We should all be taking full advantage of the amazing capabilities of the pocket supercomputers we all carry around with us at all times (even if the companies who make them don't want us to or don't care about us). Anything less would be silly! Now Linux and Windows users (the majority of iPhone users) can do easily do so, and that's great.
To install your own personal homebrew apps without Apple's approval, use AltStore (Windows) or SideStore (Linux):
Woah this is very exciting if true! I love Linux and my framework laptop, but have wanted to make simple iOS apps.
That being said, PWA’s are damn capable at this point for basic little apps. I wish more laypeople were aware of the ability to “install” PWA’s. Most non-tech people only think apps come from the iOS App Store.
gman83 · 59m ago
FYI, I've been making iOS apps on Linux for a while now, I just use CodeMagic to do the build step - https://codemagic.io/
Obscurity4340 · 5h ago
Are PWA's subject to Safari's data collection policies or is it different?
pjmlp · 4h ago
Why bothering collecting on the client, when we can collect everything on the server?
weird_trousers · 6h ago
Awesome! I hope Apple will not get the lawyers out for this project (especially for licensing issues)... but this is promising for the future!
ChrisMarshallNY · 13m ago
I doubt it, as it's being announced on Swift.org.
notpushkin · 9m ago
In a forum post – it’s not an official announcement. But since it hasn’t been taken down yet I guess there is hope?
walterbell · 5h ago
It should be usable in Asahi Linux on Mac hardware.
notpushkin · 12m ago
Not a practical suggestion, but would it be feasible to run xtool on jailbroken iOS devices? (I mean, those are definitely Apple-branded!)
justanotheratom · 5h ago
Note: you can also use it to replace Xcode on macOS for building iOS software!
AFAIK the Apple EULA, which you have to agree to before uploading Apps to the App store, requires that you have built the software on Apple Hardware.
IANAL, but if I understand correctly that means, the only conformant way to build on linux would be to you install linux on the Apple hardware.
bitwize · 3h ago
With antitrust regulators (including, to a certain extent, the relatively feckless ones in the USA) breathing down Apple and Google's necks, they might not be able to get away with enforcing that rule for long.
detourdog · 1m ago
It may use Secure Enclave.
behnamoh · 1h ago
Why does Apple behave like there are no other operating systems or devices in the world? for a long time, even in their keynotes they would compare the new iphones with the last year model, not the flagship androids. and their standards mostly work for themselves, not the rest of the world. for example, most keybindings in Pages are totally different than Word and the rest of the text editing apps (CMD-E is supposed to center things but it doesn't). they created a language (Swift) and kept it closed source for a long time, and then didn't extend support to other OS's. presumably they do this so devs who wanna make iOS apps have to purchase Macs, but quite honestly this is just lazy corporate shenanigans. There are far more important reasons to buy a Mac, and anyone who uses Linux isn't suddenly going to convert to macOS just so they can build iOS apps (they probably have more fundamental issues with non-FOSS software anyway).
LoganDark · 37m ago
> Why does Apple behave like there are no other operating systems or devices in the world?
Because Apple doesn't care. Or, to be more accurate, Apple didn't care while Steve Jobs was still alive. They never cared what the rest of the world was doing - their mission had always been to build the entire user experience from scratch. The software, hardware, everything. Because in their eyes (or at least in Jobs' eyes) the rest of the world was doing it all wrong.
Ever since Steve Jobs died, the company he built has been slowly taken over by the wrong kinds of people. Apple Intelligence, for example, is not driven by any of the philosophy that Jobs would have used. And Apple software updates have been slowly declining in quality ever since his death.
My total speculation was that Steve Jobs was autistic and Apple was sort of an autistic revolution. I don't know what Tim Cook is, but he's no Steve Jobs. Apple is slowly devolving into the sort of thinking that is not different and that is a real shame.
We should all be taking full advantage of the amazing capabilities of the pocket supercomputers we all carry around with us at all times (even if the companies who make them don't want us to or don't care about us). Anything less would be silly! Now Linux and Windows users (the majority of iPhone users) can do easily do so, and that's great.
To install your own personal homebrew apps without Apple's approval, use AltStore (Windows) or SideStore (Linux):
https://faq.altstore.io/altstore-classic/how-to-install-alts...
https://docs.sidestore.io/docs/installation/linux
That being said, PWA’s are damn capable at this point for basic little apps. I wish more laypeople were aware of the ability to “install” PWA’s. Most non-tech people only think apps come from the iOS App Store.
Also, there is an MCP Server to bypass Xcode from Cursor: https://github.com/cameroncooke/XcodeBuildMCP
https://github.com/gnustep/libs-xcode
IANAL, but if I understand correctly that means, the only conformant way to build on linux would be to you install linux on the Apple hardware.
Because Apple doesn't care. Or, to be more accurate, Apple didn't care while Steve Jobs was still alive. They never cared what the rest of the world was doing - their mission had always been to build the entire user experience from scratch. The software, hardware, everything. Because in their eyes (or at least in Jobs' eyes) the rest of the world was doing it all wrong.
Ever since Steve Jobs died, the company he built has been slowly taken over by the wrong kinds of people. Apple Intelligence, for example, is not driven by any of the philosophy that Jobs would have used. And Apple software updates have been slowly declining in quality ever since his death.
My total speculation was that Steve Jobs was autistic and Apple was sort of an autistic revolution. I don't know what Tim Cook is, but he's no Steve Jobs. Apple is slowly devolving into the sort of thinking that is not different and that is a real shame.