by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Tuesday September 14, 2004 @12:49PM (#10247316)
We're one of the most active Mac ISVs around, with our RealPlayer running on millions of Macs.
Get real, Glaser. That just means that Real's users are active. The company, on the other hand, has provided years of consistent support for the Mac: consistently late, consistently buggy, and consistently slow. That's pretty much par for Windows ISVs who happen to port to the Mac. It puts them ahead of the large number of Windows ISVs who don't port to the Mac, but utterly unexceptional otherwise. I will give them credit for not littering the Mac RealPlayer with adware like the Windows version.
Now, real Mac ISVs like Adobe, Wolfram, Stone Design, they're actually active and timely with updates. And there's a host of independent shareware and freeware developers who are far, far more receptive and responsive still!
Now, real Mac ISVs like Adobe, Wolfram, Stone Design, they're actually active and timely with updates.
Interesting that you include Adobe as a real Mac ISV. I think the Apple-Adobe relationship [com.com] is a perfect example of the difficulties of being a Mac ISV, particularly for media software companies such as Adobe (and Real).
Notice that Adobe has dropped Premiere for Mac. Why did they do that? There are two reasons: First, like it or not, Windows has become an acceptable platform for digital video work, whi
Notice that Adobe has dropped Premiere for Mac. Why did they do that? There are two reasons: First, like it or not, Windows has become an acceptable platform for digital video work, which makes it an important market for Adobe.
That is clearly not a reason to dump Mac support. That is merely a precondition to it.
Second, Apple decided to compete head-to-head with Premiere by developing the Final Cut Pro product. Perhaps they felt the need to do this to further differentiate the Mac from their PC competition once Premiere ran on both platforms, but the net result is that Apple pushed a top-tier ISV off their platform by shoving in to an already small Mac software market.
Actually, let's get a little history in here. Rewind to 1998. Things were looking bleak for Apple. Adobe had made no public announcements, but privately they were telling people that now that more than 50% of their sales were of Windows versions of software, it wouldn't be long before they could just dispense with Mac versions altogether.
It showed. Premiere 5 for the Mac was buggy, slow, and lacked quite a number of features that the Windows version had. It was, in fact, unusable compared to the Windows version. How did that happen? Who knows. But it was garbage, and Adobe cheerfully blamed Apple for it and pushed for all of their biggest customers to switch over entirely to Windows.
Would Apple have released FCP without this little impetus? Perhaps it would have. But the question doesn't arise: the need was there, and Apple followed through with it. So don't blame Apple for Adobe's failings. Apple has done enough blameworthy stuff over the years to have plenty to answer for, no need to add things that other companies brought on themselves.
Most active Mac ISV? (Score:5, Insightful)
Get real, Glaser. That just means that Real's users are active. The company, on the other hand, has provided years of consistent support for the Mac: consistently late, consistently buggy, and consistently slow. That's pretty much par for Windows ISVs who happen to port to the Mac. It puts them ahead of the large number of Windows ISVs who don't port to the Mac, but utterly unexceptional otherwise. I will give them credit for not littering the Mac RealPlayer with adware like the Windows version.
Now, real Mac ISVs like Adobe, Wolfram, Stone Design, they're actually active and timely with updates. And there's a host of independent shareware and freeware developers who are far, far more receptive and responsive still!
Re:Most active Mac ISV? (Score:2, Interesting)
Now, real Mac ISVs like Adobe, Wolfram, Stone Design, they're actually active and timely with updates.
Interesting that you include Adobe as a real Mac ISV. I think the Apple-Adobe relationship [com.com] is a perfect example of the difficulties of being a Mac ISV, particularly for media software companies such as Adobe (and Real).
Notice that Adobe has dropped Premiere for Mac. Why did they do that? There are two reasons: First, like it or not, Windows has become an acceptable platform for digital video work, whi
Re:Most active Mac ISV? (Score:4, Informative)
It showed. Premiere 5 for the Mac was buggy, slow, and lacked quite a number of features that the Windows version had. It was, in fact, unusable compared to the Windows version. How did that happen? Who knows. But it was garbage, and Adobe cheerfully blamed Apple for it and pushed for all of their biggest customers to switch over entirely to Windows.
Would Apple have released FCP without this little impetus? Perhaps it would have. But the question doesn't arise: the need was there, and Apple followed through with it. So don't blame Apple for Adobe's failings. Apple has done enough blameworthy stuff over the years to have plenty to answer for, no need to add things that other companies brought on themselves.
-fred