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Comment by w1ntermute | Hacker News Reader

> So this leaves me with the following options:

> 1. Completely nuke my machine, create a new US Apple account and repurchase everything (yeah, right)

> 2. Pay $49 to have Apple Support look into the issue

> 3. Give up and use Linux (I hear Windows 8 will have a locked-down App store too)

As a Linux user, the fact that Apple developers are seriously considering moving to Linux makes me very excited. If even 1% of the disgruntled devs decide to go with #3, there will be significant effects in the Linux community. The Linux community is overwhelmingly biased towards the neckbeard crowd, which doesn't care about things like UI/UX. If some of the Apple devs come in and start contributing, things could change quite rapidly.

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It probably depends on how much longer the iOS gold rush lasts. I think a lot of developers are on OSX (and very defensive of it) because it represents their gravy train. If the market stabilises or dies down, a lot of people will probably switch over to Linux.

The iOS gold rush is long since over. Very few devs are making real money on apps now. The consulting market is pretty hot though.

What's left after the gold rush is a stabilized market. The market for iOS is still huge and growing. There are differences because gold is a finite substance. There will always be an iOS market for apps where once there was none before the App Store existed. After the gold is depleted, there no longer remains a market for gold and the gold rush is over in that instance.

I'd think Windows would be more up their alley due to the similar lack of customization options.

Oh, right. I forgot the hip factor. Windows is too uncool now, after all those Mac/PC commercials.

It's just grandstanding. You can't get your favorite TV shows or apps on Linux.

I'm able to watch shows just fine using Amazon Instant on Linux. What makes you think this isn't possible?

> You can't get your favorite TV shows or apps on Linux.

I would agree with TV shows not being legally available as easily on Linux as on Mac or Windows, primarily due to the lack of support for Linux from Netflix. That doesn't affect me personally, since I just pirate everything anyway, and there are a dozen different Linux video players you can pick from if you've got a DRM-free x264-encoded video file.

Either way, when one is developing, access to TV shows isn't exactly a big concern.

As for apps, I don't see the big deal, especially for development work (and it's developers we're talking about here). All the necessary tools for webdev are available.

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