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alanh

“Drastically?” The vast majority of the web developers I know use OS X.

And, I guess, most of the marketers, too.

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> “Drastically?” The vast majority of the web developers I know use OS X.

I'm guessing most (all?) the developers you know work in the US?

Mac OS is close to nonexistent in that area in the rest of the world.

Trying to sell an app competing against a free product from Google is already challenging enough, you should seriously consider the original advice and extend your tool to work on Windows as well.

By 'rest of the world' you must be discounting Australia then ;)

As an Australian, I've always thought of our country as the real-world embodiment of what Americans believe when they think of their own country...

I visited Bali once and as an American, had an identity crisis looking in the mirror at all the Australian tourists.

  > Mac OS is close to nonexistent in that area in the rest
  > of the world.

I guess you dont't live in the rest of the world. I am from a small exUSSR country in the Europe and while I would not claim majority for OS X but to claim that it is nonexistent is very wrong. My last company (Java/PHP/Frontend) was Mac-only. In the current company the majority is on Macs (that includes Android and WP developers).

Dutchman here. Most designers use MacOsX here. Developers go with Windows. Design-savy or iOS developers use both.

Also Dutch here. Developers go with Windows if they do not get a choice; unfortunately, most major companies demand everyone uses Windows.

I'm fortunate to be working for a consultancy company that just gives everyone a budget to buy their computer. Most people have a Macbook, with the odd exception that simply has a hatred for Apple or can't get used to it.

I would argue that development tools are much better for OSX. It's like Linux, but usable. A lot of commandline tools just work out of the box under OSX, where you have to go through hoops, hope there's a port, or install a bash emulator under Windows.

Of course, .NET developers will be using Windows.

I do agree here. I do develop in India, and rarely i meet people with Mac. Most devs use linux and most html and UI guys go with windows.

Really? My last web developer position in Australia was in an office full of Macs. My web developer position previous to that was in New Zealand was in an office full of Macs. My current position here in the UK is in an office full of Macs. Every web development house I've ever worked for, contracted with or freelanced with has been in an office full of Macs.

Moscow, Russia – Macs everywhere. Odessa, Ukraine – a lot of Macs and more are coming.

And this is a two year old observation.

Uruguay here: All designers use Mac OS, developers use Windows or Linux

Most web developers/designers in china use OS X also.

> The vast majority of the web developers I know use OS X.

That's what we call a filter bubble

Wow really? Where (in what bubble) do you live?

I'm guessing the bubble called Silicon Valley. They tend to have a fairly skewed view of the world there.

The one where the vast majority of web developers live.

> the vast majority

You're actually discounting the entire world outside of SV right now?

and he can still make a living while doing that.

what now, being able to make a living makes one right?

There's this entire platform of users who develop in a magical language called C# and run entirely on Microsoft platform. It might just catch on and get quite popular.

The Microsoft world might also be used by large corporations, who also happen to have lots of money, with which you can buy things like software.

(There's also these other platforms based on *nix, but meh :-p)

We don't need any nix at all!

|pushes button to delete nix|

Hey, where did 60% of my favorite website go? Oh, I'll just google how to undelete *nix... wait... crap!

>vast majority of web developers

That is an amazing thing to write on the internet.

Los Angeles based developer here. Practically everyone uses a Mac that I know.

I'm pretty sure the majority of digital artwork, both visual & audio, is done on OSX. I have never heard of any major company in this field that had its artists on anything other than OSX. Maybe linux for some render-farms or something, but the artists' primary workstation is macosx. Also, all the major digit-art tools work sooooooo much better under OSX, or even just under Linux. Example, I've used Autodesk's Maya under windows and under Linux 64bit. The exact same machine, dualboot, into Linux to run Maya is like night & day. This simple little kitchen scene[1] was too much for Windows to handle, would freeze up the mouse pointer while trying to rotate around and work on the models. In linux, silky smooth. Also, the audio-production software on mac is superior to anything ever. Avid ProTools, Logic Pro,etc. Imagine the kinds of scenes LucasArts/Pixar/Dreamworks/etc got going on. When you're project starts to get big and require more RAM to keep it all in memory and flowing well; Linux & OSX will beat Windows completely. Now I'm not going to put all the blame on Windows, perhaps AutoDesk and Adobe don't put as much quality work into the Windows versions. And why should they? Really, I see the Windows versions as just gateways for beginners and young people to pirate them and learn.When you get serious and it's your profession, you switch to OSX. Yes, I said it. Any serious digital-artist is on a mac. Good day sir!

