I know many folks here decry Apple's take on a 30% fee, etc., but I'm the oddball that's a fan of the Mac App Store and the convenience it brings with housing all of one's software licenses, managing upgrades, and making serial numbers obsolete. With other app developers with advanced apps like Panic's coming back to the App Store, advanced design software like Affinity Photo and Designer sold through the App Store, and just this week it seeming that Microsoft bringing it's flagship suite to the App Store for the first time, I wonder if the Martin's disdain for the App Store has lessened in recent months, and if he would consider returning, himself, if it's not too much trouble? That's how I found Cheetah3D so many years ago, and I'd certainly love to see it return there.
Mac App Store?
- Thread starter kepardue
- Start date
Somian
0
There's a long discussion here.
https://www.cheetah3d.com/forum/index.php?threads/11132/
I understand the business standpoint but I also preferred the Mac App Store approach. Now that it's not in the App Store anymore, every time I dock my work laptop into my iMac pro via target boot mode, Cheetah 3D thinks it's a new computer and I have to enter the serial number again.
For the App Store, it only asks for my Apple ID password once, but with sideloaded apps like Cheetah 3D, I need to have a text file ready to copy-paste serial numbers. I wouldn't mind that much if it would just be DRM-Free. Recently had a problem with Sketch (which also left the App Store years ago) where I couldn't re-activate the Software because their DRM servers weren't available. Sideloading is fine, but third-party DRM is poison as it adds additional work/maintenance overhead and relies on the availability of the company's DRM servers, especially if there is additional data collection (like the hardware ID of the computer it's installed on) involved.
https://www.cheetah3d.com/forum/index.php?threads/11132/
I understand the business standpoint but I also preferred the Mac App Store approach. Now that it's not in the App Store anymore, every time I dock my work laptop into my iMac pro via target boot mode, Cheetah 3D thinks it's a new computer and I have to enter the serial number again.
For the App Store, it only asks for my Apple ID password once, but with sideloaded apps like Cheetah 3D, I need to have a text file ready to copy-paste serial numbers. I wouldn't mind that much if it would just be DRM-Free. Recently had a problem with Sketch (which also left the App Store years ago) where I couldn't re-activate the Software because their DRM servers weren't available. Sideloading is fine, but third-party DRM is poison as it adds additional work/maintenance overhead and relies on the availability of the company's DRM servers, especially if there is additional data collection (like the hardware ID of the computer it's installed on) involved.
What is the reason for using Target Disk Mode rather than just connecting the laptop and the iMac Pro as 2 connected computers ?
Swizl
0
I keep meaning to invest in 1Password... it would solve my organisational issues
It is literally in the top 20 best software purchases I've ever made. It's saved me so many times on finding information I need fast. It can store financial info, web site log-ins, and any other important info you need to keep. They have plug-ins for all the major web browser too to automatically fill in websites.
Swizl
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Used it at my last place of work and found it so much more useful than the Mac key chain.
The only thing that worried me as sharing the data in the cloud... but then the Mac keychain does that so maybe I am worrying over nothing
You can password protect the keychain and it's encrypted.
https://support.1password.com/1password-security/
Somian
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My iMac Pro is my personal that I use for working on personal projects as well as work projects for different clients. There's confidential Data on a work-supplied MacBook Pro that I can't copy over to my iMac. If I want to work on these projects on a machine with more power, I need to target disk boot.
Somian
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Yes, but working via the network would be way slower. Via Thunderbolt, I get about 600MB/s. That's slower than the 3GB/s when booting from my iMac Pro, but faster than anything I could achieve via LAN (except maybe if I got a 10 Gbit LAN adapter for the MacBook Pro, if that exists). But still, metadata, autosaves etc. might land on my iMac's internal drive.
So even though typing in the serial over again is a step that you and all of us would prefer to avoid, it is, in a physical sense, something that takes mere seconds, and would be a small price to pay for the added security afforded by your preferred connection method ?
