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El Corazon wrote: But in the end, the Mac was too limiting in my line of work
Just out of curiosity was this a hardware or software issue (or both)? Is it because adding 3rd part hardware is PITA on a Mac or because the dev tools aren't up to snuff?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire!
Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)!
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Jim Crafton wrote: Just out of curiosity was this a hardware or software issue (or both)?
Both really. As I expand into capabilities we get timing cards, capture cards, motion picture cards, physics cards, high speed network cards, etc. The list goes on and on for different needs per customer. They all support Windows, a few Mac, and a few more Linux, but no one solution other than Windows is available. Windows remains the constant. Dev tools are okay, though I like the added number of Intel tools on Windows, but that is slowly growing for Mac/Linux. It may eventually get to the same place. And you could certainly live without the "extra" level of debugging and introspection of software activity that you get under Windows. But then you start making a list of the things you have to do without, or write yourself, and then why are you doing more work on an OS? We had the one project that required Macs, we had one that required Suns, so we learn to be flexible as customer demands need to be met. But you don't go out of your way to make yourself miserable to justify an development environment that is weaker in almost all respects.
I can make do without any of that, just as I did when I started in DOS. But then why do you have to do without? If tomorrow I have another call for a Sun, I'll support it, if I have a call for a Mac, I'll support it too. But I won't go out of my way to make my life more miserable.
Vista isn't great either, but support is growing and bugs are being worked out faster than support is being added to the other choices. I am not likely to see IRIG timing options on the Mac, and Linux may be supported well, but you aren't likely to see motion picture standards support because of the hardware cost. A guy isn't likely to buy a $25,000 hardware board just so he can write a driver for linux and release it free. On the other hand, Apple isn't likely to think there is much money in that Niche so they are not likely to support it either. By default Windows gets the support of almost all industries. No matter how you slice it, eventually Windows will get better support broad-industry.
By the time Apple supported 3D graphics on the whole, we were already augmented reality with embedded streaming video. So Apple was still behind. By the time Apple supports full aspects of Motion Picture Stands, there will be a new motion picture standard. In fact, we are part of the team working with the Motion Picture Standards for that standard to include augmented reality information in video streams as a standard.
It's just a matter of economics, we can rarely wait for Apple or Linux to catch up, so Windows stays primary. But we don't loose track of the customers who have specific needs on any hardware or software platform. If they want Solaris on a PC, we'll give them what they want. We don't have to like it to use it, it's just a fact of life we have to have that choice available.
For general 3D work we do have Linux and Windows as standard boxes under support. And we have pushed somethings to Linux as well as general industry to make our lives easier. This improves Windows, Linux, Apple, and Sun. It's far easier to get your stuff defined as a standard than change your stuff later.  So you pull out your boxing gloves and go in dancing.
![Badger | [badger,badger,badger,badger...]](https://codeproject.freetls.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/badger.gif)
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Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau.
Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Yawn,...
Give me a call when you actually USE a Mac 10.4 or 10.5 for more than a week.
Again, I say the same thing, you have never PURCHASED a Mac on your own and used the thing for more than a few day/weeks
Stop with all your, Linux/Windows/Vista crap. I have been there done that. Go out an actually USE a Mac for a week, then your post will be different.
I sounded like you not too long ago before I ever owned a Mac. I programmed for MS Windows, Linux and Solaris. I thought I used all the OS options out there. Heck, I played with a Mac for a little while too.
It wasn't until I actually BOUGHT and USED a Mac that I could make any fair statements.
I always said, just like you, "I have Linux for this and XP for that".
Your statement: "Macs are great for Artists and Musicians and a few other careers". This tells me you have never used a freaking Intel based Mac. End of story. It is easy to dismiss an OS you do not understand and have never used.
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Jim4Prez wrote: Give me a call when you actually USE a Mac 10.4 or 10.5 for more than a week.
