I don’t know what it was like back then but in today’s world you do not need to pay Apple any fees if all you’re doing is writing software in Xcode and deploy it to your own device. You do need a developer account, the free version of one, but you only need to pay the fee if you’re going to publish on the App Store.
Free provisioning: If you do not pay the developer fee an app installed via Xcode will work for 7 days. Afterwards the app on your phone will *stop working*, and you must open Xcode on your Mac again, and push a new build to your phone if you want to keep using it.
Paid provisioning: If you have paid the developer fee, a build will expire based on the amount of time left before that payment renews, so if you build and install an app a month before your developer fee renews, that build of the app (that you installed via Xcode) will stop working in 1 month.
We're stuck between two mafia families :-(
A.K.A. Digital Feudalism.
I've been doing it that way for years on the free account, never seemed like a bother to me. I usually have a tweak I want to make to the code anyway. But I suppose some might find it inconvenient.
In any case, to say you can't put your own apps on your phone without paying a fee is incorrect, which is the comment I was responding to.
Saying what youve said above and knowing full well how this works, but failing to mention a crucial fact like this is deceptive.
I guess some are more bothered by this than others. A bit harsh to claim there is deception going on. Like I said, I’ve never paid Apple a fee and I have several original apps on my iPhone.
This is like calling a Tesla car a spacecraft because one got launched by a rocket. It's like saying you're a free man in prison because you don't want to go anywhere. All the apps you've made either can't connect with other people or require them to be local and visit once a week or be able to jump through the same hoops as you and own a machine to install the app. "I can install an app but my definition of an app is it only works for 7 days and then it needs to be installed again"
At best you can install a demo.
I'm immortal because except for the few ways I can die, like old age, I'll live forever.
These are the most hyperbolic metaphors I have seen on HN within at least the last few months.
Thanks and of course, it's used to highlight how ridiculous you are being in considering an app, that doesn't function as an app, an app.
The tesla car is a vehicle traveling through space, technically a spacecraft it's just literally not what anyone thinks of when they mean spacecraft.
The prisoner reference is an allusion to the usual philosophical debate on how small man made borders need to be to be considered a prison, here's a nice blog post on some parallel thought's about it[1]. The main point being most people don't believe the borders of a country a prison or if they were stuck in a state, or smaller country, a district, a building, a room. If it's only a building then what of prison camps? refugee camps? A city with its' one road washed out? Australia's a fine island to be stuck on but marooned on a desert island and suddenly people are saying they're trapped.
You are literally saying a 7 day limit on a piece of software working still makes it count as what people consider an app and have been arguing that people are wrong for calling apple out on not letting you install your own apps for free. You're as technically correct as saying you can use a tesla car as a spacecraft.
[1] https://philosophersmag.com/philosophical-conversations-in-p...
edit: just remembered the immortal thing, fair enough, but then again highlanders are considered immortal even though chopping off their heads kills them.
> highlanders are considered immortal even though chopping off their heads kills them.
It’s not worth further of my time to debate with this level of irrationality.
Don't you also need to buy a Macbook? That is quite expensive. I guess in Apple's view also developping on a non-Apple device is a security risk.
I’ve never considered or tried anything other than using a Mac, so I don’t know. But I was responding to a comment about a different matter, the fees for a developer account.
The Mac requirement was a pain for game developers using Unity/UE primarily on Windows, and wanting to target iOS. (Back when mobile games seemed like they could be an exciting new thing, before predatory F2P enshittification killed that market...)