I feel dirty saying this, but until I can develop for Maemo in something besides Linux, I'm really not interested.

If I'm developing for the Pre, I can develop in Windows, Linux, or OS X.

If I'm developing for the Blackberry, I can develop in Windows, Linux, or OS X (although they favor Windows, it's just Eclipse)

If I'm developing for Symbian, I have to develop in Windows (and after using the N97 sdk for about two days, I quickly uninstalled it and vowed to sit this round of Symbian out).

If I'm developing for Windows Mobile, well I suppose I'd probably kill myself. But if I was forced to develop for Windows Mobile, Visual Studio is actually a really nice development environment.

If I'm developing for the iPhone, I have to use OS X.


So basically, with an OS X machine, I can write mobile applications for Android, Blackberry, the Pre, and the iPhone. That's without having to run a VM, or dual-boot. That's a pretty attractive proposition.

While professional software development studios will set up the tools they need, amateurs are much less likely to set up an environment just to write for a single platform (especially a platform which we've already identified is pretty nascent from a commercial app perspective).

This isn't a knock against Linux, it's just that I'm not willing to have a dedicated Linux machine for doing Maemo development. After freemantle is released, if I can get scratchbox working in a VM and actually debug on the device through the virtual usb interface, then I suppose I'll give it another go.