But there’s no software for Macs!
“There’s no software for Macs!” is a common refrain in the Windows world as a reason to shun Macs. Along with “They’re more expensive!” and “They’re only good for artists and video editors and stuff!”, lack of software is part of a trifecta of shame routinely leveled at Apple by Microsoft-centric tech pundits. The problem is that two of the claims–”lack of software” and “only for artists”–are blatantly false, and the third, price, isn’t a problem if you’re the kind of person who appreciates the notion of paying a premium for premium tools. Regarding software, however, a more appropriate charge should be:
There’s waaaay more software for Windows than there is are for Macs!
Easily granted. Easily. But just because there’s more software out there for Windows–even a vast amount more–that doesn’t mean it’s better. On Windows, there are half a dozen pieces of software to accomplish literally any minor task (e.g. managing screensavers), and you can probably unearth 20 or 30 for big tasks (e.g.text editing). Many are good, many are shoddy; many are free, many are commercial; many were written by indie developers, and many were written by huge corporations. It’s going to sound bizarre, but having to slog through all that software can be a daunting task. This concept is well-explained by barry Schwartz in The Paradox of Choice, but in a nutshell, he explains that as consumption and purchasing choices skyrocket, people are more likely to be paralyzed with inaction. Who wants to spend all day deciding between 80 types of cracker? What about 40 kinds of stereo? 15 text editors? 18 antivirus packages? 22 PDF converters?
On the Mac side, there’s certainly less software, but it’s better. Even if you dispute this, you have to admit that there is a massive amount of crufty software for Windows, which makes it harder to ferret out the good stuff. In addition, there aren’t any good centralized online repositories of Windows software[1], making it difficult to find quality examples of software written by independent developers. Locating good Windows software usually involves asking a knowledgeable friend, following links from sites you already trust, using Google and verifying with Wikipedia, or heading down to CompUSA or Best Buy, which are pretty much off-limits to independent developers who don’t have significant financial support.
On the Mac side, there are several avenues to go online window-shopping for software. VersionTracker, MacUpdate, and iusethis are three such big names, and Apple itself lists a huge amount of software on their site–which is accessible from the Apple Menu of any Mac:
These luxuries make it really easy to find excellent, user-reviewed software (in the case of VersionTracker, MacUpdate, and especially iusethis). Indie Mac developers typically do very well for themselves because it’s easy to find shining examples of the finest the independent developer community can offer online.
In addition, as Mac OS X is essentially a prettified BSD Unix, all Unix software will instantly work on any Mac. Linux and UNIX are related, so a lot of Linux software also runs on Macs. There are even active efforts at increasing compatability between OS X and Linux in the form of Fink and DarwinPorts. For any of this free open source Linux and UNIX software to run on Windows, it has to be partially rewritten, meaning that only the most popular will ever make it to Windows.
To prove the depth of Mac software, just take a look at the stuff Mac-heads actually use. You’ll probably find that while there are some commonalities (iTunes, Quicktime Player, Safari), most also use incredibly varied software from all over the map. For example, here are the primary pieces of software that I use, as well as the alternatives to them I could think up off the top of my head:
- OmniWeb (Web browsing. Alternatives: Safari, Firefox, Camino, Shiira, Opera, iCab, Seamonkey)
- Mail (Email. Alternatives: Mailsmith, Thunderbird, Eudora, Entourage, GNUMail, PowerMail, Seamonkey)
- MarsEdit (Blogging. Alternatives: Ecto, Journler, Bleezer)
- NetNewsWire (RSS reading. Alternatives: NewsFire, Newslife, Pulp Fiction, Vienna, Shrook, Seamonkey)
- Pages (Page layout/Decent word processing. Alternatives: MS Office, OpenOffice, NeoOffice, Mariner Write, Nisus Writer, WriteRoom)
- Maya (3D Modeling & animation. Alternatives: Blender, Wings 3D, Cheetah 3D, Cinema 4D, Modo)
- Photoshop CS2 (Image creation & editing. Alternatives: GIMP, GIMPshop, not really much)
- TextMate (Programmer-centric text editing. Alternatives: BBedit, TextWrangler, SubEthaEdit, Smultron)
- XCode and Interface Builder (Software design & GUI building. Alternatives: none)
- Parallels Desktop (Virtualization. Alternatives: VMware Fusion)
- QuickTime Player (Movie playback. Alternatives: VLC, Mplayer)
- iTunes (Music playback & organization. Alternatives: none)
Many are these products are specialized, and many are common, but almost all of them have a reasonable amount of alternatives. To Mac users out there, I encourage you to post your own abridged lists in the comments!
