Hi, To be perfectly fair, one can have a Mac mini for $600, which should lower the barrier somewhat. I don't know to what extent running Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware is legal, but I do know that it works using VMware Workstation, even on AMD processors. Not that you'd gain much in the financial area, VMware Workstation is far from cheap. Not to mention those legal problems (which I haven't researched).
Personally I'd probably not use a MacBook as my main system. The keyboard misses some important keys, and I'd almost certainly Boot Camp it all the time except when developing. That type of use versus the $1200 or more for a MacBook makes it clear that they are not for me (yet). I would like to get a stable Linux desktop up and running, though. I'd probably use a virtual machine or discarded old computer for that, but still. It will be interesting to see how Java handles itself on these systems. Davy -----Original Message----- From: Gamers [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Thomas Ward Sent: Saturday, December 14, 2013 18:11 To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] mac versus windows sales plus iOS question Hi Davy, Well, for one thing to develop software for the Mac it requires purchasing a Mac. Both hardware and software. It is not legal to buy Mac OS X and run it in Virtualbox or in VMWare Player. Although, I have heard it can be done if you have the proper hardware to do it. Hardware is a sticking point for developers. Even if you want to virtualize Mac OS, legality not with standing, there are hardware issues to consider. I have read that if someone has an AMD64 processor, which I do, there is no way at all to run Mac OS X on that machine in Virtualbox or VMWare Player. So there is really little choice for me and I assume most other developers but to go out and pay for a Mac PC with Mac OS X. That will cost at least $1,200 or more. The cost of a Mac developer account just adds cost to the problem if a person wants or needs that service. I think it is $99 per year, which is cheaper than MSDN, but if a person doesn't have it to spend they don't have it to spend. One way, of course, to cut costs is to attempt to use a more cross-platform language and tools like Java, Python, whatever. I've developed my share of low cost apps in Java, love the language, but am still not sold on using Java for developing accessible games personally. As for Linux I use the operating system all the time, and I do not think adding the OS to my list of supported platforms would seriously impact my development costs or anyone else's for that matter. For one thing Linux is totally free, and someone can download Ubuntu, Sonar, Vinux, Fedora, Debian, etc for free, and get all the tools and documentation they need. Plus Linux can run side by side with windows on the same machine meaning there are no up front extra hardware costs involved in running and developing for the platform. Now, if someone owned a Mac and wanted to port to Windows there would certainly be costs involved, but it would be far less. One reason is all they would need to do is go out and buy Windows 7, run it in Bootcamp, and can get plenty of development tools for free. There is Visual Studio Express, the free MinGW compilers, the NVDA screen reader, etc to really cut costs in porting something from Mac to Windows. Then, if they chose to use Java that would also be a very low cost solution for the developer. So I believe going from Mac to Windows is over all cheaper than going from Windows to Mac if the person doesn't have the hardware and software required to begin with. Cheers! On 12/14/13, Davy Kager <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > One interesting point I see being raised over and over here is that > developing for Mac adds cost on the developer's end. Without denying > that statement, I'm curious to know what is meant here: > - Cost of a physical Mac (because you don't like VirtualBox). > - Cost of an Apple developer account (because you don't like > cross-platform technologies). > - Time spent learning Objective-C (because again you don't fancy > going cross-platform in some other way). > - Extra time spent optimizing your app for Mac OS (because the > cross-platform tools you use turned out not to be as cross-platform as > you believed). > > What about Linux: do you think that supporting that operating system > adds an equal amount to your bill as would Mac OS? What if you owned > only a Mac, developed only for Mac, and wanted to port to Windows? > > Davy --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected]. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
