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Q: Xcode 4 - No Longer Free?
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Mar 9, 2011 2:40 PMby BlueCrab,HelpfulI know that $4.99 isn't much, but I still am disappointed that Apple feels the need to charge for Xcode after it having been free since the start. I feel that even this amount is effectively a slap in the face to those of us that have been developing for Mac OS X.
Even Microsoft has begun seeing the light has had its "Express Editions" of the Visual Studio products available for free for a few years. I really feel that this is a step backwards for Apple. -
Mar 9, 2011 6:53 PMby etresoft,Xcode = $4.99
Mac Developer Account = $99
Microsoft Visual C++ Express = Free!
Microsoft Visual Studio = $549
Microsoft Visual Studio with MSDN = $1199
You can always download Xcode3 and build your own compilers. You can use those from the command line, with Xode3, or with Eclipse. -
Mar 12, 2011 9:36 PMby Drew_Meister,Heya, KT.
Yes, Xcode has been included, for free, with purchases of new Macs or the latest version of OS X. Again, I wonder if that will be the case in the future.
Also, Apple has, for a number of years now, allowed anyone who wanted to download Xcode from the Developer site do just that, for free. So, the fact that they are now charging for Xcode is a significant change in their policy. I think it is only natural to wonder why they are changing their policy and what they hope to accomplish by it.
And yes, it is true that it takes money to make money. I think that's what the accountants call a capital investment. It's also true that consumers, and businesses, have no use for a manufacturer's computers or operating system if there are no games, productivity apps, office software programs, utility apps of various descriptions and the like to run on that manufacturer's hardware and OS.
Of course, Apple knows this very well, which is why, in the past, they offered Xcode for free--to encourage as many people as possible to develop software for the Mac and OS X, and more recently, for iPad and iPod touch. However, that was when Apple was running a distant second to Microsoft. Now that Apple's market capitalization exceeds that of Microsoft, perhaps their strategy is taking a different path.
All of this begs my original question. When did Apple announce that they had decided to charge for Xcode? Or, was there an announcement at all? If there was, what was the venue for the announcement? I subscribe to several Apple RSS feeds, including 'Apple Hot News' and 'Apple Press Releases' and I saw no mention of it. -
Mar 13, 2011 8:08 AMby etresoft,Having a free development environment is a new phenomena. Apple only did that because the original ProjectBuilder was based on GPL tools. Now that Xcode has been rebuilt using better tools with better licensing, Apple has more options.
People are complaining because a new version of a previously free product now costs less than a cappuccino and croissant. The Apple developer programs used to start at $500 a year. The student version was a great deal at only $200. Now, even a business account supporting multiple developers, complete with Apple Developer Support is only $99.
In other words - deal with it. -
Mar 13, 2011 10:04 AMby red_menace,Some of the buzz going around is that the pricing is from some accounting issues due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (mostly from adding value to IOS) and that OS X 10.7/Lion will ship with a free version of XCode 4 (although we probably won't find out until it is released). The current version is a preview anyway.
It seems to me that most of the complaints are because Xcode used to be free - if it had been $x95 and Apple changed the price to $x99.99, no one would have noticed. -
Mar 13, 2011 3:32 PMby Jongware,red_menace wrote:
It seems to me that most of the complaints are because Xcode used to be free - if it had been $x95 and Apple changed the price to $x99.99, no one would have noticed.
So? Google is free, but if they change it to $0.001 Per Search I'm going to use another search engine.
XCode used to be free, and as such must have gained a lot of Let's See programmers -- people who got it for free and decided to check it out. I don't have a clue of how many of them grew to be professional programmers, but surely even a $1 bump is high enough to put off the casually curious. -
Mar 13, 2011 3:33 PMby osxlearner,I'm new to learning OSX, but not new to Apple. I downloaded Xcode last January, and signed up for Developer for free. Still, now, I have unanswered questions while learning Python3, and went back to download latest version of Xcode and thought I was in the wrong place -- everything cost something! But in the process the confusing instructions caused me to change my password on Apps, Mail,and Developer(which apparently I got kicked out of because I didn't pay my dues.) So I went to Genius Bar to ask if I needed iOS or Developer and was told "we don't answer questions about programming." Anything I asked the "clerk" at the "Genius" bar said "we don't answer questions about programming." The Genius also suggested I go Amazon and buy a book. I said "apparently Xcode version 4 just came out seven days ago -- you think I can find a book on it?" His answer was "we don't answer questions about programming."
Simply put, the Apple ][, Macintosh, Macbook Pros, iMacs, totaled maybe twenty thousand dollars.
It is not just the 4.99, or the 99.00 or 198.00. It is just slamming down the door when I get there and their simply repeating "we don't answer questions about programming."
My wife suggested I go to the Genius bar and I thought it a good idea. Now I feel like an idiot. -
Mar 13, 2011 3:45 PMby red_menace,I wasn't going to comment on that angle, but providing thousands of 5GB downloads (or however large - I know it is more than I want to download) must cost something. Five bucks isn't anything that would stop a professional, and if charging a small amount is partly to stop or slow down the "let's see" programmers, I think they are failing miserably.
I'll wait. -
Mar 13, 2011 4:30 PMby etresoft,osxlearner wrote:
It is not just the 4.99, or the 99.00 or 198.00. It is just slamming down the door when I get there and their simply repeating "we don't answer questions about programming."
My wife suggested I go to the Genius bar and I thought it a good idea. Now I feel like an idiot.
But this isn't the "Genius bar". We do answer questions about programming. The only thing I ask is that you start your own topic if it isn't related to Xcode4 no longer being free.
