14 DAY TRIAL // Are you still using old apps on your Mac? They may not work after the release of OS X Mavericks version 10.9.5 or OS X Yosemite. Apple just sent an email to developers detailing how the next version of OS X Mavericks will recognize signed apps.
According to Apple, signatures created with OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5) or earlier will no longer work, therefore Gatekeeper will not recognize them. All the new, updated apps will run just fine, but the old ones will probably be impossible to open. The company explains that users may receive a Gatekeeper warning letting them know about the new requirements and that's about it.
For developers, in order for their apps to work, they require a v2 signature. That's more hassle for an old app that used to work just fine with OS X 10.9.4. Here's how Apple explains the steps developers need to take:
“If you build code with an older version of OS X, use OS X Mavericks 10.9 or later to sign your app and create v2 signatures using the codesign tool. Structure your bundle according to the signature evaluation requirements for OS X Mavericks 10.9 or later. Considerations include:
Signed code should only be placed in directories where the system expects to find signed code.
Resources should not be located in directories where the system expects to find signed code.
The --resource-rules flag and ResourceRules.plist are not supported.
Make sure your current and upcoming releases work properly with Gatekeeper by testing on OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 and OS X Yosemite 10.10 Developer Preview 5 or later. Apps signed with v2 signatures will work on older versions of OS X. For more details, read ‘Code Signing changes in OS X Mavericks’ and ‘Changes in OS X 10.9.5 and Yosemite Developer Preview 5’ in OS X Code Signing In Depth.”
Developers have mixed opinions about Apple's move. Some of them are really unhappy with the fact that they will have to rewrite their apps. On the other side stand those who believe Apple took this road just to make sure all older apps from the Mac App Store will work with OS X Yosemite. There was no other way to check if apps that were not updated in years will actually run on OS 10.10.
Another solution for developers would be to take their apps out of the Mac App Store. Some of them do have different versions of their apps, but removing the App Store version will result in unhappy customers and less features. For example, only apps that are in the Mac App Store can benefit from using iCloud integration for back-ups or syncing.