We are a Microsoft shop with C++ experience looking to get into some iPhone/iPad development.
Before we make a large investment in individual development machines, we would like to test our abilities with a modest investment.
Can we use one Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server as a development machine for 2-3 concurrent users? We would want them to remote from their PCs into the Mac Mini server and develop remotely.
Is this possible?
It sounds like you're about to break Joel's "Don't torture your developers" rule.
Skimping on hardware is a good way to waste expensive developer time, which will lead to unhappy developers and failed projects.
Since a Mac with a Windows license can be turned into a Windows development machine, you could buy Macs instead of generic Windows PCs as your existing development hardware hits its replacement dates, and have the flexibility to do either Windows or Mac development.
I think it's worth re-evaluating this initiative as to whether there's enough commitment behind it to make it succeed.
Not out of the box. Mac OS X server is not designed for multiple concurrent desktop access users like a Windows Terminal Server. Edit Here is a product that will do that. http://www.aquaconnect.net/
The Mac Mini is not any major power house either. Emulating the iPhone would not be feasible either since (at last I knew) all Mac Mini's were dual core.
That is a very interesting question which I do not know the answer to, but I will still be cheeky and post a reply. The cheapest Mac Mini is $599 and Mac OS X Server costs $499 so it might be worth just buying two Mac Minis for an additional cost of $100.
I do hope someone here has experience of a similar setup to what you have in mind.
A Mac Mini isn't enough oomph to do that; it's basically a low-end laptop, after all. You could do it with aquaconnect and an XServe, but it might be cheaper just to buy some KVMs and a few Mac Minis and give the developers one each.
Related
I'm trying to learn to code in Objective C, but I am not ready to commit to purchasing a Mac for just this purpose, seeing as I have a good Dell laptop. My computer has VMware installed on it, but I do not know how to actually go through the steps, and I do not know what I need to install or purchase(if absolutely necessary). Eventually, I hope to get a Mac, so this won't be needed, but until then, I want to find a way to compile Objective C so I can actually learn how to use it. Thanks.
While it is technically possible, I'll tell you from experience:
To run Xcode and the iOS Simulator, you will need to have MacOS running. Oficially it only runs on Apple Hardware, buuut, you can always use virtualizers and Hackintosh. There are plenty of good tutorials online if you choose this method.
My advice: DON'T do it!
When I started to develop iOS apps, I had a Windows PC, but after trying lots of different approaches to virtualize MacOS, with none I had great results. I bought a MacBook on a sale, and it's just a better iOS development experience overall. It's priceless not to have to deal with driver searching and compatibility issues.
First virtualize MacOS X, inside then iOS with XCode. See http://www.macbreaker.com/2012/07/mountain-lion-virtualbox.html
Yes you can, you need to virtualize OSX inside you Windows, and then use XCode as the other stated, however it doesen't work with nearly all AMD CPU's but i think Dell uses mostly Intel. And a Mac costs alot. For example i don't have money for one, the cheapest one costs $1,600 where i come from, but if you are going to get a Mac, i would wait for that.
But they really are expensive, and i only need a Macbook for debugging.
[Assuming you already have the mac installation image or vmware file]
Sadly Vmware does not include support for mac in it's latest versions
So you'll have to patch(aka Vmware Unlocker for OS X) it.
Follow this link http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/files/file/20-vmware-unlocker-for-os-x/ (you'll be required to set up an account)
Or alternatively you can download the VirtualBox(https://www.virtualbox.org/)
Happy Coding
Use virtualbox instead of VMWare. If it does'nt work, install the extension pack for virtualbox.
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iPhone development on Windows
We would like to conduct iPhone application development training for students. However, it is very expensive to have a mac machine for all. We would like to setup a virtual environment on the PC to install and run mac OS so that development tools like XCode can run and basics of iPhone application development can be taught. We will we will invest in a couple of macs, iPhones and iPads so that students who want to try out their exercises on the real machine and deploy to real devices.
I have heard that this kind of a development setup is possible, but am not sure how and so would like to know if anyone has setup such an environment, how to do about doing it.
This is not possible unless you build a so called "Hackintosh" (installing OSX on a non-mac computer) with this for example But I doubt that's a solution for an official "organization", and if you want the apps to be deployed to the app store, you must have a mac
i Don't know about the basic xcode on PC, but for your submission to appsotre, you need MAC OSX, if you don't have a mac machine or mac book, try installing mac osx using VMWare, but your CPU should have a suport of Intel Virtualization technology which almost all new CPU has especially core series.
