"There's no inherent value in large companies making Mac software. The products are more expensive and their people are harder to reach. I only care about the big companies if they have something of value to offer. What of Symantec and Aladdin's stuff truly makes sense on Mac OS X?"
That's quite a statement! Ok, perhaps it a profile thing. Working for a software company, I feel that the apparent lack of even medium-sized mac-focused companies is a turn-off to Windows developers who might otherwise provide a mac version of their product. And there are still areas where the mac is very weak next to the PC.
Aladdin was once the de-facto compression standard on the mac, and I still don't find OSX's built-in zip compression to be very good. But OSX killed it, just like XP killed WinZip. Symantec is now a major anti-virus utility on the PC. I hate Windows, but I think the smug complacency towards malware in the Mac community is disturbing.
"That's pretty vague. Like who? Adobe certainly needs the revenue, and Quark and Microsoft have already signed up. What other big companies are there?"
The only company I can think right now which may not make the Intel transition is Microspot, a long-time CAD maker. I met up with them at the UK Expo; they're still using OS9-error technologies (i.e QD3D) and have downsized considerably.
The bottom line is, I'm concerned that so much rests on the backs of the shareware community. I don't want Apple to go back the 'Not invented here' mindset of the old days, by trying to attack every market by itself.
by Dan Price — Jan 17
That's quite a statement! Ok, perhaps it a profile thing. Working for a software company, I feel that the apparent lack of even medium-sized mac-focused companies is a turn-off to Windows developers who might otherwise provide a mac version of their product. And there are still areas where the mac is very weak next to the PC.
Aladdin was once the de-facto compression standard on the mac, and I still don't find OSX's built-in zip compression to be very good. But OSX killed it, just like XP killed WinZip. Symantec is now a major anti-virus utility on the PC. I hate Windows, but I think the smug complacency towards malware in the Mac community is disturbing.
"That's pretty vague. Like who? Adobe certainly needs the revenue, and Quark and Microsoft have already signed up. What other big companies are there?"
The only company I can think right now which may not make the Intel transition is Microspot, a long-time CAD maker. I met up with them at the UK Expo; they're still using OS9-error technologies (i.e QD3D) and have downsized considerably.
The bottom line is, I'm concerned that so much rests on the backs of the shareware community. I don't want Apple to go back the 'Not invented here' mindset of the old days, by trying to attack every market by itself.