Technically it was never "free" since you also had to buy a Mac to use it. That's how I've obtained the base version of every version of XCode I've had installed.

Now that I think about it, perhaps this is this IPA guy's conundrum. He doesn't want to pay $99 to register as a developer and he can't install the $5 version without connecting his machine to the net (at least once).

Oh well, sucks to be him. Worse, it sucks to be dependent on his software. Good thing it was open source, so someone else can compile it in the future and take over if they wish. Because Open Source is FREE as in beer.

The absolute bottom line for me is that this guy is acting like a total douche bag. In abandoning his user base he's showing that he doesn't really give a rat's ass about them at all and instead would rather put himself on a self-righteous pedestal.

This "issue" is a small blip when compared to the iOS/Mac App store rules I've mentioned previously. I'm not saying Apple is "right" here either, just that what this guy is doing is definitely not the way to go.