It's quite easy. Buy OS X Lion (which will run in a virtual machine) using family licenses (5 machines per copy), install VirtualBox (it's free) and away you go.
That would be the least expensive route for sandbox learning on a budget.
Is it possible to install it on VirtualBox or other virtualization solution? If yes, how fast it works?
I don't see any problem running MonoTouch frameworks/IDEs in a virtualized Mac.
I can expect a lot of problems transferring across the USB cable the compiled applications to a real iPhone/iPad to test it. iTunes and XCode tend to be very picky about the configurations.
Buying a cheapest Mac might be easier and less costly if you consider the time you might waste, but your mileage may vary.
The evaluation version of MonoTouch will run, but the SDK tools used on the production version wont.
We were able to develop and deploy apps to real devices under VMWare Player and WMWare workstation. The problem we have is MonoTouch activations. It would activate and randomly need reactivation. It would work for a while then it would fail to activate.
Each time it failed we would need to contact support and reset the key so we could continue working. They do not support virtualized hardware and do not plan to fix the activation issue.
In the end we purchased real hardware.
Via VMWare Workstation I have it running quite nicely. Installing apps to iOS devices is fine, but creating a network for softdebug to find the iphone (or vice versa) is the only problem I've seen.
I'm trying to figure that out right now - I'll try and update this thread with the solution.
4 java developers are new to iPod Touch/iPhone app development. They have an idea for an app. They have never used Xcode or Macs before.
Instead of spending money for a new iMac or Mac Mini for each of them, my boss would like to sell them a $999 Apple server, hosted at a facility connected a single T1 line, and have all 4 people work remotely in Xcode.
Is this feasible? Is anyone doing anything like this? Specifically, is 1 T1 enough for realistic remote app development?
Would they have to work in black & white via Logmein or Gotomeeting to get decent speed?
Can four people work remotely together on an Xcode project at the same time?
Do they absolutely need their own Macs to connect their iPod Touches or iPhones physically to, or can they connect to their existing PCs with iTunes and install their in-development apps that way?
Is this feasible? Is anyone doing anything like this? Specifically, is 1 T1 enough for realistic remote app development?
I don't think there is such a things as "realistic remote app development".
Would they have to work in black & white via Logmein or Gotomeeting to get decent speed?
Does their health care plan cover migraine?
Can four people work remotely together on an Xcode project at the same time?
You can work with multiple people on one project, but only if each has their own copy of Xcode on their own Mac.
Do they absolutely need their own Macs to connect their iPod Touches or iPhones physically to, or can they connect to their existing PCs with iTunes and install their in-development apps that way?
You need to have the devices connected to the Mac running Xcode in order to debug. Not debugging on the device is not really an option. You can do some debugging on the iPhone Simulator, but certainly not all.
If you cannot produce a business case for getting a mac mini for each developer I don't think you will make enough money for the business to be worth it - (including paying enough to the programmers)
The lowest entry cost is a Mac Mini for each developer, plus the cost of at least one iPod Touch/iPhone plus the $99 per year that Apple charges to load software onto the device.
What your boss is proposing is simply not feasible and quite unrealistic. It's also frankly insulting to the developers.
If cost is that much of an issue, buy second-hand or refurbished.
Check http://macminicolo.net/dayone for remote development using jenkins etc. in a Mac mini hosting infrastructure.
I need to test a site with a dynamic menu in Mac Firefox, but I'm running in Windows. A simple browsershot.com test won't help; I need to actually use the site.
How can I acquire a method of doing Mac emulation without physically having a Mac? Is there some kind of remote VM product out there?
We use BrowserCam for exactly that.
I realize that the original question asked for a virtual solution, however, as of this time there isn't a legal way to emulate a Mac on non-Apple hardware.
A service like BrowserCam is the best bet if you are entirely opposed to purchasing a Mac. Remote access from BrowserCam is about $400 a year and they have cheaper packages that may suit.
Depending on how often (and on what browsers/platforms) you need to test, you may want to consider purchasing a Mac Mini. A refurbished Mini runs between $500 and $600 and may be cheaper over the long run.
If cross-platform testing is central to your company's business, a full size Intel-based Mac running both OS X and Windows (with Parallels, BootCamp or VMWare) for testing may be a better option.
Check out the OSx86 Project. I've used this before, it works quite well and is pretty easy to understand.