Get a grip on reality man. A world dominated by an Apple dictatorship? They sell computers and phones. It's not a black and white dichotomy where either Android wins and Apple loses, it's just a teensy bit more complex than that.
It is very simple: on every new Apple computer or computing device, by default you can only install software through their App Store. That means they dictate what software gets to run on their computers. I think on Macs you can manually disable that feature and allow installation of software from other sources (analogous to the App Store on Android). But how many non-power users will do that? On iOS that never was an option, and clearly Apple is trying to move in the same direction with their computers. That is a dictatorship.
Apple is enforcing application signatures on the Mac because it's the Right Thing To Do security-wise. Rather than get stuck in a monthly patch-churn cycle like Microsoft is, endlessly releasing Windows fixes for all the sieve-like security holes in every last system library in their OS, Apple is choosing a better, safer, saner way. Vet all the third-party code that runs on the system, or at least force a certificate trail back to abusive or unscrupulous developers.
If you want to run untrusted software on OS X, good for you. Turn off GateKeeper. But requiring developer signatures on native executable code as the default makes too much sense. Arguing otherwise, when there's an easy way for 'power users' to turn off the protection, is elevating the rights of the lazy developer to distribute their code however they like over the rights of non-technical users to enjoy an uncomprimised computer.
I thought Microsoft does the "signed applications" thing for years already. Most vendors don't bother to pay, though.
Not sure what to think about signed apps, I just reject the App Store model. Whether it will become the only way in future OS X versions only time will tell.
This is false. The default setting for Mountain Lion is App Store and signed applications. You can change the setting to allow only App Store or to allow any applications (signed or unsigned).
I just went through signing the app that my company makes (even though, as yet, we don't need to sign because of the way we distribute). It took me the better part of a week to figure it out (mostly because I did something silly in my script), but I now have several scripts that I can use to make sure our next product is signed out of the gate.
Long-time Apple supporters will tell you that Apple is (a) not requiring all apps be bought from the App store and (b) that they are making mistakes with the sandboxing entitlements that are available, causing apps to leave the App store. In my experience, die-hard anti-Apple folks (like you seem to be) prefer to distort and ignore.
How does "signed applications" work - Apple first approves your company? I didn't know about the signed applications, but I am not sure how it changes the gist of it, Apple controlling what gets installed.
Apps leaving the App store - we'll see how that will play out. Who still develops apps for "classcial" computers anyway?
No, Apple doesn't approve your company first. You simply sign up as an individual or as a company and then you get to generate certificates which you can then use to sign any application you want.
And by default, you can simply hold down a shortcut key to open an application and install it anyway without a signature.
The point is this: if malware is published using your developer certificate, then Apple can simply revoke the certificate and by default, users won't be able to install or run your applications anymore.
As for the shortcut keys, they're documented, so you don't have to remember them.
As noted by binarycrusader, no approval is necessary. It's just like signing a Windows application (also a damned good idea) and counter-signing it with Microsoft's cert. Both of these things make it so that your app can be flagged if you demonstrate that you're dangerous. The main difference is that Apple has it somewhat easier because they are the CA for the app certs.
As far as who develops apps for "classical" computers…there's a lot of us out there, because they're not going away.