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNS66CcUJ1o

SIDENOTE: If Adobe made linux-versions of all their stuff, combined with the already-existing linux versions of Maya and 3DSMax, I believe it would be very good for the digital-art industry.

If you live in US that might be right, but on the rest of the world?

No sir!

The rest of the world isn't where the money is ... so why would he develop for a market that can't even afford a mac?

I beg to differ as today's reports show.

What?! All the digital printing agencies I've been to were using iMacs. I live in a country with a Per Capita of $3,500. That's more than an order of magnitude lower than the US.

I keep forgetting America is the only developed country in the world. I guess I'm so busy playing games on my PC and surfing the net on my HTC One, that sometimes I forget I'm poor and only bought these devices because I couldn't afford to buy Apple.

</sarcasm>

You really need to get some perspective about just how big the IT industry is outside of America.

Considering the very powerful, hardware accelerated 3D games that run smoothly under Windows, I would consider the possibility that if Maya cannot render a scene without freezing, maybe that is a problem with the software developers and not Windows.

This might be true, but I think you miss the point.

People will use the enviroment where the tools run stable.

Well, I am from Europe and from people I know only around 15% uses Mac. I was myself using Windows/Linux for all development and Photoshop work till last 3 years, when I moved to Macbook Air.

Windows are for users and Mac are for makers. ;)

Oh please. Designers are not makers. Vast majority of developers I know use Linux.

Silicon Valley is a well known "home" for OSX.

In some circles yes, but theres alot of web developers that are still on Windows for whatever reason. I am from Germany and people here are less prone to brand marketing and i still see quite alot of people using Windows, even people i highly respect for their skills. Im mainly talking about coders though, not designers.

Reasons range from:

1) Big corporations don't like to overspend on PC hardware and can have great deals with anyone but Apple.

2) A company that work mostly on Windows platform (.Net, MSSql)

4) As weird as it sound some people might actually not like OSX.

I assume this was numbered as a bitmask so people can represent their choices as a single integer?

I will say here, that I am one of those people that do not like OSX. My main issues are getting it to behave with the muscle memory I have developed over years of use with windows and linux machines. Home and End key behavior, actually quitting an application when closed, full-screen apps (though I understand this is fixed in recent OSX builds), and other minor annoyances keep me from fully embracing OSX. I understand that these are personal preferences, and not problems with OSX for the most part.

On the other hand, I REALLY like the idea of an app and all its dependencies being installed all in one folder. That REALLY needs to happen everywhere. This would make migration between installs SO much easier, and would eliminate DLL hell (or shared library hell in the case of linux).

Just my 2cents

Exactly my thoughts. I use OSX alot for different reasons but i still think i am more productive on Windows/Linux. Keyboard shortcuts and behaviour is consistent as opposed to OSX where its kind of a pain.

I also dont like the dock, i like to have a taskbar with the open windows on each of my monitors which is no problem in Windows and Linux. I dont like the Menubar stuck on the main monitor.

As a web developer i really like the unix base of OSX for different reaons though and i need to use some software for game dev (Unity3D) which isnt available on Linux.

But i thought about running Windows for game dev/office stuff and Linux in a VM for web development.

> As weird as it sound some people might actually not like OSX.

Oh yes. I wouldn't take a job if they offer Apple only choices.

Actually, here in Europe, MAC doesn't seem that popular.

Most of the people i know just use Windows (Belgium)

And literally zero of the web developers and designers I know use OS X. This is why a single person's social circle isn't a useful indicator of global marketshare.

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