Apple just released the latest version of their IDE (Integrated Development Environment), Xcode 4 through the Mac App Store app. I’ve been using the previous version for a while, and i had tried beta releases and was really looking forward to the release of Xcode 4. In features and usability it was like going from MacOS 9 to Mac osX or Windows 3.11 to Windows 95. Huge differences.
Sadly when i loaded up the app store i found Xcode 4 under the “top grossing” category and thought, WTF? Apple now charges $4.99 from me to even start developing apps.. Not a lot of money, but is the philosophy of Apple to flog off as much cash as they can from the objective-c and cocoa development community? First you now have to pay to even start developing software. Then you have to pay to even get your software considered for any of the app stores and finally you have to pay each time someone buy your software.
I wasn’t very happy about this and i think it is stupid of Apple to treat their developers this way. While cashing-in, in so many other ways on the work of developers, they should at least give the development tools out for free.
xcode4 is a free download for developers who paid their 99$ fee
Not only is it $4.99 (or free if you are part of the iOS developer network) it is also a 4.6g download. Apple does not do upgrades, just full downloads. I had to leave my MacBook Pro on overnight to get the download and I live in the US so I don’t pay for bandwidth usage. What if you live in a country that did?
Turns out it was a waste as I had downloaded GM1 and GM2. Looking at the version number in the About dialog between GM2 and this final release nothing changed. I could be something did change and they did not update the version to reflect it.
GM1 crashed a lot. GM2 seemed more stable but I have not used it much as I have been working on our Android app over the past couple of weeks.
I still find Xcode to be missing some features and am underwhelmed by its version control support. I wish Apple had some IDE competition but all we get is the one IDE on the Apple update schedule with no 3rd party plug-in community.
Since they are the only game in town I guess they can start to charge as much as they want. I am happy they are not double charging folks already in the $99 yearly app submission program but others do need GCC for other languages. It would be nice if they could split up the package saving a massive download for those who don’t use Xcode but need GCC and the libraries.
Funny you should mention it…
http://www.jetbrains.com/cidr/
Really? You are complaining about $5 for a really good IDE? That is pathetic.
It’s not just that they charge $5 for Xcode. It’s more the total amount you have to pay Apple to do anything at all. The $5 is just the last straw
And i don’t agree with you that its a really good IDE either, It’s the only one you got. Ranked against Visual Studio, IntelliJ, Eclipse and MonoDevelop it, in my opinion is a really bad IDE.
Speculation abounds that the $4.99 is to discourage idle downloads. Since, as you stated, it’s almost 5 GB, the guess is that Apple didn’t want people to download if they didn’t really want it.