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Comment by keehun | Hacker News Reader

That's not necessarily true. The article mentions this. While ObDev still doesn't have all the APIs necessary to implement all the features of Little Snitch using NetworkExtensions, they are working on it with Apple and feature-parity is not expected to be an issue for the 10.16 release.

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Are they a big enough developer to really influence Apples API design? I’d think companies like VMWare etc. are more likely to be able to push and prod Apple to do something than a little guy like the Little Snitch dev.

I don't think they'd say "we're working with Apple" if that wasn't the case.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if people working on the Network Extension framework were exactly the kind of people who want to be able to continue use Little Snitch themselves.

Little Snitch might be the penultimate use case for Apple. If they’re using all the features and are a small highly competent team, they’re probably much easier to work with and can iterate much faster than a huge company the size of VMWare etc.

If they're the penultimate, who's the ultimate?

Apple?

My guess: There are people inside apple that rely on and value LittleSnitch and they have enough influence to work with the development team and ensure APIs are built to align with Apple's Security/Privacy goals while still allowing LittleSnitch to function as it currently does.

Little Snitch is wildly successful, and there are many people in security, myself included, who can not and will not use a macOS daily driver without it being available.

Have you tried "Hands Off!" I found it even better than Little Snitch. With that said, I suspect Hands Off! would have the same problem re API's.

It’s good but not as good as LS in network management. However, HO does allow for read/write management, which is a significant advantage over LS, which does now have that capability.

there's more than just little snitch here, like "hands off!" [0]

i assume they and other devs in the space also are working with apple to get the necessary API calls for feature parity with prior versions.

[0] https://www.oneperiodic.com/products/handsoff/

we all know how well working with apple/microsoft/google/ibm/whoever-owns-the-platform ends.

apple will make them waste lots of time with one support team while another team implements iSnitch, part of next osx, using private apis.

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