Bootstrapping CC (for OSX, using Homebrew)
Published in 2011, this chronicle by @telemachos details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Charging customers from day one acts as the ultimate filter for building software that solves genuine, high-urgency problems.
Keeping fixed overhead low and leveraging lean infrastructure allows founders to stay alive until market tailwinds kick in.
Small, repetitive improvements in customer retention and conversion rates yield massive returns over multi-year horizons.
Community Debate Themes:
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
CATEGORY Bootstrapping & MRR →
HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE 73 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 26 comments
Turns out Xcode was never actually free: previous major releases were synchronized with OS releases. Xcode 2 came with 10.4, Xcode 3 came with 10.5.
The reason why they were "free" and Xcode 4 is not is... that Xcode 4 has been released "mid-cycle" before Lion landed. Previous Xcode were "paid" through the OS they came with, even if you downloaded them from Apple's website as it was the OS entitling you to the relevant Xcode install.
With that said, where are we so far on Xcode?
* Since Lion has not been released yet, all macbooks but Air come with the standard DVD set which contains an Xcode install
* Xcode 3.2.6 and the iOS 4.3 SDK are still available as free downloads for the Air (or to replace older Xcode installs), just go into the dev center and you are given a link to Xcode 3. You even get a download link for Xcode 3 from the Xcode 4 page: https://connect.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MemberSite.woa/wa/getSoftware?bundleID=20792 ↗
I understand that people kind-of freakout (I did originally), but if you actually look at the events with a cool head, and previous devtools-related-events (as well as previous instances of Apple's wonky SOX-related decisions), it seems extremely likely Xcode 4 will go back to "free for everybody" on Lion, it might even be an at-install option (à la OSX Server).
Oh yeah, and there are already binary distributions of OSX compilers: http://llvm.org/releases/download.html ↗ has both Clang and LLVM-GCC binaries for OSX.
This is silly -- these are just blind leading the blind questions. I guess I can provide some answers ...
- homebrew should just provide binaries rather than trying to bootstrap a compiler for everyone.
- Barring that, homebrew should wait and see if Xcode4 is free with Lion.
- A compiler isn't enough. You also need an assembler, linker, etc. Those can be found in Apple's cctoolz and ld64 projects.
- Headers are are also required. Those belong to Apple and are not freely redistributable.
- GCC 4.2 is still the default, not clang. Apple still builds the majority of the OS with GCC.
- Apple does modify the compiler. Look at PLBlocks (http://code.google.com/p/plblocks/ ↗) for scripts that can drive an Apple compiler build.
- homebrew is learning why "do not dupe" is not viable when dealing with Apple in the longterm, and is going to just wind up being a less mature macports clone after going through a few more release cycles.
The cost or otherwise of xcode is irrelevant. This is about repackaging apple's distributions of various tools for our convenience. As others have said the $5 is simply a push to do something that probably should have been done before.
In light of this I am personally in favor of simply taking the binary pkgs out of the xcode dmg, in pursuit of maximum compatibility and minimum duping, and general adherence to homebrew's stated project goals.
However this would obviously require some research as to the specific licensing issues involved, and some dialog with apple. If it turns out to be OK, then the whole thing would be pretty trivial.
If it doesn't pan out, then look at messier options like using different builds, making your own headers (yuck) etc.
This is why people should stop frothing at the mouth any time a company does something (another example: Hudson).
If a problem is significant enough, the Community will figure something out.
Regardless of XCode 4 free or paid, it would be nice to have a compiler separate from XCode. Installing the whole IDE you never use has always seemed like an overkill.