Seems to be the buzz the last few weeks. Shaan Hurley has been posting about Autodesk's uofficial or official dabble into supporting the OSX operating system. Not to mention the announcement at AU this year that Alias would be available on the mac. It seems like a natural progression that Alias folks would drive macs.
Look at the boys at DEVELOP3D, they have an entire site dedicated to the mac community. I have to admit really cool stuff to read about. No surprise to me that RHINO is leading the charge as only they can. Check out McNeel's interview on the site above. Really cool stuff.
Look at the boys at DEVELOP3D, they have an entire site dedicated to the mac community. I have to admit really cool stuff to read about. No surprise to me that RHINO is leading the charge as only they can. Check out McNeel's interview on the site above. Really cool stuff.
But, the question remains, are we ready?
My gut is that the number of early adopters and mac zealots will make it difficult, especially in today's economy, to fund the development efforts required to port MCAD to OSX? But let's look at the big picture. How many engineers are mac users? Some.
Bigger question, how many engineers are mac users "at work"? Hardly any. My point is that you will have a variety of engineers that would love to take home with them and maybe drive MCAD on their home machines. But do we really think that bean counters are willing to fork out money for mac hardware? Not that mac hardware is drastically more money than Dell Precision, but it is definitely more.
Also, how many companies will be willing to have the infrastructure (IT support) required to support dual OS machines in a network environment. I am sure I am opening myself up for the macheads out there to quickly jump on their soapboxes and begin to campaign. Save it. I am happy to be proven wrong, but from where I am sitting, the market just isn't ready for it.
I'll spare you my rant on how Linux really missed the boat on the mass engineering community. If one of the Linux distros had even a fraction of the cash of Apple, they could easily become an easy choice for many engineering managers out there. One can only dream..
My gut is that the number of early adopters and mac zealots will make it difficult, especially in today's economy, to fund the development efforts required to port MCAD to OSX? But let's look at the big picture. How many engineers are mac users? Some.
Bigger question, how many engineers are mac users "at work"? Hardly any. My point is that you will have a variety of engineers that would love to take home with them and maybe drive MCAD on their home machines. But do we really think that bean counters are willing to fork out money for mac hardware? Not that mac hardware is drastically more money than Dell Precision, but it is definitely more.
Also, how many companies will be willing to have the infrastructure (IT support) required to support dual OS machines in a network environment. I am sure I am opening myself up for the macheads out there to quickly jump on their soapboxes and begin to campaign. Save it. I am happy to be proven wrong, but from where I am sitting, the market just isn't ready for it.
I'll spare you my rant on how Linux really missed the boat on the mass engineering community. If one of the Linux distros had even a fraction of the cash of Apple, they could easily become an easy choice for many engineering managers out there. One can only dream..
2 comments:
"How many engineers are mac users? Some.
Bigger question, how many engineers are mac users "at work"? Hardly any."
Perhaps this has less to do with Mac vs. PC and more to do with the software. If Photoshop were only available on OSX, how many digital photographers would be using PCs?
God bless 'em for doing the port, but I agree... not sure where the return on the investment will come from.
Funny, I had a meeting yesterday with a big medical company. One of the guys said, "oh yeah.. and I won't use anything but a Mac. Windows sucks."
I looked down and saw the laptop in front of him on the conference room table and said, "... but, that's a Thinkpad in front of you."
To which he said, "well, yeah... there's no way around that here."
I know we have some smaller shops running our 3D software on Macs... but they are using the Mac's ability to run Windows programs in a "windows mode". Do you know much about that?
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