In MacOS Catalina, you can still work around the notarization and signing requirements to download from anywhere by running
sudo spctl --master-enable
With the new security features in Big Sur, which I cannot try myself, I am concerned that the workaround might disappear. Can you still, at your own risk, run binaries that you compile yourself or download from elsewhere, by using this command?
The answer to this question might also be different on Apple Silicon ARM chips, which aren’t available to anyone without a limited-supply transition developer kit. In the off-chance that someone with one of these kits sees this post, what are the options for restoring the ability to download and build without gatekeeper blocking and requiring notarization? This is really important to know for internal development.
Also, ignoring all the risks, let’s say my computer is on a local secure network and I am only downloading, sharing, and compiling things I KNOW are safe by communicating with the developers. A lot of responses to questions like this that ask about disabling security seem to dodge the question and tell me not to do it, but I promise that I am cautious.