Honestly, every time I see one of these articles with even a hint at criticism towards Apple, I cringe slightly before I click the comments link...because I know what's coming next. Not that you care, but I'm also tired of Apple hi-jinks, T's & C's, and just general unfriendliness toward devs and I'll stick with Win7/Ubuntu from now on.

Right, because Windows comes with gcc?

Last I checked, Visual Studio was WAY more expensive than $5.

VS 2010 is free if you sign up for their webspark program http://microsoft.com/web/websitespark/ -- so is MS Windows Server 2008, SQL Server, etc. Look, I'm no MS proponent. I'm an independent developer and I use all platforms, all tools, all languages. If you fellas watch the news, this URL is kinda like the Fox News of Apple fan-boi-ism. Fair & Balanced...it is not...tiresome...bah, let the downvotes begin.

Check the fine print (http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/support.aspx?tab=P...): It's only free for 3 developers per company. Arguably enough for personal use, but won't cover many organizations.

You can download application and device driver SDKs which come with command line C++ compilers at no charge. Pretty much the same compilers MS uses to build the OS itself and its own products.

There's also a no charge "express edition" of the IDE, but it was heavily crippled last time I checked.

Perl, Python, Ruby, rails…

I was more reacting to the common argument that "$5 is not expensive". My apologies if that's not what they were addressing in this comment.

That said, Xcode 3 doesn't satisfy the requirement of being easy or quick to install for a casual user.

What's this rubbish about Xcode 3 being hard to install? It's on your OS X CD. From there on, it's just a one-click install process. Even if you downloaded it, the process is the same. If a developer can't be bothered to do that, then they probably dont give a damn in the first place.

Casual users =/= developers

What isn't easy about installing from the disc given when you bought the mac? Don't have a your mac discs anymore? Download it or borrow someone elses. If you don't want the extra crud of iOS firmwares, disable it. To be honest it's quite "easy" to install for any user.

Quick on the other hand, how many 4.5gb installations are quick?

FWIW, it doesn't come with the new Air models.

I think the point wasn't that a 4.5gb installation should be quick. It was that it shouldn't require a 4.5gb installation if all you want is gcc. More like a 50MB installation.

What it comes down to is a question of principle. The argument that development tools should be free and readily available is a principle of software freedom.

I don't want to paint this as black & white, because things rarely are, but on the continuum of free (as in freedom) vs non-free, you'd have to live in a cave on the moon to still cling to the idea that Apple is anywhere near the free side of the scale.

You, as a developer, have to make a decision about how you will support your principles. Apple has certainly made theirs. They view their entire platform as theirs to do with as they wish. That is the anti-thesis of freedom. Do not expect this to change.