Isn't this a little like saying "Don't pay for Github, just buy a server rack"? My point being, A Mac mini != Xcode Cloud. There are other services that Xcode Cloud offers beyond a roll your own Mac mini solution. Just like how Github offers more services than a roll your own home server offers.
Managing the difference between a home server and a cloud service.
I used to manage some rack-mount servers for a garage startup. That meant dealing with:
- power (including UPS and remote power strips)
- network (LAN, router, ISP, DNS)
- server hardware
- server BIOS (i.e. pls reboot after power failure)
- OS and software updates
- user admin
- backups
And living 500 miles away from the server room taught me how many things can go wrong when I'm away, and what it takes to even monitor that. Can't easily conclude it wasn't worth, since these were multi-purpose and the equivalent capacity on EC2 would've cost a ton, but doing all that just for Xcode builds would've been silly.
Closer to the topic, I also used to just manage a remote Mac mini server. It was also not automatic. Even had both disks in my RAID1 set fail over time.
Many of those things are included in the Hetnzer contract though. They have service technicians that can perform any physical operation for you remotely. Just open a ticket.
Been hosting bare metal with them for ages and it has been very pleasant.
Will Hetzner install Linux on it for me and fix all the problems when they come up? If not, there's zero reason to purchase one of these for any professional purposes aside from iOS/MacOS CICD.
I'm confused, if you're running an M2 Mac, you're probably going to be running Asahi Linux. (Not really sure there is any other option :P)
That would be set up on the first day with the simple asahilinux she'll script, and then theres essentially nothing else needed after that.
We've just set up our CI in it (set it up as a Gitlab runner), it seems to work fine. To add more complexity, it isn't even a native iOS app but Nativescript. I think we use it to make the Android builds as well.
For $475/month, I hope you're able to use it for more than just iOS builds.
I know I'm too hobbyist- and small-business-minded for lots of folks on HN, but that monthly fee is a mind-boggling non-starter for me. I know that cloud services are never the cheapest option and I don't want to come off as a skinflint, but AWS' Mac pricing is just absurd. Two months' rental pays for the machine outright (three, if you upgrade the RAM or storage). I wouldn't leap into running a public-facing service on a machine parked in the back corner of an office somewhere, but it's not a big deal if your CI/CD machine goes offline for a few minutes if power or data connectivity stumbles.
I've worked for a startup where we begged the IT folks to just buy us an M1 Mac Mini to stuff in the closet somewhere, or at least sign us up for Mac Stadium or something, but it was borderline impossible to convince them to do that.
Talking to DevOps folks to spin up two dedicated instances on AWS? I had access within 10 minutes.