Distributing apps to desktop app stores
Most desktop OSes now have a central location for discovering and installing applications. Apple created the Mac App Store, Windows has the Microsoft Store, and each Linux distribution has its preferred package manager. Having an application listed in (and hosted by) a platform marketplace significantly increases the number of users you can expect and also reduces the associated hosting costs. When paired with carefully prepared metadata (as described in Chapter 9, Bundling Resources and Preparing for Release), a marketplace can easily become your largest distribution channel.
In this section, we step through the process for the macOS and Windows stores. We will return to Linux and BSD distribution later in the chapter as they are less mainstream and far more complicated.
Mac App Store
The Mac App Store is the desktop version of Apple's famous iOS App Store. It provides many thousands of applications available to buy and download...