Why no Mac Software?

[martinvk]

Still the same old story, Mac vs PC, too bad it can't be Mac and PC. One thing I always found interesting: people complain about Microsoft's dominance in the PC world with their OS, Office suite, etc., yet when the 100% control that Apple has over the Mac world is mentioned, it is described as a good thing, ensures compatibility, etc. I might have compatibility issues once in a while but at least I'm not tied to one hardware provider.

Meanwhile back to the topic. Having watched the recent iPhone roll out and the tight control that Apple insisted on having over the programs that could be loaded into it, I wonder if game producers are also made to jump through hoops when they want to port a product to an Apple machine?

 

[Johnk]

Technically the PC and the Mac should be the same for graphics, as long as you have a Mac that you can add a graphics card too. The latest graphics cards that come out always have drivers for the PC, I'm not too sure if there is always a Mac driver for the latest video cards. The drivers for the PC are probably better optimized too.

Also realize that some mac like the mini mac have pretty poor graphic capabilities. Unfortunately on the mini mac you can't change the graphics card.

I think it goes a lot deeper than that. Macs were always superior with graphics although the gap has probably shrunk or disappeared by now. To my knowledge Macs are 64 bit compared to Windows 32. When Macs were 16, Windows was 8 etc. The additional processing power allowed Macs to produce superior graphics without any jerking. It probably could have, and should have developed into a great gaming machine but the cost was always prohibitive.

Getting back on track, the structure of the Mac Bus is different to the PC where upgrading is considered normal. I wasn't even aware that you could purchase graphics cards for Macs, but if you could they would no doubt make the Mac even better.

In my humble opinion, two reasons why the PC took off were price and the ability to easily pirate stuff. The latter is not so easy for the average mum and dad using a Mac.

 

[nicky9499]

I'm guessing it's mostly about the cost of Macs. I'll never know why their price tags are always over the roof but from where I come from, only the very filthy rich own Apple stuff (excluding cheapo stuff like the Shuffle :hehe.

Sure, the stuff from Apple is always drop-dead gorgeous. And they've got excellent software like Garageband and all that. But being priced twice or thrice as much something 'ordinary' which doesn't look so good but does the job just as well, it's not too practical on the financial side.

Sort of like buying a Ferrari for your weekly drive to the supermarket.

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

 

[ocala]

My Intel Mac runs all PC games.

My Intel Mac runs all PC games including Trainz very well with WindowsXP in "Boot camp".

 

[pware]

Still the same old story, Mac vs PC, too bad it can't be Mac and PC. One thing I always found interesting: people complain about Microsoft's dominance in the PC world with their OS, Office suite, etc., yet when the 100% control that Apple has over the Mac world is mentioned, it is described as a good thing, ensures compatibility, etc.

As another observer from the sideline of the Mac vs PC "war" I was greatly amused by how the spin doctors at Apple reversed their anti-Intel retoric when Apple switched from using PowerPC CPUs to Intel CPUs.

Peter Ware

 

[Euphod]

We have an IBM Machine but I find it a nightmare to use.

Heh...I find this statement very telling, and pretty much representative of all "exclusively hard core Mac fans". You have to pay a premium for technology that's pretty much hands off, then you become accustomed to it. That's great; it's what you paid for...the right not to have to "tinker".

The rest of us poor slobs have to learn to do things as we struggle to bend our inferior technology to our will.

After being with Trainz for as long as I have, I can assure you it requires alot of tinkering itself. Perhaps you may find it a "nightmare to use" as well. Best of luck with all that!

 

[amigacooke]

I still want to know when the Amiga OS4 version of Trainz is expected.

 

[amigacooke]

Auran turn it over to another developer which dropped the project.

I don't believe that is entirely accurate. Feral are publishers not developers.

 

[amigacooke]

Still the same old story, Mac vs PC, too bad it can't be Mac and PC.

As a few people have made clear in this topic, with an Intel Mac it can be Mac and PC.

 

[amigacooke]

Heh...I find this statement very telling, and pretty much representative of all "exclusively hard core Mac fans".

So exclusively hard core Mac he has a PC.

I wonder if it is fairer to say that while most Mac users have experience of a PC, most PC users do not have experience of a Mac?

 

[Sourdough]

So exclusively hard core Mac he has a PC.

I wonder if it is fairer to say that while most Mac users have experience of a PC, most PC users do not have experience of a Mac?

