Apple Fail
In order to make a Mac nearly half as useful as a typical Unix distribution, you have to sign up with Apple to download special “developer” stuff like a compiler. That means that years after you have given up on using a Mac, you’ll get funny spam like this one:
So, they are soliciting me for a design contest, and the “fine print” to unsubscribe is not merely the usual small, gray text, but small, gray text on a gray background. Layers of delicious failure.
The last spam I received from Apple was for a recruiting event, with no unsubscribe option whatever.
Responses
Sean
“Xcode 3.0, the latest major version, is bundled free with Mac OS X v10.5, though it is not installed by default.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcode
FYI, Ubuntu’s stock install includes no compilers/IDEs either, and they must be separately downloaded and installed.
Free development tools and a nice IDE? What was it that you wanted?
I can’t comment on the HTML e-mail design, I guess. The fine print seems unfortunately run-of-the-mill these days.
dannyman
Sean,
As far as I can tell, you still need to register your information with Apple in order to obtain gcc, (Xcode) without which on can not build and install third-party software.
I’m pretty confident stock Ubuntu comes with a compiler, or is at the very least an “apt-get install gcc” away. No registration required, and you won’t receive spam from them years after you have abandoned their OS.
Sincerely,
-daniel
Keith
Dan,
Sean’s right, gcc comes on a CD that ships with the Mac. You don’t need to register or download anything. Now, if a newer version of XCode or gcc comes out from Apple that you want, yeah, then you need to register. But it is not a requirement to get gcc.
Keith
Comment
Tiny Print:
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