Random anecdote: if you don't pay 99€ yearly for your developer subscription Apple revokes your certificates and disables your apps on the Apple app store. Your problem indeed.
You don't have to pay Apple to deploy to your own device. I don't have a developer subscription. You only have to pay the 99€ to access the store and provisioning.
> I can start writing software on Linux for iPhone, without requiring me to have a Mac
> we'll be able to develop iPhone applications from any operating system, but first Linux
> how to develop iPhone applications on Linux
^ is what I wrote, and you suggest "just install XCode from the app store"? Not sure how that's compatible.
Regardless, I hope we end with a phone that people can actually install their own software on, regardless of what laptops/desktop computer they own.