Buddybuild if you don't want to use OSX
Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
21–30 of 69 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
#22I don't recommend using a hackintosh for your professional development.
That being said, building a hackintosh rig and getting it to work is really fun to play around with!
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
#23If you are a professional app developer (you make a living out of it) then Hackintosh is a bad alternative. It can get your developer account, and apps, banned by Apple. On top of that, you can get sued.
Getting sued isn't the end of the world
The risk is $400 of hardware and a $99 dev account for the possibility of making way more than that releasing your own apps and making that much on a daily basis developing apps for other people.
Risk meet Reward
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
#24I don't recommend using a hackintosh for your professional development. That being said, building a hackintosh rig and getting it to work is really fun to play around with!
> That being said, building a hackintosh rig and getting it to work is really fun to play around with!
In other words, doing this will eat up countless hours so you should only by doing this if you want (i.e., have time for) a new hobby, not because you think the new MBPs lack of an Esc key is going to ruin your productivity.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
#25I don't recommend using a hackintosh for your professional development. That being said, building a hackintosh rig and getting it to work is really fun to play around with!
Don't know why you are getting downvoted. Hackintosh often have problems with interacting with specific non mac hardware and they can be a pain to set up.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
#26If you are a professional app developer (you make a living out of it) then Hackintosh is a bad alternative. It can get your developer account, and apps, banned by Apple. On top of that, you can get sued.
I could imagine having a Mac Mini to do the publishing and the rest of your development on a more powerful Hackintosh. In fact I'll probably end up in that boat myself.
Been there, tried that. The problem is that every time there is an update, you are forced to update XCode and therefore OS X.
This means reformatting and doing the setup all over again (which can take quite a bit of trial and error depending on your hardware).
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
#27I realize this is not what you asked for, but the non-touch entry level macbook pro is in apple stores now.
Go check it out before you take on the headache that is working on a hackintosh.
It's still somehow better built than dell's XPS and the space gray color is nice to boot. Since it's the "entry level", it doesn't have a touch strip and instead has a full function row, including the esc key. It felt fast from my first impressions and the aspect ratio is 16:10 (thanks for the correction), which you still can't get on windows pc other than the surface book.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
#28How wise and straightforward is it to run OS/X in a virtual machine on a Windows laptop? How recent a version can you run, and what's the best setup to use? What limitations does it have, and what kind of graphics cards can it take advantage of, if any?
For my purposes, I only need to build apps with XCode, not do anything graphically intensive.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
#29I've tried many Hackintosh options out there years ago specifically to get started developing on iOS. While I think many machines can run Mac, I gave up on Hackintosh for iOS development mainly because:
1. Opportunity cost - The time you spend on hackintosh could be spent exploring the iOS SDK. It is an extensive and amazing SDK to work with.
2. Need to embrace the platform - I once hated the fact that you had to get a Mac to develop for iOS. But then a light clicked in my head: If you aren't willing to get a Mac, you'd never appreciate the iOS platform and always hate it for not being more open, or not supporting many languages, etc.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best Hackintosh laptop for ios app developers?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Provide sources. Multiple acquittances have been working on custom built Hackintoshes for years without _any_ issues from Apple.
The source is the license agreement for macOS. It explicitly says that the software is licensed to run on Apple branded computers. If you run it elsewhere you are running it unlicensed. Can you also provide a source? Would your acquaintances mind if you provided links to the apps they have developed with their Hackintoshes for years?
If you are talking about the Apple EULA, that is not enforceable in the EU.