HackStore is Alternative app store for Mac OS
Hello! Today I'd like to tell you about your project HackStore, an alternative app store for Mac OSX.
In January 2011 Apple launched the Mac App Store, by analogy with a similar app store for iOS.
Staying true to its tradition, Apple has set strict conditions for proprietary developers. And if iOS from birth was a closed system, the Mac OS, by contrast, has always been an open platform towards third-party developers. Since the first OS X developers managed to create a huge number of both paid and free utilities, games and applications.
At the time of opening the Mac App Store, many developers were faced with a difficult choice. To get into the App Store, they had to change the application to cut the part of functionality to change the license, buy Mac Developer Program. Otherwise, they could continue to distribute your app as before, with the risk of losing users.
At the same time, because of the stringent requirements of the AppStore, a popular and well-known application does not have a chance to get there. So, for example, the App Store is closed for applications distributed with Open Source license, MIT or CCL, as well as the fact that even slightly changing a system function or design. Access to the app store is also closed for many popular utilities and tweaks, such as CleanMyMac, MacHider, Magician, Adium, Skype and many other handy and useful applications.
Having studied the matter deeper, I came to the conclusion that it would be nice to give users and developers a centralized solution that will be as convenient as Apple, but will not have such restrictions.
After thinking and planning March 15, 2012, I contacted my friend Ilya Schoolboy and asked him to try and put my idea together. Ilya liked it and we started our project HackStore.
HackStore is basically a client-server application written entirely in Objective-C using the Mac OS X SDK. Here is realized as communication with servers that store a database of apps and tools for downloading and installation. There is also a check for updates of already installed applications. HackStore application scans a local user and checks if the server is newer version. The update list is cached and stored all the time while the application is running. The app automatically detects the system language and sends this information to the server to store the display to the desired user language.
But back to our start.
In the past month have done a great job on the app and the server. Together with Ilya we devoted a whole day and just enjoyed what we worked. After months of work we had finished the app, and I started looking for editors who will fill our store applications. During the search I found the man who imbued with the idea that his name was Timur. Every day he downloaded 5-10 apps on our server. By early April we were almost ready to present our project to the public. I must admit that at that time I was not able to find the right designer for our project, the interface and looked pretty messy, but I had to move on. April 6, I contacted the largest portal in America Cult Of Mac. They liked our application, and they wrote a short story about us. This story brought us to a new level, the day we have received over 20 emails with suggestions of cooperation and just warm words to address of our project. After the final week of work we released HackStore and it was great. Together with Ilya we have seen our success: the thousands of users downloaded the app, commented on and enjoyed our work.
Next, we systematically developed, releasing an update that closed the vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, by July sharper and sharper was a time monetization and a severe lack of resources in terms of authoring and in terms of costs. Ilya and I spent the whole day talking with many people, to somehow improve our situation, and finally we found a way out. We met a wonderful man, owner of the datacenter "Inloc". He liked our project and he came into our situation and not only provided a powerful server, but also since it helps us with setting it up and advising us on all issues relating to the servers. So by the end of July, we almost solved all our problems except one — we still didn't have a good web developer and designer. It was a big problem that did not allow us to develop further. One day we on the e-mail received dimensional message about our mistakes in the design. The letter was drawn up in great detail and, in General, was true. We are very interested in this man, and he was perhaps the best acquisition for our team. Somewhere in the beginning of August we were joined by Daniel Pronin — web developer and designer, who brought our team to a new level. At the end of August was made an important update — we changed the application architecture and backend, and we managed to make functional, comfortable and simply a beautiful app and official website of the project hack-store.com.
Currently, our app is fully localized to 6 languages, has a system of auto-setup all your apps in Launchpad and remove them, the update Function for installed applications, sharing on social networks, and also provides a large selection of unique and open software. Every day, we get a lot of unique applications from developers around the world, making HackStore source of exclusive content. Every day we are visited by nearly 60 thousand unique users from all over the world, and the monthly traffic from our servers around 6 terabytes.
A distinctive feature HackStore is that any developer can send their app is totally free, and we have no hard and fast rules and restrictions. And yet, we gladly cooperate with developers of paid apps. We have tried to simplify the process of sending your application to our editors. You can send your application at any time directly from the top menu:
Each application is carefully tested by our editors and after complete the test within 1-2 days appears in HackStore.
Also, we are always open to suggestions, help, questions and collaboration. Almost any questions or suggestions come to us, are resolved in the shortest possible time, we really love our job and try to do it 100 % :)
We welcome your comments, suggestions and tips to email — we always reply!
