I would love to get a deal like that. I just looked on craigslist, and can't find any 27" iMacs with an i5 for less than $950. In fact, I can't find anything for $250 that wasn't a piece of junk. In fact, if I could get that iMac for $250, I could turn around and resell it for $1000.

Friend was moving across the country, didn't want the hassle of craigslist. Point is, you can keep your ear to the ground and find some interesting stuff in the Apple space.

That could be a lo-o-ong wait. Your post makes it sound like the $250 deal was typical. Which it is not in my experience, or in reality.

I can guarantee you I could go lay hands on a Mac mini, older but quite capable of Xcode development, for $350 right now.

I'm not an Apple partisan; my last gig was Android development. But the idea that there's this massive barrier to entry is a complete joke.

Your point that entry into the Apple ecosystem isn't that difficult would be correct when they first opened up the app store, which simplified how app development for phones was done. But today, they seem to have the most friction compared to joining other stores/platforms/ecosystems.

As for the Mac mini that you talked about, that's a far cry from the 27" iMac with the i5 that you originally described.

Oh, c'mon. It's the iMac minus a monitor. Any developer probably has a monitor.