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

[John]

On Jan 15, 2006, at 11:57 AM, Chris Olson wrote:

> Add to that the many choices in things like FEA software in the  
> Windows environment, which simply doesn't exist on the Mac, and the  
> Mac looses out in an area where it should excel - design and data  
> analysis.  So even if you use Mac CAD software, but need to do  
> linear static & dynamic stress analysis, eigen, steady/unsteady  
> heat transfer, incompressible fluid flow, etc., analysis, you're  
> going to be still using Windows, Linux, Solaris, or IRIX.  There  
> used to be some good FEA software for Mac OS Classic, but we lost  
> it during the "last big transition" from OS 9 -> OS X.

Interesting you mention this. I go to college (almost out!) in the  
Mechanical Engineering department, and most of the professors are  
using macs+PCs. Practically all the admin computers are mac (as far  
as I can tell). I would say the younger professors are predominantly  
using windows.

There was a time I had hoped Unigraphics would have been ported to OS  
X, for the G5, but that kind of died out. I was able to use it on a  
mac by ssh'ing into a Unix machine in X-11 (but of course, the Unix  
machine was doing the work). Let's just say it was worthless to use  
it this way.

Let's put it this way: Every CD-ROM I've received in a book supports  
Windows. It is rare a CD also supports Mac. The ones that do are  
built (usually) in PDF, html, or Director format. I could probably  
say to my professor, "I'd like to take your books application, and  
write a Mac OSX version of it." He might say go ahead. I have no idea  
how to write software properly, so I wouldn't do it. BUT, it's simple  
enough that someone here could write the app in a few days. There are  
java apps on the web the duplicate the program, but are very clunky.