Re:Apple Accidentally Approved Malware to Run on macOS
by _qulr on Tuesday September 01, 2020 @01:08PM
(#24344035)
> At first, Xcode itself wasn't exactly free, because it was bundled with the OS updates, which cost a decent amount back then.
Xcode and Mac OS X were included on disc with Mac hardware. This is how I became a developer.
When Mac OS X was released, that was the period when Apple truly embraced open source and Unix. Since iPhone, however, there's been a lot of backtracking in that area, which I find very unfortunate.
In general, macOS is becoming more and more like iOS. Consequently, it is becoming more hostile to openness.
Well, I've been developing Mac software for 25 years, so I've seen the developer program changes. Generally, it's gotten a lot cheaper and a lot better over time. (Except there's never been anything like the old Inside Macintosh books, and I guess there never will be.) I guess that's why $99/year doesn't bother me. Historically speaking, it's a great deal.
I'm sure there are more changes to come, but none of us knows what that will be, so there's not much to discuss.
> Before the App Store, you could develop for the Mac completely free.
I haven't kept track of a timeline on this, so I'm sure you're right, but you're talking about a transient state. Before Xcode you had to pay a lot for Apple's developer tools (which I can't remember the name of), or pay a lot for the superior (or so I believed at the time) CodeWarrior. At first, Xcode itself wasn't exactly free, because it was bundled with the OS updates, which cost a decent amount back then.
I guess at various times there has been more or less you could do at the free tier, but it has seemed to me that you could only rarely do a decent job of releasing and supporting mac apps without paying for something.