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Thoughts on Thin Clients for Mac/iOS Development on PC?

Started by Commodore256 Feb 18, 2012 at 9:46 PM 4 replies 3.5k views
Original Post
Commodore256
Commodore256
I've been looking around for iWorld (Mac/iOS) development from a minimalistic approach and I found http://www.macincloud.com/

Basically, you rent a mac in the cloud starting at $20 a month for 3 hours a day and going up to $50 a month for unlimited and there educational discounts, But what's the point?

If you do a little math, it would add up to a cost of a used mac mini in a year and there are people that say "FSCK the EULA" and hackintosh.

I can only see this useful for college students that need a mac and didn't buy one with their tuition, but the mac lab is on a time-slot and you need a few extra hours. From that point of view, it's worth $16 for an extra 3 hours a day for a month, but other than that, it's kinda a waste :/

What do you guys think?
Ravyne
Ravyne
I'd go with a used Mini, personally. You should be able to find a relatively new and good shape one for under 500 -- I got an old PPC mini (more because I wanted a decent PPC architecture machine that didn't take up much room, than because its a mac) and its a good solution for niche use. I remote in so I don't have to have an extra monitor/keyboard/mouse, but KVM is another good solution that'll give you lag-free access with your existing equipment (and direct video output for 3D).
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Commodore256
Commodore256
I like PowerPC, but I heard Mountain Lion won't even support older Intel Macs. (except the Mac Pro, it supports the 2008 Mac Pro)

List of supported Macs:
iMac (mid 2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, 2.4/2.2 GHz), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)

I think it's due to 32-bit EFI and crappy Video Cards in previous Macs. But yeah, just get a used 09' Mac Mini if you just can't borrow it from the Computer Lab.
Ravyne
Ravyne
Oh, no. I wasn't recommending a PPC mini for you -- They dropped G4 support way back in... 10.5 was the last support I think. And I certainly didn't pay anything approaching $500 for it -- $160 which was a pretty good deal. You'd probably want an intel Mini, preferably one with the nVidia GPU.

As for Mountain Lion... Meh, Apple lost me with 10.7 when they started pushing the App Store as the sole place to get anything. My Unibody MacBook is running 10.6 and that's the way it'll stay (I'm in windows on it most of the time anyhow). But that's another topic
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Commodore256
Commodore256
Yeah, I know what you mean.

I used to be an OSX /PowerPC fan, (But I kept the avatar) but apple's going away from the geeks and going for consumers.

Another thing about the "Mountain Lion King", It will have a thing like UAC Called the "Gatekeeper" and you can't install unsigned apps with it unless you click a button to allow it.

Where's the Keymaster when you need him?

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