A longtime Apple developer announced they're abandoning the platform after 25 years of use, citing three major frustrations with the company's ecosystem. The developer, who has used Apple products since MacOS 8 and owns a developer account since MacOS X's launch, plans to migrate to Linux and Android for personal computing.

Gatekeeper restrictions emerged as a primary complaint. Despite notarizing their desktop apps and maintaining a paid developer account, the developer still faces user warnings when installing their software outside the App Store. This friction, they argue, punishes developers who don't participate in Apple's walled garden. macOS 26's "Liquid glass" redesign compounded the frustration, with broken interfaces causing overlapping controls and inconsistent design elements across AppKit and SwiftUI applications.

The final straw came with Apple's UK age verification implementation, which locked the developer out of features after failing to verify their age through credit card checking. Despite being 45 years old with a 25-year-old Apple account, the system rejected all five cards in their Apple Wallet, including international credit cards. The developer plans to replace their MacBook with a MNT Pocket Reform Linux device and their iPhone with either a Fairphone 6 or Android device, moving toward greater computing independence.