Earlier quoted context omitted.
Considering that you still need a mac, I don't see how much difference it makes. Note that I still think it's a terribly stupid idea.
Right, but who bought them that mac?
Maybe nobody. Maybe it belongs to Mom or Dad.
Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
151–160 of 401 posts
Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
#152For the convenience of being able to download Xcode through the mac store and get the updates automatically, I'll gladly pay $4.99.
I'm not sure if this applies to Xcode, but at least with Coda, even if you purchase it outside the App Store, it has an 'Installed' label and presumably gets updated through the App Store as well.
I believe that was considered a bug in the App store.
Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can buy an iTunes card at most pharmacies.
That doesn't address the part about those of us who don't want to use the App Store on our macs... we like them how they are. I love my mac, I have since OS X was mature enough to be useful, and I've converted tons of people, and I have lots of credit cards.. it's not about the money - Apple is seriously making me think about ditching them.
I understand the sentiment, but it's just a method of distribution for the SDK. XCode 4 doesn't keep you from distributing your apps any way you'd like.
Isn't this like saying that you'd really like the new version of the dev environment on CD because you don't like DVDs? I doubt anyone would be complaining if it was 2003 and Apple was charging a $5 shipping and handling charge to ship you a DVD.
Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
#154This 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.
It is the difference between free and not free. They are trying to drive developers to use the App Store? Sounds ridiculous coming out of my mouth. They are trying to kill off OSX hobbyist experimentation in favor of iOS? I think I'm getting warmer.
Is this supposed to be satire?
Being a hobbyist and learning to program in the 80s meant my dad shelling out hundreds of dollars for THINK Lightspeed Pascal, and yet, somehow I and many others managed to learn to program and become hobbyists and finally professional programmers.
They'll sell you a full-featured, modern IDE with all the pro features uncrippled for a measly $5. That's not a death blow to hobbyists, that's maybe one of the cheapest hobbies on the planet.
Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apples GCC is available for free, or llvm/clang. The $5 is for the IDE. And this is for the preview only so far, as far as I can tell.
They are not available for free because they come bundled with US$ 5 worth of IDE and cannot be separated.
Yes they are, see my other post. _delirium has a point though, but I'm sure it will be solved somehow. Hopefully from here.
Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
#156Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm trying to think of what would've happened if I had to ask my parents for their credit card every time I had to download some tool when I was a kid just messing around with programming. I probably wouldn't working in the field today, that's for sure.
I definitely agree with you, having grown up on free tools, but $5 is a lot easier to ask a parent for than $99/year to get access to this kind of stuff.
It's doubtful that today's parents need to be convinced of such things. Not only is $99 cheaper than that piano of yesteryear, it also has a significantly higher rate of return.
Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except that's not true anymore: "Apple has for the first time made this full iOS upgrade free to all of its iPod touch customers, rather than charging the customary $10 fee that provoked groans in the past." ( http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/reviews/entry/apple-ios-4.0... ) This leads me to believe that the whole accounting rules canard was just a way to make more money. Why did they start charging for XCode? Becaus…
I wouldn't be so quick to call it an accounting rules canard, there was a ton of analysis of the rule when the iPod Touch upgrade fee was first announced and there was very little doubt this was the case. And while I can be critical of Apple policies, I stop well short of suggesting that they would lie about an accounting rule. That's the kind of thing that gets people sent to jail, and certainly Microsoft would have…
So said accounting rule changed then? Honest question. And in any case, if that were really true, why not charge a penny? Or the download cost? I don't buy it.
Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
#159I don't see how people can complain XCode 4 (with IntelliSense!!) for $4.99 is disrespectful. Sure it's not as generous as free, but it's still pretty damn good value. A lot of people will probably buy it now for the Intellisense (or 'Codesense') functionality, who otherwise wouldn't have much cared.
Re: Xcode now costs US$ 4.99
#160Seeing this reminded me of a Microsoft focus group I was invited to be a part of a few years ago. As a CTO who had decided to build everyone on top of free software, they wanted to know what it take to make me to switch to a Microsoft stack. I told them they were 10 years too late. You see, I made the decision to use LAMP stack not because it was cheaper, but because it's what I knew. And the reason I knew LAMP stack…
Yep, that's why I avoid commercial operating systems like the plague. It's why I initially became a gcc based C++ engineer. It's why I then became a Tomcat/Java engineer. And it's why I'm currently messing around with Android.
Friction is a good word for the problem. Who knows? Maybe in another life I would have actually used Microsoft's stack. I used their tools in college, and at work when they were provided...