite discussions in the comments, I sometimes catch myself for a split second asking why they won’t just drop their viewpoints — because they are their viewpoints. People disagree with something I’ve written and are kind enough to hang around for a discussion. Most of the time I thoroughly enjoy sparring like that.

So I can’t promise to be less of an occasional ass, but I will try to dial down the negative attitude. It’s just plenty enough of it around, and it’s too destructive to run one’s life.

TUAW writer Chris Rawson comes unhinged:

Rémi Denis-Courmont waged a one-man campaign against Applidium’s iOS port of VLC, claiming the app violated the GNU public license (GPL) because App Store purchases have Digital Rights Management (DRM) applied to them. The end result seems somewhat counterproductive, because now unless you downloaded VLC before it was pulled from the App Store, you can’t install it on your iOS device at all. So much for ensuring that VLC can be freely distributed. [..]

That’s awesome, Rémi. I’m sure your high-minded principles are far more important than the benefit that millions of people could have had from using the FREE VLC app on their iOS devices. I’m glad I managed to download the app before your antics resulted in it getting pulled from the App Store, but thanks for ruining it for everyone else.

Yeah. Apple shouldn’t need to follow the provisions of the GPL if it’s inconvenient to the new terms of computing that they’re trying to apply.

VLC was never freely distributed, it was freely distributed within the terms of the GPL. Distribution on the App Store doesn’t seem to fulfill them completely. I am sure as hell no fan of the GPL and the militia mindset it’s based on, but that’s why I stay away from it to avoid licensing terms infection, not try to ignore its provisions.

Chris is right that the core issue is insane. VLC should be able to be distributed on sane platforms. That it can’t be on iOS is not the fault of Rémi or Applidium or of the VLC team; the fault lies in Cupertino.

(See: “Transition to the Mac App Store” at Pixelmator.com.)

The Mac App Store is the future of Pixelmator (and probably of all other great Mac apps, too) sales and distribution.

The Mac App Store is a future alternative for sales and distribution and we have chosen it. Pay no heed to, say, screen capture programs being barred from even thinking about the App Store because they use kernel extensions to provide better performance. Nope. The Mac App Store-ness rubs off on every hosted app, making it great. You can tell, because you can’t find Photoshop on there, and it’s a complete piece of crap.

Thanks to the Mac App Store, installation of your favorite image editor becomes easier than ever.

Thanks to the Mac App Store, not only does Photoshop’s price tag manage to look even more ridiculous, we’re now the poster boys on Apple.com ahead of Adobe. Remember when they’d have a front page thing on every Creative Suite launch? You blew it, bub. Looks like the Cocoa port didn’t take. It’s the pop lexicon for another twenty years and a slow, agonizing slide into obscurity. (Note to self: gift fart app to John Nack.)

Where were we? Oh. Thanks to the Mac App Store, installation is easier.

Because we are always improving Pixelmator, you will rest assured that your Pixelmator is always up-to-date with the latest improvements and features within the Mac App Store.

Please wait while we attempt to retcon Sparkle out of existence. We have always been at war with Andy Matuschak.

With the Mac App Store, you can easily re-download Pixelmator anytime you wish. This is especially useful when you get a new Mac.

With the Mac App Store, you won’t have to dig around for a serial number for five minutes every other year.

Thanks to the Mac App Store, we, the Pixelmator developers, are able to focus even more on what we are good at—creating the best image editor for the Mac. And that is, of course, good for you.

Thanks to the Mac App Store, we can take all those hours we spent maintaining our copy protection and credit card processing and spend them selling you on the Mac App Store instead.

With the Mac App Store, the headaches of dealing with all those serial numbers and anti-piracy system stuff are gone forever.

Did we mention those five minutes you’ll save? We sure were a minor inconvenience!

And, most importantly, by downloading Pixelmator on the Mac App Store, you will kindly support our hard work. We love you very much for that.

Thanks to the Mac App Store, product income will go to product development instead of the rum-soaked weekends you sponsored when you paid us more money, of which we kept more, just last week without an Apple ID.

We love you very much for buying Pixelmator, but not enough that we’ll provide a Pixelmator demo when we get to 2.0 because the Mac App Store doesn’t do that, and we said we’d only be there. Trying before you buy is so 2010.

I said I was sorry for the serial number, baby, just pay the $29.