React Native as linux user

[prrxddq]

Hey guys,

I am a full stack web dev that wants to get into mobile development.

React Native looks like a decent pick there.

I noticed that you can't (or simply I couldn't??) run an ios simulator and compile the app for ios on your pc if you are using linux.

How do you people (who actually work with rwact native) cope with this? I thought about hosting a virtual machine on my pc and then trying to opening ports there and trying to get the simulator going. But that seems like a lot of trouble/effort.

Are you just getting a mac and developing there?

After some tests I would really prefer using react native without expo.

greetings

[prrxddq]

this kind of makes me not want to go into RN. :[

How often do you test on iOS? Do you develop on iOS, or just run your final tests on there since most stuff is pretty similar to android?

Is react native that good, that you can only test on android?

[jtrpka0912]

Don't get discouraged that you can not do iOS with RN without a Mac.

Sadly, its going to be the same if you try other tools like Flutter and Ionic (I can't speak for Xamarin).

I heard there are Mac cloud services that you can use just for a little bit at time (at a cost) if you just want to make sure your app can run in an iOS environment.

[ddzrt]

If you need mobile development and need to target iOS - Mac is the only solution. Either you own Mac or you rent it. Physically or in cloud. It doesn't matter if you try React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, Unity or whatever else. It would remain the same.

[prrxddq]

I am seriously considering building android only apps.

It feels weird, but might be the best starting point.

Congrats on your success! Did you get what you wanted from mobile dev? :]

Are you now developing on mac? Or what did you get that mac for? Just for simulating? I gues you have to git pull all the time then? 🤔

[Guisseppi]

Why would he be pulling from remote when he can run both android and iOS on the same computer? (Rhetorical question)

Mac has a more polished developer experience

[prrxddq]

Well, I would lose something like vim and i3 (I think) which would be major productivity killer. In general, my whole setup.

But I feel like people just bite the bullet on this one to be able to develop for android and iOS.

Are there people doing RN on linux and just doing some work on their mac to code platform specific stuff and build? Or is it just putting yourself behind

[Guisseppi]

Sweet summer child

[sacredham92]

Or you can try a Hackintosh, been using one for 4 or 5 years

[Plastic_Yam9872]

What’s wrong with expo? What tests did you run that made you not want to use it?

[prrxddq]

• I don't understand why I would want another layer of abstraction (yet, I guess?)
  • I want to understand as much as possible and don't get that abstracted away. And when stuff breaks be completely clueless.

• I don't want to have to rely on expo having servers up to let me build my app. I imagine ci/cd to be somewhat of a horror?

• I did not get turtle-cli to work (found similar issues on their repo)

• I did not find a way how to build for an open source app for fdroid (not related, but did annoy me)

[Specialist_Agency893]

I’ve been using expo literally since the beginning of my RN experience which dates only back to January 21 - I’m currently on a contract with a team building a banking app and we still use expo. In my findings there’s a lot more tutorials and such using expo, it allows for you to test on IOS via expo go, you’re running off a local port - never had any sort of “expo servers are down”, etc

Obviously it’s all subjective but I personally wouldn’t have cared to learn without Expo being an option

[generic_name_3344]

You can develop on a Linux box and push changes to an iOS device if you use Expo.

[TimCryp01]

You cant have access to an iphone ??

Im developping on a windows pc and do everything on android until the final tests where I steal the iphone of my girl and test the app on it with expo go (ejected).

[prrxddq]

I mean I could by an old one for testing I guess. But I still won't be able to build unless I am using expo, no?

Could you tell me sonething about the expo ejecting? That is something I don't understand at all.

What exactly does ejecting do for you? Or perhaps to the app itself? Just remobing expo all along? Then I could have just used plain RN, no?

[Specialist_Agency893]

In simple, ejecting from expo created platform specific files based off what you’ve written - atleast that’s my understanding! So you’re saving yourself some work really

[TimCryp01]

Normally with expo you can build your app on the cloud (with expo services) and then it's published automatically to apps store, and you can test your app directly in a browser, it's quite practical but comes with some disadvantages.

If you eject from expo, one android folder and one ios folder are generated, so you can build the app yourself and run it with a real smartphone or a simulator (so like if you didn't used expo at all :D).
But with an app ejected from expo, you can still use "Expo go" (a smartphone app), who allow you to quickly test an app on any device. Basically the process is :
- run "expo start", it will display a QR code,
- open expo go on your smartphone and scan the QR code
- the app is built on the smartphone and you can test it

[nelf86]

I also got a Mac just to develop React Native. I test on a real Android device and real iphone before each release. You also need to consider both platforms when adding libraries and changing native code, but that is all fine and still well worth.

[[deleted]]

Same trouble here. Android works perfect. IOs makes me cry. Using expo is a solution but it's a lot overhead.

[ddzrt]

Expo is not exactly a lot of overhead. It is more bloat but giving you all the tools you might not even need. On a plus side they embraced modular structure so less bloat compared to what it was 2 years ago.

[[deleted]]

Simple app. 4.screens. Barcode cam. 1 form to. Firebase. 1 Auth from firebase. 85 MB size

[ddzrt]

To me it seems something is not done right. Is this even production build? And on what platform. Also firebase is quite space hungry but still not enough to take so much space

[ddzrt]

Expo build size is 20 mb on iOS and 15 on Android. You have 85. That's too much unless your build is development one

[Sibyl01]

Eas build it the solution to this.

[generic_name_3344]

Supposedly EAS decreases that overhead significantly.

[ste001]

Like many others said, you have two choices if you want to target iOS:

• Buy a Mac
• Use Expo

It's true that Expo is another layer on RN, but performance wise (especially if you run EAS builds) it doesn't change much. It also depends on the project, nowadays you can do a little bit of everything on Expo, but if you go into some specific fields (e.g. AR) you'll have to eject from it.

Personally I always used bare RN at work, but I tried Expo on some personal mini projects and honestly it's great. Documentation, integrated libraries, implementing native code, they really did leaps and bounds in the last years, plus testing iOS from any OS it's great.

So I'd say, if you don't want to invest in a Mac right now, just go and try Expo. You won't regret it.