Xcode now costs US$ 4.99 • Hacker News Board

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#41

Post by randrews » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:28 PM UTC

tensor wrote: post #25

randrews wrote: post #11

Xcode 3 appears to still be a free download. Xcode 4 is free if you're a registered developer (which costs $99/year), or $5 from the app store. gcc is obviously still free, if you get it from anyone other than Apple.

In my experience, Apple's gcc is still the recommended version. Hopefully solid non-apple gcc packages come out. I don't like the idea of paying $5 to apple to develop generic unix applications on OS X.

Oh, I'm sure they will. The only reason Apple's gcc is still the recommended version is that nobody cared enough before to make an alternative one. Now that saving five bucks is involved, people will move mountains to make it happen. :)

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#42

Post by raganwald » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:29 PM UTC

idoh wrote: post #21

I'm guessing that this is a regulatory compliance thing :/

I'm with you. When you give software away instead of charging for it, while simultaneously making your money off an associated product, you are required to do all sorts of backflips over how you account for revenue.

This is why certain updates for the iPod Touch cost money while they are free for iPhones: It is entirely driven by how Apple writes up iPod Touch vs. iPhone revenue.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#43

Post by adsr » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:29 PM UTC

tensor wrote: post #25

randrews wrote: post #11

Xcode 3 appears to still be a free download. Xcode 4 is free if you're a registered developer (which costs $99/year), or $5 from the app store. gcc is obviously still free, if you get it from anyone other than Apple.

In my experience, Apple's gcc is still the recommended version. Hopefully solid non-apple gcc packages come out. I don't like the idea of paying $5 to apple to develop generic unix applications on OS X.

Apples GCC is available for free, or llvm/clang. The $5 is for the IDE. And this is for the preview only so far, as far as I can tell.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#44

Post by adsr » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:30 PM UTC

iloveponies wrote: post #38

adsr wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it put an end to macports? And why would that be neat?

OS X without Xcode installed doesn't have a compiler - if you can't compile, you can't use macports or homebrew. It would be "neat" as in clean. No drama on Apple's behalf. Just put a price tag on the only real compiler, and it's over. Unless someone solves that issue.

Xcode is an IDE, you can still get the compilers as both of them are open source.

http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/gcc/gcc-5646/

http://llvm.org/releases/download.html

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#45

Post by jarin » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:31 PM UTC

ori_b wrote: post #15

This is somewhat strange pricing - it seems ridiculously cheap if they're trying to make significant profits off of it, but pricey enough to prevent tinkerers who don't really know about coding but feel like trying it from getting a start in xcode.

I can understand how the cost of a Happy Meal might deter someone who wants to try their hand at coding.

I mean seriously, you're going to spend at least 10 times that amount on programming books, or thousands of times that amount on college classes.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#46

Post by glesperance » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:31 PM UTC

With this and the huge margins apple are already taking over the developers' revenue I really feel like we as developers are getting less and less respect from Apple.

I really think that what made OSX great was the fact that Xcode was completely free. We are the ones that make a platform a great one because of the app ecosystem that comes with it.

Putting prices -- however small they are -- on these dev tools put a barrier on the accessibility of the platform as a application dev environment.

I'm honestly really happy to have focussed my efforts towards web based apps instead... If its the future of computing -- iOS apps, and on device apps instead of web based -- it sure doesn't look so bright.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#47

Post by arnorhs » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:31 PM UTC

ori_b wrote: post #15

This is somewhat strange pricing - it seems ridiculously cheap if they're trying to make significant profits off of it, but pricey enough to prevent tinkerers who don't really know about coding but feel like trying it from getting a start in xcode.

Some pirated software and cracking patches rely on gdb. So a user has to have xcode installed in order for the cracks to work. At least, it's often a requirement.

This might be to make that harder and to thwart software piracy up to a point.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#48

Post by dean » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:32 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #3

kylelibra wrote: post #2

For the convenience of being able to download Xcode through the mac store and get the updates automatically, I'll gladly pay $4.99.

While I agree it's still quite cheap, I wonder why Apple suddenly decided to start charging almost nothing for something that used to be free. I don't see the price tag having any impact in the iOS/OSX software ecosystem, so, why are they bothering to charge for it?

"I don't see the price tag having any impact in the iOS/OSX software ecosystem, so, why are they bothering to charge for it?"

My guess is that the price is low as a way to introduce people to the idea of paying at all. The small price precludes an outcry. Once everyone is used to paying, they can slowly increase the price over time.

If they started by charging $50 or $100 or more, I suspect there would have been a huge outcry. But I also suspect the price will get to that point sooner or later.

Also, now that the platform has been strongly established, Apple can charge a price for the development tools without fear that developers will abandon them.

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#49

Post by yrashk » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:33 PM UTC

So now we have to get our devtools chain somewhere else? I couldn't care about Xcode itself, the only reason I download it is the chain.

With that in mind, they've replaced gcc with clang in XCode 4, didn't they?

Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99

#50

Post by debaserab2 » Wed, Mar 09, 2011, 9:33 PM UTC

I have to wonder if the cost isn't somehow related to the ginormous file size. I have to imagine that millions of people downloading a file this big constantly is expensive in terms of bandwidth.

Maybe they want those downloading to truly have an interest in doing something with the toolkit and not just downloading it to look at/tinker with. A $4.99 hurdle is probably just enough to cull out a significant amount of downloads by people who probably wouldn't actually use it anyways.