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by logicuce 2218 days ago
Apple is not alone there. A lot of people don't realize, but Windows is (or at least for the longest time, was) in the same boat. You need to have a Windows machine to build Windows app.

I believe, but I might be wrong, a similar thing applies to a large number of Linux systems especially if you wish to build GUI apps.

P.S. Windows even used to require a paid version of their IDE Visual Studio for the longest time and a hefty subscription fee for MSDN. And, don't forget the concept of "Developer License" for things like SQL server.
3 comments
AegirLeet 2217 days ago
Yeah no, this one is very Apple-specific. Just google "windows 10 vm image" and see what comes up. Obviously with Linux distros, getting images isn't a problem either.

I'm sure there's some dumb shit that MS does too, but Apple is completely alone in not even giving you any way to run their OS in a VM for development purposes.

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lavezza 2217 days ago
As others have pointed out, those official MS VMs are for evaluation only. You are not legally allowed to use them for development. Of course, you could pay MS for a license and do your Windows development in a VM on Linux (or Mac), so that is something that MS supports that Apple doesn't. But to develop for Windows or Mac/iOS you will most likely need to give some money to MS or Apple.
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AegirLeet 2217 days ago
This was non-commercial and there wasn't any development involved. Even if doing this in a Windows VM technically violated some license, I wouldn't care much for something that's just a hobby project.

As you pointed out, with Windows there's at least no technical barrier to running it in the VM. Even if I had to buy a license, that would be like a hundred times cheaper than buying a Mac.

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Dylan16807 2217 days ago
And even without that, it is and has been easy to install windows and not give it a key. With windows 10 you don't even need to reinstall quarterly.
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TheGoddessInari 2217 days ago
Microsoft provided the command line build tools for free, ad you could always target Windows using MinGW.

You're completely wrong about targeting Linux as well.

MacOS (and then iOS) have always been the only OS you can't freely target.

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sadfklsjlkjwt 2217 days ago
Apple is totally alone there.

Microsoft provide virtual machine images to download on their website.

> I believe, but I might be wrong, a similar thing applies to a large number of Linux systems especially if you wish to build GUI apps.

This is just bizarre. Where on earth did you get this idea from???

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