Maybe not so much in the US....most public schools have had Apple computers and Macs since the 80's....Apple gave the computers to public schools in the hope that if kids grew up using their product, they would buy them as adults...

 

[Euphod]

I got an electric roaster oven as a wedding gift, but I've never used it either.
That, and I didn't say I was trying to be fair.....

 

[crman123]

Maybe not so much in the US....most public schools have had Apple computers and Macs since the 80's....Apple gave the computers to public schools in the hope that if kids grew up using their product, they would buy them as adults...

My elementary school and middle school did that. High School had PCs...I HATED those Macs!!!! Their plan backfired on me, lol!

 

[MoopMeep]

I think it goes a lot deeper than that. Macs were always superior with graphics although the gap has probably shrunk or disappeared by now. To my knowledge Macs are 64 bit compared to Windows 32. When Macs were 16, Windows was 8 etc. The additional processing power allowed Macs to produce superior graphics without any jerking. It probably could have, and should have developed into a great gaming machine but the cost was always prohibitive.

Are they really the same? The Mac I had was 32-bit running OSX 10.4 and the PC I have now if 64-bit windows vista. The reason the mac was 32-bit is the Intel Processor in the mini-mac didn't support 64-bit. The reason my PC is 64-bit is because the processor supports 64-bit extentions. So since they both use the same processors its kinda the same now.

 

[Drucifer]

So exclusively hard core Mac he has a PC.

I wonder if it is fairer to say that while most Mac users have experience of a PC, most PC users do not have experience of a Mac?

Never touched a Mac

Maybe not so much in the US....most public schools have had Apple computers and Macs since the 80's....Apple gave the computers to public schools in the hope that if kids grew up using their product, they would buy them as adults...

I was out of school before the influx of computers. My business class in high school had a full key adding machine as it modern marvel. It worked via crank.

 

[JCitron]

Never touched a Mac

I was out of school before the influx of computers. My business class in high school had a full key adding machine as it modern marvel. It worked via crank.

Yup, same here! Desktop calculators were just coming out and cost $70.00 and up. There was a computer room for the geeks, but that had bunch Wang adding machines and two computer terminals. The terminals connected to some early DataGeneral Mini.

@@To other posters here...

Regarding the misnomer Macs are optimized for graphics is false. It is specific software developers/publishers such as Adobe, Quark, and others had orginally wrtten the first desktop-level graphics and publishing softare. They chose the early Macintosh because it had the GUI where IBM did not. These early machines, including the venerable Quadra series, were aimed at the very luctrative high-end workstation market owned by SGI HP, and Sun to name a few. Apple did make some hardware advances with special ASICs and other things on their propriatary mothboards to handle graphics acceleration. The big software publishers, mainly Adobe, were given the advanced development skills to optimize their programs for graphics.

Today's Macintosh computers are a little better than the older machines, but Apple sacrafices a lot of hardware to make the machines work at a decent speed.

Sorry for going off topic, but I had to clear that up.

John

 

[sparky15]

Shame every time Mac and PC are mentioned in the same sentence that "war" breaks out. Both are capable but it boils down to personal preference in the end.

I'm just curious if the original poster had any of his questions answered?

 

[nicky9499]

So exclusively hard core Mac he has a PC.

I wonder if it is fairer to say that while most Mac users have experience of a PC, most PC users do not have experience of a Mac?

No, it's just that they prefer the familiarity, scalability, non-proprietaryness of PCs.

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

 

[Gandalf0444]

My elementary school and middle school did that. High School had PCs...I HATED those Macs!!!! Their plan backfired on me, lol!

Same here! Had Macs in Elementary and Middle school,then got to high school and finally got PCs! Thank god,and the teachers never could understand why I couldn't get my work done on the computer in elementary and middle,perhaps because I didn't know how to work the damn thing? lol I got my first computer and it was a PC and I knew how to work it just fine,but when it came to them "Weird looking things at school" I didn't have a clue what to do with it.

And another thing,if apple users want there mac to run windows programs and run like windows,why not just buy a PC? If I wanted my PC to work like a Mac wouldn't I just buy a Mac?

 

[nicky9499]

And another thing,if apple users want there mac to run windows programs and run like windows,why not just buy a PC? If I wanted my PC to work like a Mac wouldn't I just buy a Mac?

My point again, this time with a little bit of sarcasm; buying a Ferrari for their trips to the supermarket. :hehe:

Cheerio,
Nicholas.