[X4U] Mac Equivalents of Windows apps (was Re: Apple's move to Intel chips)

[Mark Phillips]

On Jun 10, 2005, at 10:14 AM, Judi Sohn wrote:

> Most Mac applications tend to have a "one size fits all"
> approach, eliminating what the developer sees as bloat or useless when
> in fact it may be a vital feature that one can then go to the Windows
> side and find.

The "one size fits all" mentality is not limited to MacOS developers, 
please refer to MS Office or General Motors. I see it as a result of 
software product development being driven by accountants and MBA's who 
religiously argue that only the bottom line matters. "Show me the 
business case for..." Of course the bottom line matters but the 
accountants and MBA's were dead wrong about the demise of Apple. As I 
recall it was during the "Apple Is History" years that many developers 
abandoned the goal of platform neutrality.

Platform independence is a worthy goal, but it doesn't come for free. 
Just as the IT industry bought into the myth of "zero deployment" using 
web browsers, the IT industry also believed Wall Street knew what it 
was talking about and "standardized" on Windows. Why? Because the wonks 
said it would (A) be cheaper, (B) more stable and (C) Microsoft was a 
reliable business partner by virtue of Apple's demise. Today's score: A 
= wrong, B = wrong, C = wrong.

Windows architecture is old, rusty and years behind schedule. Longhorn, 
if it ever ships, may change that but XP was touted as changing "that". 
XP is a security breach in plexiglass high heels. Nonetheless, the IT 
industry sold their clientele a bill of goods and now must deal with 
the consequences. E.g. less IT investment by large corporations in 
recent years.

So, in retrospect, vendors who support only Windows may have healthy 
sales, or not, but by that decision gave up 20+ million potential sales 
to people who are incredibly loyal. Please review the history of 
Intuit. Today, those decisions look short sighted. Not wrong, but 
lacking alacrity of vision.

On Jun 10, 2005, at 10:14 AM, Judi Sohn wrote:

> What Robert, Alex and I are talking
> about is not an attack on Mac OS X or its developers. It's not "mine
> is bigger/better than yours."

Judy et al are spot on. So relax, take a walk, and have a glass of 
wine. It's Friday... well, it is where I am at the moment.

Looking forward, there are many tools that enable development of true 
platform independent business applications. Omnis, Python, Java, Real 
Basic. The list is long and this does not mention the absolutely huge 
amount of applications written in Pick, c, cobol and such that are 
still being sold today.

Software vendors don't need a lot to entice them to support a sizable 
market but they do need a lot of resources to rewrite the mountains of 
spaghetti code that have piled up over the last five or ten years. Once 
written in VB you are doomed to migrate. If developed in a reasonable 
environment then application migrations are much easier.

xCode, when the new Intel machines become available, may evolve into 
one very cool replacement for the CodeWarrior of old. It's pretty cool 
now, but I digress. Consider the Mono Project. That project has 
potential. This is an interesting time indeed.

Coffee break is over. See you on the flip side.

Mark Phillips
Mophilly & Associates
On the web at http://www.mophilly.com
On the phone at 619 444-9210