Re: Installation of 3.8.2 on Mac

[Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso]

On Mon, 2014-12-01 at 11:52 -0800, Clark Dunson wrote:
> Sorry for the noise. I just read up on the pulling of VLC from the
> AppStore.  Here:
> 
> 
> http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/09/the-gpl-the-app-store-and-you/

That's a bit of a long and muddled article. The core of the problem is
quite simple: the GPL says, paraphrased, "you can only distribute if
you don't impose restrictions" and Apple says, paraphrased, "we impose
the following restrictions". As long as Apple refuses to lift those
restrictions, they do not have permission to distribute Octave under
the terms of the GPL.

> If the Octave.app includes a link to our site allowing download of
> the identical release, then is that not close-to or completely in
> compliance with the GPL and AppStore rules?

I have no intention to comply with the App Store rules. They are
abusive, sneaky, and Draconian. I cannot say enough bad things about
Apple. I urge you to not attempt to play by Apple's rules either.
Their rules are not fair. They're specifically designed to lock you in
and deny you your GPL rights.

However, distributing Octave.app ourselves is indeed a good goal. And
it's a goal that requires work. It's not a simple matter of "aha, this
is so easy! How could we be so blind?" It's simply a lot of hard work
to get reproducible builds of Octave that anyone can do. The fact that
it's difficult to even get a compiler without Apple's permission
compounds the problems towards reproducible builds.

There are people working on this goal, but it's not easy. Have you
looked at what macports is doing towards trying to automate app
bundles?

- Jordi G. H.