

RWW Hacker Poll: Is OSX Still Developer Friendly? - rodh257
http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/04/hacker-poll-is-osx-still-developer-friendly.php#more

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jarin
I just spent $1000 on a MacBook, but damned if I'm going to spend 5 bucks on
developer tools.

 _drinks 6 energy drinks a day, has 5 pages of iPhone games_

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poutine
Who are all these developers that can't spend $5 on a interim release of
developer tools? Perhaps they should reconsider being developers, just stick
with XCode 3 or wait for Lion.

So many people just seem to want to bitch about Apple because it makes them
feel better about their technology choices.

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bradleyland
I really wish the author had excluded the $5 issue altogether, because for me,
it's completely irrelevant. It's all the other factors that drive me nuts.

* Download a large 4.5GB file

* Spend a decent amount of time installing XCode

* Sacrifice 15GB of disk space to an app they likely won't use

I upgraded to a 256 GB SSD in January. This means that every GB counts on my
disk. I never launch XCode. There are a couple of utilities included that are
useful, but I literally never use any of the XCode tools, and I have no
intention of developing an iOS application.

Running DaisyDisk against my /Developer folder shows that 8.4 GB of the space
is occupied by "Platforms", which contains iOS related platform and simulator
files.

For developers who don't develop specifically for OS X/iOS, there is a lot of
baggage here. I'd still happily pay the $5 if I could get a trimmed down
"XCode Express" install that didn't include any of the platform target stuff.
As it stands now, I'm afraid to delete it because I don't want to go through
the hassle of downloading and reinstalling (however you do that) such a large
package.

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makecheck
Xcode is $5 on the App Store, but included in either (Mac or iOS) annual
developer program's $99.

What's more, so far App Store software updates have been free. So even if you
paid $5, it may be the last $5 until Xcode 5, if ever.

If you've ever had to build GCC from scratch, you'd be willing to pay $5 just
for that. And Apple gives you an IDE and by far the best interface to
performance tools I have ever seen (Instruments).

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fourk
$5 is annoying, but not so much that is going to impact my decision regarding
a $2000+ purchase in the slightest.

Honestly I think they should just include an xcode license with any of the Pro
models.

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jarin
I suspect it will be included for free with Lion. The $5 charge is consistent
with Apple's interpretation of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

~~~
ugh
It has been included for free with past versions of OS X. (And, consequently,
with every Mac Apple has sold as long as the developer tools have existed.)

This might well change but we don’t yet know.

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HaloZero
Initial setup is always a one time-cost, it takes maybe a day of your time to
setup things on any computer (maybe it be Linux, Windows, or Mac).

The point is Mac still blends a good combination of Unix terminal, nice GUI,
and less hardware problems. I have to admit though, it really depends on what
type of developer you are.

I do web, so I mostly stay in the browser and the app (RoR/Django/etc), so not
many issues. Perhaps other type of developers need to use Linux or Windows for
their specific environments.

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dlsspy
It would cost me considerably more than $5 to download xcode over my ATT
wireless connection.

It's a bit easier over my DSL, but they just started metering that really
tightly as well.

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tzs
You can still get XCode 3 for free, and I believe you can also download the
command line version of gcc for free from Apple. Also, there has been no
indication that Apple is going to stop shipping the developer CD with every
new Mac.

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w1ntermute
It's rather silly how big of a deal people are making about this. IMO, this
doesn't change how "developer friendly" OS X is.

There's no such thing as one set of requirements for all developers that OS X
either meets or doesn't. For a specific developer, it either met or didn't
meet your needs prior to this, and nothing should have changed because of
this.

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cloudhead
I don't think OSX was ever really developer friendly, at least compared to
Linux.

~~~
cloudhead
I feel sorry for everyone who down-voted me.

~~~
jarin
I feel sorry for everyone who thinks Hacker News is a good place to start OS
flamewars.