Yawn... Give me a call when Apple supports Industry standard military, sci-vis, and motion picture standards you can find one, sometimes two, but never all three. At least they are finally parallel, but it took them bloody long enough. Apple is trying. But they are far from standards compliant. It is easy for you to say, "hey give up your work, get fired, and use a Mac for something it cannot do and was never designed to do" but try listening to what you are saying before you open your mouth sometime. It's harder to force a square peg through a round hole without a really big knife. In which case, why use the knife when you can buy a freakin' round peg for the round hole! For all Apple's security bragging, they still can't pass a DIACAP/DITSCAP. Vista hasn't either, but XP did, so Vista eventually will. Apple's got a long way to go. So far only RedHad and MS survive the DIACAP/DITSCAP without reservations, clauses, and exceptions.
Now, get off slashdot... 
Now, give it a rest. Macs are great for many things, but they still cannot compete across the entire spectrum of hardware available for Windows. For the same reason many people complain about Vista, Macs are not a choice either, in fact worse for some industries. Sure we can finally do 3D graphics on a Mac. Sure as long as we rewrite our software for the few motion picture boards and Irig boards available for the Mac, no problem. But the rest of the hardware? sorry, no go. Do we stop work and give up projects, turn away money just to play with Macs full time? go ahead, but I can't turn away money to play with a Mac.
For a new limited project, not a problem, as we have done. As long as it doesn't require hardware not supported by Mac yet. The problem is, when you are remote controlling full scale air-craft maybe you might just need to use something more than Mac. Did you ever think of that?
For some applications Linux cannot be used, for some Macs, for some Suns, in those instances, a large majority of our work, Windows is still the only choice. For others we have flexibility, and we will use it. I'll buy a Mac when it can fly-by-wire an F4 via telepresence. Until then, grow up and learn some people are actually working doing more than playing games. Of course some of us are doing work that looks remarkably like a game.  [^] The difference is there is a lot of hardware that has to change before a Mac can enter that playfield. They made the first step by going Intel and that increased their foot-print in the military. But Macs have a lot of growing to do before they enter full-force. RedHat and Windows still have a controlling force with Windows still pulling the vast majority of hardware behind it. Because of that force of support, Windows will still have a major advantage.
_________________________
Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau.
Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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You read Slashdot alot don't you?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire!
Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)!
SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0
0 rows returned
Save an Orange - Use the VCF!
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Jim4Prez wrote: If you consider the Fisher Price look-n-feel of XP to be "eye candy", than sorry, I just don't agree.
I never thought of it like that, but that IS exactly what the XP look is 'Fisher Price' ...good one.
Thank goodness I was able to find the 'Windows Classic' desktop settings...still looks like my good old Win2000
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I remember the rants about the File and Folder tasks sidebar in Explorer...
Hang on - I *still* hate that thing! Thanks for reminding me 
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Chris Maunder wrote: I remember the rants about the File and Folder tasks
I remember the "tutorials" repeatedly showing up how to turn off the XP new look. It was "called" eye-candy back then even though now it is just normal stuff. Gradient coloring, rounded edges, shadowed look on bevels and stuff. I forget who posted most of the "turn off this" bit, but I do find it ironic that everything that was hated is at the very least accepted and even praised by some.
"You'll pry my copy of DOS 3.3 DOS 6.0 Windows 3.0 Windows 3.1 Windows 3.11 Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows 2000 Windows XP from my cold dead fingers, I will never use DOS 6.0 Windows 3.0 Windows 3.1 Windows 3.11 Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows Vista!"
_________________________
Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau.
Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Me too...I keep forgetting how to turn it off when I do a reinstall...
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if you want to run the latest software, try updating your hardware. I have an e-machine and I ripped out the 2.9ghz Celeron and put in a 1.8ghz P4 processor, updated my ram to 1gb and overlayed Vista Home Premium on top of XP. I now have all my files(this was a huge deal to make my Itunes work again)in a folder called windows.old. I can run both VS2005 and VS2008 at the same time for code comparisons, while my google mail is open and I'm chatting and studying college classes online all at the same time with no problems.
Most people don't understand Vista because some very important user functions have had their names changed a little and can be found in a different place. However, if you take the time to learn how to use it, you'll be surprised at how much you can do and how easy it is.
As far as other problems such as lockups/freezes and things like that, I've never had that problem. But then, I'm the only one I know that successfully ran Windows ME for over a year without experiencing any of the horrors we all heard so much about.
