I don't recall macos forcing it. They definitely over-suggest it and the ecosystem (especially for dev) is very full of it and I consider that a problem, but it's limited in scope. If you don't want the Apple ecosystem, as far as I know you never need an AppleID.

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nananana9 6 hours ago | parent [-]

I had to make one to download Xcode from the store. I couldn' figure out a way around it, but admittedly I have about 4 hours of macos experience.

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Jare 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, I was bunching up Xcode with "Apple ecosystem". I presume you can get clang/gcc without AppleID (but haven't actually done it myself), and for sure many other dev tools.

I'd definitely much prefer if even for "ecosystem" the companies would not require online account except where truly necessary (purchases?), but for operating the OS itself, I do feel there's a line in the sand where online account requirement = no.

	▲	my123 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Xcode needs an Apple ID for download but the macOS SDK and toolchain does not. Try to run any developer tool or "xcode-select install" and it'll download the command-line tools independently from Xcode. (and then bring your own IDE)

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yearolinuxdsktp 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It’s impossible to install XCode without an Apple account. It’s only distributed through the Mac App Store, and downloads from Mac App Store require an Apple ID. And even XCode beta downloads are locked behind an Apple login.

You can install XCode CLI dev tools without an Apple account, which comes with clang and swift for example. With this, you can build most Mac software, but I don’t think you can run Swift tests without a full XCode.

As the sibling comment notes, you can install GCC/llvm and whatever other open source tools and build Mac software without full XCode.

You can also install Apple container support without an Apple account.

	▲	zadikian 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Xcode is also available as a standalone download from developer.apple.com, which requires an account too, but at least it's way more reliable than downloading from the store.