There's also the fact that even if the settings are turned all the way up, it will still allow you to make exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

Non-gardened apps already cause complaint

As a developer of un-loved apps for the Mac (open source - you know, the uncle Apple doesn't talk about) I've had to put up with the "Run this app that you downloaded from the unwashed Interwebs? Really?" dialog box for a while now. Sounds like this is more of the same. Until Apple tumbles the rest of the way down this slippery slope and turns on the super-draconian^h^h^h protective bit, I guess we're still ok.

Isn't the bigger question

How does adding a few utilities make this a new OS release?

I don't see any new technologies or improve interfaces. Not exactly worth a major update number, they could have put most of this through their existing app store.

OMG

> unless you can be bothered to dismiss warnings

What's this? El Reg scaremongering for the sake of pandering to the penguin fiddlers and android fanciers? say it ain't so?

all that great journalism that went on last year with the tsunami issue and highlighting the poor sensationalist reporting in the rest of the journalistic world, and here you've gone and done exactly the same thing, skimming the facts to generate the mass hysteria we've seen in all of the above postings.

<pub landlord>shame on you El Reg, shame on you!</pub landlord>

Pass...

So they've taken the #1 thing I hated about the iphone (ultimately the reason I have a droid now) and are extending it to the Mac. Might be time to learn Linux!

At least its optional now, but how many OSX versions before that's taken away - for our own "good" :-(

There *IS* a valid security argument there and, if that is the genuine reason for this and the restrictions don't creep in any further, then it is arguably a good thing.

However, I think it is likely that this is a step toward locking the OS down. If it is not intended that way at this stage, I think when there are only one or two small steps left to take to get the OS locked down and the users have gotten used to it, those steps will be taken and the locking down will be completed.

Again though, in this industry, *anything* could happen between now and then: the Apple users could revolt and Apple could implode, they could have a change of heart and go in a completely different direction with both the Macs and the iDevices.

signed software is good to a point

Works well on Linux, having a single application to manage all your software and get new stuff is a good idea (even though the App Store is hideous as unless you specifically know the name of the thing you want, you'll never find it) as it's convenient.

But if they decide that all software has to be installed this way as a download with the Apple Tax then it's game over for me. But there is no alternative, Microsoft are adopting a similar model and whilst Linux is fine as a server or basic desktop it'll always be poor for commercial applications, you're never going to see ProTools running under Linux for example without an emulator. Yes there will be Linux equivalents but they're very poor by comparison as they're not compatible with all the propriety plug-ins that are needed to make them worthwhile.

Mountain Lion? I would have called it Cougar! Rawr

Playing catch up

Gatekeeper is just playing catch up to Microsoft who have shown warnings about unsigned apps for years now (Vista/7).

But of course, since it is Apple doing it there will be tons of hysteric posts about walled gardens etc.

We blokes in the country are always being forgotten

I foresee big problems with naive users in the country where dial-up -- and bloody slooooooow dial-up at that -- is the norm. The inconvenience of a few warnings is piffle compared to waiting for big downloads.