Windows is good advice for the consultants who support it (was: Re: Good advice! (was: Re: [Ti] Windows compatable))

[Chris Olson]

On Jan 14, 2006, at 12:16 AM, Glenn L. Austin wrote:

> If people absolutely need to use Windows, it is because they are  
> using some specialized, vertical-market application.

AutoCAD isn't specialized vertical market.  It's the industry defacto- 
standard design app for everything from mechanical design, to civil  
design, to urban planning, to GIS.

So where's the Mac alternative to AutoCAD?  Ashlar-Vellum?   
Vectorworks?  HighDesign?  Don't make me laugh.  I got AutoCAD R13 in  
my Sun SPARCstation on Solaris, but I can't get it for Mac OS X.  And  
I can run AutoCAD 2005 in my ThinkPad but I can't run it on my  
PowerBook in VirtualPC because VPC is limited to 512 MB RAM.

Or how about POS terminals?  They're not specialized vertical  
market.  They're universal, and most of them run on Windows.  Where's  
the Mac software to do that?

Or how about this market leading software on the Mac that's supposed  
to be superior?  Let's look at accounting.  Intuit Quickbooks is the  
defacto standard.  The Mac version of Quickbooks is a poor excuse for  
what you get on Windows at the same price, all the way from the  
Aatrix Top Pay module, to lack of multi-user version, to phone  
support at Intuit.  And this follows right down to the consumer-level  
Quicken application too.

And only Windows developers use their customer base to squash bugs?   
Hah!  I got AlchemyTV DVR in my PowerMac G5, which is buggier than a  
hot August night at release 2.0!  Meanwhile you got reams of Windows  
DVR software to choose from, any one of them better than anything  
that's available for the Mac, including EyeTV.

Platform evangelism is great.  But sometimes you have to cut thru the  
bull and call the shots for what they are.
-- 
Chris

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