Red Echo

October 23, 2012

After wading through the incredible heap of nonsense it takes just to download the latest Xcode, I am seriously disenchanted with Apple. I never wanted anything to do with their iTunes-centric consumer-electronics universe, but now you have to sign up for an iTunes account just to download Xcode. I can’t even write code on my own Mac anymore without jumping through their hoops. Ugh. Ugh. When did they forget that it’s my computer not theirs? What, just because they wrote the OS, that means they get to decide what I can do with my own machine? No thank you very much go away now please.

Ten or fifteen years after the first Year of the Linux Desktop, it’s still a pretty rough experience, but at least they don’t drag you through their greedy corporate agenda at every opportunity.

If you are still using Snow Leopard, don’t upgrade: it’s really not very nice in the Lion world.

4 Comments

  1. You can still download Xcode from http://developer.apple.com/downloads/ like always.

    Comment by Joe Ranieri — October 23, 2012 @ 3:39 pm

  2. Sure, that’s where I went. But now in order to get in, you have to go create an iTunes account, so you can link it to their developer site, so you can download Xcode…. And then you have to fill out a four-page questionnaire, absolutely none of which you are allowed to skip, before they will let you through the gates. It’s just creepy. Why do they need to know all this? I just want the damn system compiler so I can build stuff. I’m not trying to apply for a job, I’m not trying to convince them to go out on a date, I just want the compiler you use to build stuff for their particular OS.

    Grrrrrrr.

    Comment by mars — October 23, 2012 @ 5:26 pm

  3. I figured you still had an ADC account from the old days. If you didn’t have that, then going through the Mac App Store probably would have been easier (though still requires some sort of account).

    Comment by Joe Ranieri — October 23, 2012 @ 6:15 pm

  4. Oh sure, yeah, if I’d been doing this on my own personal machine I’d have just used my personal ADC account, which has apparently been grandfathered in since whenever. But this was my new work machine, and Mylo doesn’t already have an Apple developer account, so I had to go through all the rigmarole from scratch. I was just surprised to discover how much more rigmarole they’ve added since I last paid any attention to it.

    Comment by mars — October 23, 2012 @ 6:16 pm