I just set up a new Mac and was looking at all my software thanks to an awesome software management system called AppShelf. I saw all of the software had virtually the same licensing system.

I was thinking, the OS X operating system offloads a lot of programming requirements from the developer to the operating system. The most relevant to my thoughts has been the keychain. For those who are unaware the keychain on the mac, securely stores passwords for applications to use without the developer having to create their own secure storage system.

What if Apple was to develop an API to allow for a system based licensing system. This would allow for developers to use a robust licensing system for their software.

The downside of this is that it would provide a single point of failure. It would probably also be overly onerous, being a pain for users. On the upside it would allow for easier portability and management of software. You wouldn’t have to re-register after uninstalling and reinstalling.

Let me know what you think of something like this?