Aha, but I’ve got you now! Macs don’t have anywhere near the kind of software businesses need!
Ack, Achilles’ heel! It’s true, Macs simply don’t have much business software. It’s only recently that Macs got any decent POS software, and you can pretty much forget about specialized stuff like real estate or dentistry. It’s a problem, and one that Apple will have to overcome if Macs are ever to gain significant traction in major industries.
And what about games, you charlatan?
I have but a single response:
I should mention that I’ve been enjoying Half-Life 2 and Supreme Commander on my MacBook Pro for a while now. Boot camp is pretty much a revolution in Mac gaming. It used to be that Mac gamers suffered through poorly-done ports that were slower than their Windows counterparts and released a year or two later. Though the situation has hardly improved, it barely matters since we can now run Windows games at full speed! Ever since I got my MacBook Pro, I’ve opened up to the massive world of Windows games, and it’s great–especially since I can do it from my existing computer at no extra cost (besides that of buying Windows itself, of course). Truly, Boot Camp is one of the biggest advantages of today’s Macs. Due to Boot Camp and a thriving independent developer community, the software argument can be legitimately boiled down to:
There’s little dedicated Mac software for business or gaming though the ability to run Windows cuts down on the problem considerably.
So there.
[1]
ZDnet requires registration and doesn’t have reviews; CNET sponsors those who can pay for advertising treatment and is much friendlier to commercial software as well having been accused of some dodgy practices; torrent sites don’t count.
Categorised as: Mac OS X, Software, Windows
Why is it that iTunes has no real alternatives for Mac users? Many of the applications you mentioned as equivalent in quality to iTunes, and yet there are many different choices of software available to users. I mean, iTunes can’t be all that satisfying, can it?
One word: iPod. iTunes is the only piece of software that works with the iPod, and I imagine that Apple would like to keep it that way. Beyond that, it’s also bundled with the system and generally considered to be excellent by its users, as the many millions of PC users who have voluntarily downloaded it will attest to (well, it’s better then Windows Media Player, at the very least).
Oh.
For notes and even writing novels I use myNotes. It’s really nice.
But you omitted the whole PIM category. )
first, where is dr. schwartz from? yeah.
also-
are there many alternatives to the well-regarded iLife suite? (not that you’d really need any, but you haven’t mentioned consumer photo-organizing, video editing, etc.)
i’ve not had any problems with c|net’s download.com, although i’ve rarely used it.
for all operating systems, there is sourceforge for open-source wonderfulness.
is photoshop optimized for macs?
also, why does iTunes keep getting increasingly resource-intensive?
ulc-
I omitted PIM software because I don’t use that stuff all that much; Mail’s memory powers are fine for my needs. I guess I don’t know enough people ; ) I do use iCal, though. Oops. There is Backpack…
Eric-
Regarding iLife, there are some alternatives, but for the most part, iLife stuff is good enough to discourage most developers from trying to do better.
I’m not too familiar enough with GarageBand, though I’m always astounded at mow much music- and audio-related software there is for OS X. Against iWeb there’s RapidWeaver, Sandvox, Dreamweaver, Contribute, and plenty to go around. iPhoto doesn’t have many alternatives besides Picasa and Aperture. iMovie and iDVD are both Kings of their fields, probably because they’re so damn good. That said, Imaginator does video pretty well, and Toast can burn DVD movies in a pinch.
Photoshop is not optimized for Macs any more than it is for Windows. Adobe manages a completely cross-platform code base for CS and makes custom UIs for different OSs.
Regarding iTunes, the same has happened on my computer too, sadly. Though it’s a sad truth that the OS X version of iTunes is a lot better than the Windows one. But really, is this much of a surprise?
It is a nice feature, though, and extremely useful with the large maps used in supreme commander. The game stresses large numbers of units, and moving large numbers of units can prove to be difficult. Getting your army to move together …