If you can read, you will learn
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I run Vista at home and on one of my developer boxes at work and I haven't had any problems since I installed the service packs for Visual Studio and SQL Server. Well there is the problem I had with UltraEdit but I blame UltraEdit, not Vista (their installer doesn't like IE7 so I switched to PSPad).
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Well, I guess it goes under "haven't used it enough to make a call".
Seriously, I have heard mostly good things about Vista (well except here at CP  ), but the machines I use are simply not good enough to run it. When I buy/get a new one, it will probably have Vista pre-installed anyway.
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Every tried to get a Vista machine onto a secured wireless network? Why is it that 50% of the time it prompts for the WEP key and the other 50% it asks for a username and password? Close the wireless options and reopen them a few times and low and behold it will change it's mind every few times. I've seen this with about 50-60 different Vista machines. Makes no sense at all.
I've also seen about a dozen Vista infected machines (yes...Vista is a disease!) that wouldn't run the updater automatically even though it's set to run automatically, OR it will do some updates and not others. Got people on the phone to Microsoft trying to figure out why and the Microsoft phone reps are APOLOGIZING for the evil product!
When opening and saving files it's totally clunky if you need to choose a different folder than the one you are already pointing at.
POS OS in my opinion. Who needs 'pretty' when you can have functionality!
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I suspect Vista is so slow because MS has used .NET code in it. .NET requires JITing, boxing/unboxing, array-bounds checking, and automatic gargage collection.
While this is acceptable for an average business application, I think this technology is inappropriate for an operating system.
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Alan Balkany wrote: I suspect Vista is so slow because MS has used .NET code in it.
They tried, but eventually removed it (one of the reasons Vista was late).
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GemmaBlckbrn wrote: Got people on the phone to Microsoft trying to figure out why and the Microsoft phone reps are APOLOGIZING for the evil product!
That's pretty standard for customer service.. Microsoft has delt with a lot of buggy releases, including every operating system they've released... just because a phone rep appologizes doesn't mean anything - I'm an I/T guy too, and I appologize for my customer's user-error all the time...
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...but that's the only benifit I can figure out. I don't do PC Games (except Spider Solitaire while something big is compiling) and I don't do graphics...I'm artistically Challanged.
I've used Vista some on a friends computer and if you're a developer, I don't see the point. It just uses more Resources.
But I must say when games are played or artsy-fartsy stuff is shown, it looks nice!
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This post, I'll be a little more serious.
For whom was Vista developed. Not for developers.* It's an additional visual dog-and-pony show. Security could have been enhanced upon XP if that was the concern. It was, in my opinion, a necessary add-in but not a driving force.
Look at the way movies are made. TV News is presented. Even newspapers. It's all for short attention spans and lots of special effects. It takes advantage of the growing (dominant) generalized anti-intellectual environment.**
Conspicuous Consumption has become a way of life (for those who have access). Vista feeds into that way of life.
So, walk the dog. Brush the pony. The show must go on.
*Unless you count getting paid to re-write software.
** This means no one will take a chance on Linux - they have to learn something 'new' - and it might be hard. That would be unpleasant. Taught early, in children's cartoons: The "geeks" may save the day, but the jock gets the girl. Thinkers are useful, but who wants to be one of them anymore? At least that's what they're selling.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
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Maybe I'm asking to much when I ask for some substance...but I don't think so.
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No - you're just showing your age.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
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Balboos wrote: No - you're just showing your age.
Dang! I hate it when that happens...and you kids get off my lawn!
Signed: Not Quite to AARP Joe 
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True Vista is Pretty useless.... 
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Be nice if microsoft thought more aboput developers and created a developer version that has all the benefits of Vista's framework with none of the fancy over the top stuff and super prettied up gui. You know, really fast and also really up to date...or at least made a program that can run on vista to make this happen.
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I made the mistake of getting Vista before its first service pack was released. 
Once I finally decide that UAC can go to Hell (as opposed to it sending me there every day) I think Vista will be much more palatable.
:josh:
My WPF Blog[ ^]
Without a strive for perfection I would be terribly bored.
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You can turn UAC off, you know
'Howard
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