14 ms·

This marketshare might be much more in terms of their userbase though. Macs are dominant in the creative industries.

larsiusprime 8y ago
I bet Autodesk has extremely precise information about how big their mac userbase is for these products, and I'm going to guess that it's not enough to justify an entire rewrite using a proprietary Mac rendering system. I'm certain they've done the math and are confident that it's better for them to expect users will either switch to PC's, install Windows using bootcamp, or stay on old versions of Mac OS. They say as much right in the article.
delfinom 8y ago
I assure you that creative space is the arts and the high level software domain. Engineers (mechanical, low level software, firmware) are Windows and Linux predominately.
Spooky23 8y ago
Remember that Apple started screwing up as Microsoft got its shit together. My guess is the defective laptop issue alone is driving a measurebale shift. The reason many folks were going Mac was the Unix tool chain, which Apple is also allowing to rot. Microsoft is basically shipping Ubuntu.
- Rjevski 8y ago
  I’m not sure where is Microsoft getting their shit together. Last time I checked, Windows 10 is still a shit-show and completely unusable as a workstation. It’s good as a toy to play Candy Crush, sure (it even comes preinstalled!) but definitely not suitable for real work.
  - MegaDeKay 8y ago
    If you want something better suited for a workstation, then the Enterprise / LTSB versions are what you are after. Better privacy controls and no Candy Crush. A great many people use it for real work every day.
    - Rjevski 8y ago
      What’s the price of a license for a single machine? I bet it’s really expensive and rivals the price of a Mac, at which point I’m not sure why you’d go for the Microsoft option (even the Enterprise version has its quirks and isn’t as polished as Mac OS).
      - trynewideas 8y ago
        It's quoted and depends on whether you buy it per user or per device, and the pricing just changed a couple of days ago. But generally it's been $80-$170/year. The per-user licensing allows for installs on multiple devices (5, I think, unless that also recently changed), so it can work out to about $35 per device. The Enterprise licenses used to revert to Pro licenses when the subscription expired, not sure if they still do.
  - Spooky23 8y ago
    I dunno. Just moved about 3,000 CAD engineers to Windows 10 and they are pretty happy. Users of Windows 10 tend to like it. IT people hate it.
    - Rjevski 8y ago
      Well I guess if you did a good job as the IT support person then users may like it because you spent time taking the garbage out (no candy crush, cortana, forced reboots, etc) via Group Policies and ponying up for a license that actually allows to disable all that shit. This doesn’t mean it should be considered normal - in fact putting up with this shit sets a precedent that this kind of behaviour from OS developers is deemed acceptable. This also doesn’t mention the other relatively minor issues (which macOS nevertheless gets right) like 3 different visual styles for context menus (on the taskbar, window title bar and an item on your desktop), the mess with two different way to configure the machine (Settings app and Control Panel), etc.
- scarface74 8y ago
  If only we had some reliable number of Mac sales reported by Apple every quarter to know if there has been a “measurable shift”....
deltron3030 8y ago
> Macs are dominant in the creative industries. Only when it comes to professional graphic design. But there's also professional CAD (almost entirely PC based), and the hobbiest space that originates from video game and anime culture, modding and fan art.

I bet Autodesk has extremely precise information about how big their mac userbase is for these products, and I'm going to guess that it's not enough to justify an entire rewrite using a proprietary Mac rendering system. I'm certain they've done the math and are confident that it's better for them to expect users will either switch to PC's, install Windows using bootcamp, or stay on old versions of Mac OS. They say as much right in the article.

delfinom 8y ago

I assure you that creative space is the arts and the high level software domain. Engineers (mechanical, low level software, firmware) are Windows and Linux predominately.

Spooky23 8y ago

Remember that Apple started screwing up as Microsoft got its shit together. My guess is the defective laptop issue alone is driving a measurebale shift. The reason many folks were going Mac was the Unix tool chain, which Apple is also allowing to rot. Microsoft is basically shipping Ubuntu.

Rjevski 8y ago
I’m not sure where is Microsoft getting their shit together. Last time I checked, Windows 10 is still a shit-show and completely unusable as a workstation. It’s good as a toy to play Candy Crush, sure (it even comes preinstalled!) but definitely not suitable for real work.
- MegaDeKay 8y ago
  If you want something better suited for a workstation, then the Enterprise / LTSB versions are what you are after. Better privacy controls and no Candy Crush. A great many people use it for real work every day.
  - Rjevski 8y ago
    What’s the price of a license for a single machine? I bet it’s really expensive and rivals the price of a Mac, at which point I’m not sure why you’d go for the Microsoft option (even the Enterprise version has its quirks and isn’t as polished as Mac OS).
    - trynewideas 8y ago
      It's quoted and depends on whether you buy it per user or per device, and the pricing just changed a couple of days ago. But generally it's been $80-$170/year. The per-user licensing allows for installs on multiple devices (5, I think, unless that also recently changed), so it can work out to about $35 per device. The Enterprise licenses used to revert to Pro licenses when the subscription expired, not sure if they still do.
- Spooky23 8y ago
  I dunno. Just moved about 3,000 CAD engineers to Windows 10 and they are pretty happy. Users of Windows 10 tend to like it. IT people hate it.
  - Rjevski 8y ago
    Well I guess if you did a good job as the IT support person then users may like it because you spent time taking the garbage out (no candy crush, cortana, forced reboots, etc) via Group Policies and ponying up for a license that actually allows to disable all that shit. This doesn’t mean it should be considered normal - in fact putting up with this shit sets a precedent that this kind of behaviour from OS developers is deemed acceptable. This also doesn’t mention the other relatively minor issues (which macOS nevertheless gets right) like 3 different visual styles for context menus (on the taskbar, window title bar and an item on your desktop), the mess with two different way to configure the machine (Settings app and Control Panel), etc.
scarface74 8y ago
If only we had some reliable number of Mac sales reported by Apple every quarter to know if there has been a “measurable shift”....

deltron3030 8y ago

> Macs are dominant in the creative industries. Only when it comes to professional graphic design. But there's also professional CAD (almost entirely PC based), and the hobbiest space that originates from video game and anime culture, modding and fan art.