Rent a Mac in the cloud for development • Hacker News Board

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#31

Post by munchhausen » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:23 PM UTC

ams6110 wrote: post #17

roadnottaken wrote: post #15

What kind of Mac developer wouldn't just get a mac?

Someone who doesn't have $1,500? Edit: Well a Mac Mini is $600 (with no monitor), but still... if you could rent a virtual Mac for $20/month that's still over two years before you're money ahead.

Also, someone who lives in a country that is not loved by Apple.

Here in central Europe, a Mac Mini goes for 1200$ without a monitor, and that's in the cheapest online store (where you will have to wait for over a week for it, as they do not have them in stock).

Also, since there are no Apple stores, repairs and warranty in general is a pain to deal with.

Considering these circumstances, a "Mac in a cloud" seems appealing, especially if you need it just as a testbed.

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#32

Post by hockeybias » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:27 PM UTC

Too complex...

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#33

Post by tghw » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:27 PM UTC

bambax wrote: post #23

I run OS X on VMWare, it's fast, it's perfect. I wonder if they're doing the same (virtualized OS X, which works well but is, I believe, against Apple's EULAs) or if they use actual Macs (which would be quite burdensome)...? Edit: confused iOS and OS X. I feel stupid.

iOS or OS X?

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#34

Post by OoTheNigerian » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:27 PM UTC

Good idea but there is just so much text in there. It makes it seem too complex.

Just have a look at the "getting started page" http://www.macincloud.com/getting-started

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#35

Post by theBobMcCormick » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:29 PM UTC

delinka wrote: post #19

Roritharr wrote: post #2

How would one deploy a iOS app using this service? It seems interesting since i don't own a Mac and am interested in iOS Development, but don't want to fork out the cash for a mac mini or something similar.

"I'd like to become an electrician, but don't want to fork out the money to buy wire cutters or something similar." Yes, the analogy falls apart because you don't run proprietary software on wire-cutters. I understand that you might want to "try before you buy" with Mac and iOS dev, but I'm speaking to a slightly different issue. If you want to do a job, you either acquire the tools to do the job (wire cutters/a Mac)…

Wire cutters cost a couple bucks. A decent Mac you could use for development is a bit more expensive.

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#36

Post by seclorum » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:30 PM UTC

tghw wrote: post #33

bambax wrote: post #23

I run OS X on VMWare, it's fast, it's perfect. I wonder if they're doing the same (virtualized OS X, which works well but is, I believe, against Apple's EULAs) or if they use actual Macs (which would be quite burdensome)...? Edit: confused iOS and OS X. I feel stupid.

iOS or OS X?

This conflation is happening all over the place .. people don't understand that iOS and OSX are different, it seems. I wonder if this is going to, at some point, work in Apples favour .. ?

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#37

Post by seclorum » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:31 PM UTC

roadnottaken wrote: post #15

What kind of Mac developer wouldn't just get a mac?

Someone porting their software to OSX/iOS, who doesn't need another computer in the house? In other words: plenty of people will find this useful.

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#38

Post by toblender » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:36 PM UTC

Neat. This will allow my team in India to develop without using logmein.

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#39

Post by conductr » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:36 PM UTC

Awesome service. Way to complex pricing. Make the user choose between two choices. Plan A: limited to X hours/day, Plan B: unlimited usage.

Price each accordingly to achieve the desired outcome. My bet is, the actual usage of "unlimited" users will be similar to users of the limited plan, with a few outliers.

Re: Rent a Mac in the cloud for development

#40

Post by csomar » Thu, Oct 27, 2011, 2:38 PM UTC

munchhausen wrote: post #31

ams6110 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone who doesn't have $1,500? Edit: Well a Mac Mini is $600 (with no monitor), but still... if you could rent a virtual Mac for $20/month that's still over two years before you're money ahead.

Also, someone who lives in a country that is not loved by Apple. Here in central Europe, a Mac Mini goes for 1200$ without a monitor, and that's in the cheapest online store (where you will have to wait for over a week for it, as they do not have them in stock). Also, since there are no Apple stores, repairs and warranty in general is a pain to deal with. Considering these circumstances, a "Mac in a cloud" seems appe…

Ship to a USA service that ships to your country. Apple has free US shipping, and DHL costs around $120 from US to Africa (Tunisia, I think EU will have the same price).