Website: Hack-store.com
We in social networks:
Our Twitter
Our FaceBook
VK
Article based on information from habrahabr.ru
the Backstory
In January 2011 Apple launched the Mac App Store, by analogy with a similar app store for iOS.
Staying true to its tradition, Apple has set strict conditions for proprietary developers. And if iOS from birth was a closed system, the Mac OS, by contrast, has always been an open platform towards third-party developers. Since the first OS X developers managed to create a huge number of both paid and free utilities, games and applications.
At the time of opening the Mac App Store, many developers were faced with a difficult choice. To get into the App Store, they had to change the application to cut the part of functionality to change the license, buy Mac Developer Program. Otherwise, they could continue to distribute your app as before, with the risk of losing users.
At the same time, because of the stringent requirements of the AppStore, a popular and well-known application does not have a chance to get there. So, for example, the App Store is closed for applications distributed with Open Source license, MIT or CCL, as well as the fact that even slightly changing a system function or design. Access to the app store is also closed for many popular utilities and tweaks, such as CleanMyMac, MacHider, Magician, Adium, Skype and many other handy and useful applications.
Start
Having studied the matter deeper, I came to the conclusion that it would be nice to give users and developers a centralized solution that will be as convenient as Apple, but will not have such restrictions.
After thinking and planning March 15, 2012, I contacted my friend Ilya Schoolboy and asked him to try and put my idea together. Ilya liked it and we started our project HackStore.
HackStore is basically a client-server application written entirely in Objective-C using the Mac OS X SDK. Here is realized as communication with servers that store a database of apps and tools for downloading and installation. There is also a check for updates of already installed applications. HackStore application scans a local user and checks if the server is newer version. The update list is cached and stored all the time while the application is running. The app automatically detects the system language and sends this information to the server to store the display to the desired user language.
But back to our start.
In the past month have done a great job on the app and the server. Together with Ilya we devoted a whole day and just enjoyed what we worked. After months of work we had finished the app, and I started looking for editors who will fill our store applications. During the search I found the man who imbued with the idea that his name was Timur. Every day he downloaded 5-10 apps on our server. By early April we were almost ready to present our project to the public. I must admit that at that time I was not able to find the right designer for our project, the interface and looked pretty messy, but I had to move on. April 6, I contacted the largest portal in America Cult Of Mac. They liked our application, and they wrote a short story about us. This story brought us to a new level, the day we have received over 20 emails with suggestions of cooperation and just warm words to address of our project. After the final week of work we released HackStore and it was great. Together with Ilya we have seen our success: the thousands of users downloaded the app, commented on and enjoyed our work.
Present
Next, we systematically developed, releasing an update that closed the vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, by July sharper and sharper was a time monetization and a severe lack of resources in terms of authoring and in terms of costs. Ilya and I spent the whole day talking with many people, to somehow improve our situation, and finally we found a way out. We met a wonderful man, owner of the datacenter "Inloc". He liked our project and he came into our situation and not only provided a powerful server, but also since it helps us with setting it up and advising us on all issues relating to the servers. So by the end of July, we almost solved all our problems except one — we still didn't have a good web developer and designer. It was a big problem that did not allow us to develop further. One day we on the e-mail received dimensional message about our mistakes in the design. The letter was drawn up in great detail and, in General, was true. We are very interested in this man, and he was perhaps the best acquisition for our team. Somewhere in the beginning of August we were joined by Daniel Pronin — web developer and designer, who brought our team to a new level. At the end of August was made an important update — we changed the application architecture and backend, and we managed to make functional, comfortable and simply a beautiful app and official website of the project hack-store.com.
Currently, our app is fully localized to 6 languages, has a system of auto-setup all your apps in Launchpad and remove them, the update Function for installed applications, sharing on social networks, and also provides a large selection of unique and open software. Every day, we get a lot of unique applications from developers around the world, making HackStore source of exclusive content. Every day we are visited by nearly 60 thousand unique users from all over the world, and the monthly traffic from our servers around 6 terabytes.
A distinctive feature HackStore is that any developer can send their app is totally free, and we have no hard and fast rules and restrictions. And yet, we gladly cooperate with developers of paid apps. We have tried to simplify the process of sending your application to our editors. You can send your application at any time directly from the top menu:
Each application is carefully tested by our editors and after complete the test within 1-2 days appears in HackStore.
Also, we are always open to suggestions, help, questions and collaboration. Almost any questions or suggestions come to us, are resolved in the shortest possible time, we really love our job and try to do it 100 % :)
Links
We welcome your comments, suggestions and tips to email — we always reply!
Website: Hack-store.com
We in social networks:
Our Twitter
Our FaceBook
VK
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