An App Store is the last place I would go to install a desktop app on either Windows or MacOS. It’s astonishing how marginal the Microsoft Store is on Windows.

For years I had a machine on which the metadata database for the store would get corrupted within a month or so between a major update. I’d argue with Microsoft support to provide a recipe to reset this database (obviously possible because the update would fix it temporarily) but I was always told to make a new account —- but why am I going to mess up my installations of a lot of software that I use every day for the sake of some software I don’t use?

At work we have managed Windows desktops, since I’m a dev they did something so I can be an administrator, I can do everything but (1) edit group policies, and (2) use the Microsoft store. The only thing on the store I want is WSL2 but hey I can always ask Copilot how to do anything I know how to do in bash using Powershell.

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rchaud a day ago | parent | next [-]

> It’s astonishing how marginal the Microsoft Store is on Windows.

That's good, there's a 30 year legacy of Windows software being downloadable online through a website and people clicking setup.exe to get it done. The App Store nonsense is MS clumsily following in the footsteps of Apple's "users are too stupid to be trusted" philosophy.

	▲	PaulHoule a day ago \| parent [-]
		Also people who develop apps for Windows know how to make money in that environment so they don't feel like migrating to an environment where they don't know how to make money.

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hermitcrab a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've sold downloadable software for Windows and Mac for 20 years and I have never used any of the app stores. I just can't be arsed with jumping through their endlessly changing hoops, only to give a large chunk of the sales to the store.

I heard that when the MS Store started they started off paying a bounty to every developer who added an app, so they could populate the store. Consequently they ended up with loads of reskinned open source apps and their store was garbage from day one.

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veunes a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That whole “just create a new user account” response is peak support theater

	▲	thewebguyd a day ago \| parent [-]
		Its unfortunately common when it comes to Windows troubleshooting. "Just create a new user," "Just reinstall the OS," etc. There's an entire suite of tools made by a third party for migrating user profiles between accounts and machines because it is so common. I spent the first half of my career as a windows admin and I'm glad to be out, working entirely on macOS and Linux now. macOS has its own warts, but I'll take it any day over Windows.

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ks2048 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> An App Store is the last place I would go to install a desktop app on either Windows or MacOS

Are macOS app in the app store ensured to have stricter sandboxing? That would be reason enough.

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bouke a day ago | parent [-]

Why is it that only App Store apps are sandboxed? I would like to sandbox most of the apps I’m running. No app needs a blanket slate to access my files. Sure there’s some of the permissions, but they aren’t granular enough.

	▲	comex 20 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They can be, but the app itself has to opt in. You can see whether an app is sandboxed in Activity Monitor (it’s a hidden-by-default column named Sandbox).

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schnable a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I wish I could install more apps outside the App Store. There's a few apps I came to rely on that are only available via the App Store, and when I switched jobs to a company that locks down App Store access, I could no longer use them and had to find alternatives.

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musictubes 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

One possible exception is Microsoft Office. I prefer the update process through the Mac App Store over the Microsoft updater. It's the same suite just different update process.

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spwa4 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Phone app stores have the same problem. Here is the link:

https://www.apple.com/us/search/ChatGPT?src=globalnav

It has the exact same problem complained about here. It's full of shovelware copies. Google play, orinically gives a better answer on the web, but on phones it has the same problem as the Apple App store.

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PaulHoule a day ago | parent [-]

When I use a phone app store I am always looking for a specific app by name and often having to avoid copycat apps, which often buy ads so they appear above the real app. One thing you notice about phone app stores is that they don't put the search box in a prominent place but hide it out of the way because they want you to click on chum links to chum apps. I'd never browse the app store for entertainment or go looking for "an app for that" because I know I'd just be disappointed.

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pohuing a day ago | parent | next [-]

Google play store has a search button that's even reachable with only one hand. It's just not obvious that you can tap the search label in the bottom tab bar a second time to focus the search text field.

	▲	Ghoelian 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I recently noticed the Spotify app does this as well. Ever since I've just been trying it, and have been coming across a surprising amount of apps that have the same behaviour.

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chuckadams a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The iOS App Store has a big “search” icon with label on the bottom right that’s always there. Hardly tucked out of sight.

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1bpp 21 hours ago | parent [-]

It's barely a search engine with no discoverability or filtering to speak of, same as Google Play. It's impossible to search for an app by purpose rather than its exact name (which will still be listed below the SEO spam)

	▲	chuckadams 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not saying the search is any good, I'm saying GGP's conspiracy theory about it being hidden doesn't hold up.

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dylan604 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Browsing an app store is the only thing I feel is worse than browsing a Netflix or other streaming platform.

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dylan604 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> An App Store is the last place I would go to install a desktop app on either Windows or MacOS

So you're saying that you're an old. I recently watched a gen-z go to the app store to download a desktop app instead of going to the website to download directly. They were actually confused that it wasn't available in the app store. The number of people comfortable using a desktop is lowering with more and more only having a mobile device as their only compute device. Not everyone is techy which is something that gets lost in the echo chamber that is HN