18 ms·

If 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 edko 10y ago

If 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.

sosuke 10y ago
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.
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  I knew a bunch of people developing for iOs in college who took this road. They used some university Macs to publishing, but did their dev work on Hackintosh to avoid spending all day in a musty computer lab. It worked quite well, barring the usual issue of Hackintosh being a bit flaky. If you had to buy a machine to publish on it would be a bit less appealing, but picking up an old Mac on Craigslist sounds worth it to develop as you like and publish 'legitimately'.
- toosmart4u12 10y ago
  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).
adamors 10y ago
Provide sources. Multiple acquittances have been working on custom built Hackintoshes for years without _any_ issues from Apple.
- emeraldd 10y ago
  Previous success does not mean it's a good or advisable idea. This is the kind of thing companies will tolerate until they decide not too and then drop a horde of lawyers on a few 'examples'.
  - jzig 10y ago
    I guess it's just a matter risk tolerance then.
- edko 10y ago
  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?
  - adamors 10y ago
    If you are talking about the Apple EULA, that is not enforceable in the EU.
    - fulafel 10y ago
      That loophole was an argument back when you could buy a copy of OS X on DVD, but is there any current way of obtaining a legal copy of OS X separately?
      - citruspi 10y ago
        Looks like you can purchase a USB drive with the OS X El Capitan installer[0] from SanDisk(?) via Amazon. You can purchase Snow Leopard[0], Lion[1], and Mountain Lion[2] directly from the Apple Store, but Snow Leopard looks like a DVD and Lion and Mountain Lion look like Mac App Store codes, and you'd need an existing macOS installation in that case. You can also purchase an OS X Lion USB installation drive[4] from Apple via Amazon. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Capitan-10-11-Mac-Instruction-Included/dp/B015HCZDJS https://www.amazon.com/Capitan-10-11-Mac-Instruction-Include... [1]: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow... [2]: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion [3]: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lio... [4]: https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Thumb-Drive-Model-A1384/dp/B0065V30NM https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Thumb-Drive-Model-A1384/dp/B006...
cloudjacker 10y ago
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
- st3v3r 10y ago
  If you're gonna do that, develop for Android, and don't worry about running unlicensed stuff.
  - cloudjacker 10y ago
    do both on the hackintosh Risk, meet reward You are debating over contract privileges that aren't even enforced and have very minimal consequences even if they were
gcb0 10y ago
does it really? the eula, which is hardly enforceable anyway, says literally "xcode must run on Apple hardware". just that. they'd have a really hard case if you used a apple keyboard or pen drive... but, I'm not a lawyer and the lawyers at my company didn't want to test it themselves

by edko 10y ago

sosuke 10y ago

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.

Bartweiss 10y ago
I knew a bunch of people developing for iOs in college who took this road. They used some university Macs to publishing, but did their dev work on Hackintosh to avoid spending all day in a musty computer lab. It worked quite well, barring the usual issue of Hackintosh being a bit flaky. If you had to buy a machine to publish on it would be a bit less appealing, but picking up an old Mac on Craigslist sounds worth it to develop as you like and publish 'legitimately'.
toosmart4u12 10y ago
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).

adamors 10y ago

Provide sources. Multiple acquittances have been working on custom built Hackintoshes for years without _any_ issues from Apple.

emeraldd 10y ago
Previous success does not mean it's a good or advisable idea. This is the kind of thing companies will tolerate until they decide not too and then drop a horde of lawyers on a few 'examples'.
- jzig 10y ago
  I guess it's just a matter risk tolerance then.
edko 10y ago
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?
- adamors 10y ago
  If you are talking about the Apple EULA, that is not enforceable in the EU.
  - fulafel 10y ago
    That loophole was an argument back when you could buy a copy of OS X on DVD, but is there any current way of obtaining a legal copy of OS X separately?
    - citruspi 10y ago
      Looks like you can purchase a USB drive with the OS X El Capitan installer[0] from SanDisk(?) via Amazon. You can purchase Snow Leopard[0], Lion[1], and Mountain Lion[2] directly from the Apple Store, but Snow Leopard looks like a DVD and Lion and Mountain Lion look like Mac App Store codes, and you'd need an existing macOS installation in that case. You can also purchase an OS X Lion USB installation drive[4] from Apple via Amazon. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Capitan-10-11-Mac-Instruction-Included/dp/B015HCZDJS https://www.amazon.com/Capitan-10-11-Mac-Instruction-Include... [1]: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow... [2]: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion [3]: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion http://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lio... [4]: https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Thumb-Drive-Model-A1384/dp/B0065V30NM https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Thumb-Drive-Model-A1384/dp/B006...

cloudjacker 10y ago

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

st3v3r 10y ago
If you're gonna do that, develop for Android, and don't worry about running unlicensed stuff.
- cloudjacker 10y ago
  do both on the hackintosh Risk, meet reward You are debating over contract privileges that aren't even enforced and have very minimal consequences even if they were

gcb0 10y ago

does it really? the eula, which is hardly enforceable anyway, says literally "xcode must run on Apple hardware". just that. they'd have a really hard case if you used a apple keyboard or pen drive... but, I'm not a lawyer and the lawyers at my company didn't want to test it themselves