If you're frustrated by slow downloads of Xcode updates, here's a way to get them from Apple directly to your Mac as quickly as possible.

Running XCode doesn't have any exotic hardware requirements, once you get a system booting it will be fine for casual xcode hacking.

After having spent a bit of time with Xcode 4, I am strongly considering going back to the old version. Google "i hate xcode 4" and you'll see I'm not the only one considering an IDE downgrade. Here ...