I understand why you can't develop OS X apps on a Linux computer, but is there a good technical reason why you can't develop iPhone and iPad apps on Linux? Why isn't it possible to compile iOS source code into an iOS executable and run it in an iOS simulator on Linux or install it on a development iOS device?
Is it just because the XCode IDE is a Cocoa application?
You can develop Android apps on any kind of platform, it seems. I don't see why the same can't be true of iOS.
Best Answer
Mac OS X can only contractually be run on Apple Hardware. iOS requires the Cocoa framework and to have access to a Mac to sign the keychain. While you can use Objective-C on Linux using the OpenStep libraries, you can't push the applications you develop to iOS due to the lack of the correct Cocoa API libraries and while you can push to a jailbroken device without keychaining with a full developer account, in order to sell said app or even to have the public download it, you have play by Apple's rules.