I'm compiling xCode on my Laptop!

[Tuna]

Just an FYI to those of you who have a tight budget like me. Since I had a spare hdd for my laptop, I managed to make a usable mac to compile my xcode projects on an extremely short budget (cost of the OS disk only).

How?

You can buy the Apple OSX Snow Leopard install disk for about $30 on amazon.com (NEW). If you have a fairly recent intel based machine, you can boot up with iBoot and install Snow Leopard. I have done this, and it works. Just Google "iBoot".

There are some trade offs. I have to boot up the laptop using the iBoot disk, but I'm okay with that. The Apple Developer SDK installed and runs just fine, as does the iPhone/iPad simulator. I tested compiling and running a quick mfa of my own making without fail, as well as the sample mfa files posted in the iOS forum.

Other trade-offs are that wireless doesn't work, and to hear audio, i have to connect external speakers. Both of these are not show stoppers for me.

If you want to dig deeper, it is possible to make a workable mac that doesn't require the iBoot cd, but I don't have time for it myself. It depends on the hardware at your disposal, as well as your time/financial budget.

I hope this helps someone, it sure saved me a lot of money.

[BHGames]

You could have used VirtualBox.

[Keith]

I utilize a low end Mac Mini as I worry that this approach runs counter to Developer program Terms and may result in loss of developer program access.

[Tuna]

I tend to worry a lot less about these things, knowing its all for fun...

[Tuna]

You could have used VirtualBox.

Yeah, but I have an actual machine I can use, so a virtualbox, although pretty cool, wasn't needed.