Somian
0
Yes, it's fine to do that once.
However, other apps also use hardware IDs for their DRM.
I can log into all Mac AppStore Apps with my Apple ID password, but all of the side loaded Apps each need their own serial and activation. Cheetah 3D at least lets me re-activate it, but other software like Unity, for example, has a limited number of activations so I need to talk to customer support every few docks… very annoying. And in the end, it gets more expensive for them, considering that I need to talk to customer support all the time and they need to pay someone on the other side to handle that.
I wish, it would be impossible for developers to get a unique hardware identifier, also for privacy reasons. (like they did with Safari where you just appear to the web apps as a generic Mac with Safari). When I buy a software, it should be my right to remain anonymous about the machine I use it on.
However, other apps also use hardware IDs for their DRM.
I can log into all Mac AppStore Apps with my Apple ID password, but all of the side loaded Apps each need their own serial and activation. Cheetah 3D at least lets me re-activate it, but other software like Unity, for example, has a limited number of activations so I need to talk to customer support every few docks… very annoying. And in the end, it gets more expensive for them, considering that I need to talk to customer support all the time and they need to pay someone on the other side to handle that.
I wish, it would be impossible for developers to get a unique hardware identifier, also for privacy reasons. (like they did with Safari where you just appear to the web apps as a generic Mac with Safari). When I buy a software, it should be my right to remain anonymous about the machine I use it on.
Putting aside Cheetah just for the minute, there must be thousands upon thousands of people all over the world who have a work laptop that gets connected to a home computer, from which they can do work. I find it very hard to believe that they all grapple with the same issues as you. I work from home, so I'm not really able to offer advice, but there must be a better way. I wish I knew what that might be.
Actually, further to my last post, my wife has a work laptop which she brings home to do work. She uses our home wifi to access the internet, but has no work files on her computer, and I believe no programs either. She logs into the work VPN, and works off the office servers, much the same as if she were actually in the office. From what I can tell, her laptop is effectively a server / internet portal.
I’m a big fan of 1Password (although I don’t like them switching to a subscription model). I’d suggest a better place to store your passwords than Dropbox is iCloud. That said I use Dropbox too .
Going to the App Store question — I think it’s a no brainer. The problem I think is that C3D isn’t App Store ready. To work well in the App Store it needs to give new users instant gratification. If it had a bunch of sample documents set up to do things like render beautiful headlines for page layouts or produce package visualizations combined with a few well chosen production ready HDRIs and it had really good OpenGL previews and drag and drop integration then it would be huge.
Kind of sounds like the niche Strata occupies. And if I recall they have a low end product in the App Store and then a high end product that sells for $700 or whatever.
The problem is that’s stuff Martin would need to pass on to a product team. And I fear the time has passed by for such a product. You can just about do all this in webgl now and most people don’t need a full on 3d tool so you fall between the 2.5d “just give me something I can stick in a page layout or video crowd” and the hardcore 3d people who use Maya or blender or whatever.
Oh yeah and blender is fixing its biggest usability issue…
. Going to the App Store question — I think it’s a no brainer. The problem I think is that C3D isn’t App Store ready. To work well in the App Store it needs to give new users instant gratification. If it had a bunch of sample documents set up to do things like render beautiful headlines for page layouts or produce package visualizations combined with a few well chosen production ready HDRIs and it had really good OpenGL previews and drag and drop integration then it would be huge.
Kind of sounds like the niche Strata occupies. And if I recall they have a low end product in the App Store and then a high end product that sells for $700 or whatever.
The problem is that’s stuff Martin would need to pass on to a product team. And I fear the time has passed by for such a product. You can just about do all this in webgl now and most people don’t need a full on 3d tool so you fall between the 2.5d “just give me something I can stick in a page layout or video crowd” and the hardcore 3d people who use Maya or blender or whatever.
Oh yeah and blender is fixing its biggest usability issue…