The End of Free Software on Macs?
The End of Free Software on Macs?
Long ago, when I was a junior professor at the University of Wisconsin, I wrote a simulator of the MIPS processor, named spim. Now, 30 years later, spim is still widely used in undergraduate computer architecture classes. I have maintained this software for three decades, porting it to new OS platforms and fixing the occasional bug, without asking for money. Not a big deal — that is what many people do with their academic and open-source software.
I am done, however, supporting spim on Macs because of the changes that Apple has made to the Catalina version of MacOS. Starting Jan. 2020, software distributed outside of Apple's App Store must be "notarized" — i.e., signed by the software's developer. Nothing in particular wrong with signing software, but to go through Apple's signing process, you need an Apple Developer Account, which costs $100 per year. So, in other words, I need to pay a tax to Apple to distribute (for free) a program that makes their expensive hardware valuable to students. It doesn't make sense to me, so this is the end of spim—and I would suspect most other free software—on the Mac.
If you teach a course that relies on spim, I see three alternatives:
- Tell your students who have not upgraded to Catalina that spim will continue to install.
- Suggest that your students dual boot their Macs and run spim on either Windows or Linux.
- Have the students download the source code and build it on their machine.
There are also other simulators, including some online simulators that may continue working for MacOS and which may be compatible with spim. Sorry everyone, but I don't see the value of paying Apple for the right to distribute free software.
[Nov 24] Apple does have fee waivers for: "eligible organizations. Nonprofit organizations, accredited educational institutions, and government entities that will distribute only free apps on the App Store and are based in eligible countries can request to have their annual membership fee waived." Unfortunately, only 5 countries are eligible and Switzerland isn't one of them. Need I say, typical of a US corporation?
[Nov 24] Apple does have fee waivers for: "eligible organizations. Nonprofit organizations, accredited educational institutions, and government entities that will distribute only free apps on the App Store and are based in eligible countries can request to have their annual membership fee waived." Unfortunately, only 5 countries are eligible and Switzerland isn't one of them. Need I say, typical of a US corporation?
Comments
Post a Comment