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Comment by physicsyogi | Hacker News Reader

> You can't sideload an app on an iOS device, you can't run unsigned apps, and there is no version of iOS you can run without the App Store. Unless you jailbreak.

This is not quite true. If you write your own app you can install it on your iOS device. If someone put an iOS app on, say, Github, you could easily install it. No need for the App Store or Apple's review process. An app does not need to be signed unless you want to submit it to the App Store. Also, you can install iOS without using the App Store if you have a developer account.

I'm not disagreeing with you that iOS is far less open than Android.

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> If you write your own app you can install it on your iOS device.

That's not quite true either. Because an app installed like this will only function for a very limited time (a few weeks i believe) and then it expires and you can no longer start it. This means it is not practical and NOBODY will use this: which explains why there are none/hardly any of such apps available on Github, etc.

I did this with the f.lux app in the past and it was very annoying/not usable because of the necessary "recompile frequency".

My wife doesn't seem to mind doing this with gba4ios every week; she just plugs in her phone, opens xcode, toggles her phone as the target and presses play, takes less than a couple of min, and she is no dev by any means. Granted, I had to help her get it up and debug somethings before hand, but in the process, she has become more informed of what all the crap in the background more than she was before.

Though I guess most people may just want to throw their arms up and force the government to write a law to make such easier for free?

You need a Mac for that.

Technically, you don’t. There are ways of doing this on platforms other than macOS; the process is just more complicated.

For a free account, the time limit is 7 days.

> you could easily install it

Haha, no. Last I did this, you must have a Macbook, you must configure Xcode, generate new certificates, sign the entire application bundle, and then you get to sideload it - and never get an update ever unless you repeat the entire process.

In contrast on Android: "This application is from an unknown source. Would you like to still install it?"

>you must have a Macbook

Technically you just need macOS, I don't think there's anything stopping you from doing iOS development on a hackintosh.

I'll agree that the process is pretty ridiculous in comparison to Android though.

You are not required to use macOS to do this. There are third party solutions, such as Cydia Impactor, that are cross platform and do this for you.

Right, I can pay someone else with a macbook...

You must sign apps if you want them to run on nonjaibroken devices. What you are doing in this case is signing it with your development certificate.

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