

Ask HN: Developing for IOS on a VM or "Hackintosh" environment - manuscreationis

Anyone have any experience or advice with this?<p>Looking for a low cost alternative to getting started with IOS development.<p>Any and all input welcome
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TobbenTM
Tried VMs before with bad luck, never got it to work properly.

I did however run hackintosh on a Dell laptop (XPS M1330) which ran alot
better. Only problem was shutting down, where the GPU drivers would crash, but
everything else worked perfectly.

That would be a low cost alternative (got mine for ~150$) There may be a
better Dell suited for this, but this worked for me.

~~~
manuscreationis
I do have an old (very old) dell laptop kicking around... But I would need to
do some research on hardware compatibility. It's definitely nowhere near as
good as an XPS-anything would be; The thing is seriously under powered.

I'll keep this in mind, thanks!

~~~
pasbesoin
There's a site devoted to turning Dell's into Hackintoshes. I happened across
it some days back, coincidentally. Don't have the URL at hand, but I think it
had "latitude" in it.

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coryl
Depends how good you are (or how much time you want to spend) with hacking
your system.

I had VMWare running, and it would be slow and occasionally freeze for no
reason. I also tried installing iDeneb to dual boot, and it was a pain in the
ass and didn't work.

Mac Mini's are about $500+. A used macbook pro can probably go for $700-$800.

~~~
manuscreationis
I was hoping to do it with either a VM, but fall back to a hackintosh if I had
to just to get going, then once I had some experience under my built an idea I
wanted to really execute on, go buy a used mac, or a mini.

Not seeing a lot of positive experience with the VM approach, however...

Shame

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r4vik
I guess this is how I would do it: <http://www.macincloud.com/> more providers
on this quora thread: [http://www.quora.com/Virtual-Private-Servers/Can-I-get-
a-VPS...](http://www.quora.com/Virtual-Private-Servers/Can-I-get-a-VPS-that-
runs-Mac-OS-X)

~~~
phaus
I gave macincloud a shot for a couple of months. I like the concept but for
someone located on the east coast, the service didn't seem to work very well.

I contacted their customer service and they responded quickly. Testing
speedtest.net and a few other websites, we determined that my internet
connection should have been more than fast enough. Unfortunately it was still
taking about 10-20 seconds for the program to refresh the desktop once on the
settings reserved for low bandwidth customers.

The service didn't work very well for me due to the distances involved, but if
you live on the west coast I'd recommend giving it a try.

~~~
macrun
It works pretty well in the west coast here. They say that they are using real
Macs which is a big plus to get the latest updates for xcode etc.

Also, CoronaSDK, Titanium and GameSalad etc. are pre-installed. Very easy to
get started with those, although there are some lags due to screen refresh
rate.

~~~
phaus
Glad to hear it. I was really excited about the idea of using an actual mac.
Every time I buy a new computer I get really close to buying a macbook.
Unfortunately for Apple I love playing video games. It is really pathetic when
I go to buy a new computer after 2.5 years, only to find that latest and most
expensive macbook available (which is marketed as a graphics workstation mind
you) has a video card 1/3 the speed of the computer I am replacing.

If Apple found a way to add a semi-reasonable video card to their tiny cases,
I'd be happy to give them a shot.

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xtrimsky_
I used a VM a few years ago, worked very well. And it was fast as I was doing
it on a desktop that had "Virtualisation Technology". Felt like using a real
mac. I remember I downloaded the VM via bittorrent. I think if you put Mac OS
X on a VM its illegal in any cases.

~~~
xtrimsky_
PS: I also installed Mac OS X on a dell previously. It works very well if you
have the right laptop, and have 30+ hours to spend trying to install it. Some
laptops cannot run it.

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braco_alva
As previous comments said, it is a lot better buying an used macbook, I had
the same dilemma a year ago, tried with a hackintosh with no luck, a couple of
months later I found an used macbook on ebay that it was in really good shape,
still using it.

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steventruong
Buy a used Mac. You'll be much happier. The hackintosh route sucks as you'll
run into lots of potential issues including lack of updates among other
things.

~~~
manuscreationis
Like I replied to another person, my hope was to get my sea-legs with a
vm/hack setup, then once I had some experience and a solid idea to execute on,
invest in a used mac.

But thanks for the advice

~~~
jonhendry
Maybe you could look for a Macbook with a busted LCD. It might be
significantly cheaper, but you could use it with an external monitor.

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jtchang
I have experience developing that way. Vmware on Ubuntu. Mac OS X Lion. If you
want to know more e-mail me directly.

~~~
manuscreationis
Sent, thanks

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dazzla
I started out with a hackintosh but learning OSX, Objective C, Cocoa Touch,
XCode, etc was more than enough without that added hassle.

I'd buy a Mac as many have suggested or just do it with Android instead. It's
easier to iterate on Android anyway and you can port to iOS afterwards.

