Prognosis for Xtreme Pro for the Mac

**remi** · 10 December 2006, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by FH Addict

Viruses have nothing to do with low cost, just with the Operating System.
Could you please tell us more about"viruses available for them have begun to increase" ??

I have never seen or heard about dangerous viruses on Mac, except if you know my Administrator password. This is Unix world.

Today you'll find a lot of different problems, not only viruses. What would you say, if I'm able to connect to your Mac OS X PC or Server via a WLAN adapter and able to gain complete control over your Mac? This is the first step for so called "root kits" to allow attackers to smuggle in malicious code in your PC. This problems are not called "viruses", but "security vulnerabilities" and they are much more interesting instead of developing a boring virus. If I'm a hacker and your PC isn't patched, then I have no problems to delete all your files or do other terrible things on your computer.

But wait, this isn't possible with Mac OS X!
Er... really?
No, not really. You're wrong, if you think, there are no security problems with Mac OS X. In reality, there were really strong problems, but a lot of users don't know the details...

Several vulnerabilities in Mac OS X
Security updates from Apple
Several of the flaws addressed by the Security Update 2006-007 are critical and allow attackers to smuggle in malicious code.
List of all known Apple security updates (not Security vulnerabilitis, only the Updates from Apple since Mac OS X)

"Although, in the past, Apple users haven't had to be as careful, they should now take the same precautions as Windows users when downloading executable files from peer-to-peer sites, or questionable websites." (source: heise security)

Regards,
Remi

**FH Addict** · 10 December 2006, 02:58 PM

Yes there is no doubt about the fact that more mac customers mean more probability for viruses developpment. But I am a bit "Mac maniac" so I feel confident for the future.
I know people took control of a mac laptop but… they installed third parties hardware (non apple) in the mac, so

.
Yes we have regular updates for security reason, that is not so alarming for me. People at Apple just do their jobs. And, still now : no problem.
Anyway, let's go back to the initial post : we would like Xara on Macintosh

**jedfrechette** · 10 December 2006, 03:16 PM

I'm a research scientist not a developer but I use OS X for much the same reasons as hillsy. It provides a UNIX laptop that plays nice with the rest of the networked world while having good hardware support, power management and all of those other nice things that I don't want to think about while I'm on the road.

I can also add my own anecdote about the relative stability and efficency of OS X versus Windows, as far as I'm concerned OS 9 and its predecessors were a steaming pile that I wouldn't touch with a 10 ft pole. Anyway, some of the work I have been doing recently has been working with vizualizations of multidimensional data sets containing tens of millions of points. In order to work with this data my lab recently purchased a quad core, 4 GB monster from Dell that makes the lights dim when you power it up. Running under 64-bit Windows the software that we are using regularly falls over. However, I'm able to work with the same software on the same data sets on my 2 year old iBook with only 1.25 GB of RAM, a wimpy video card, etc. and haven't been able to get it to crash yet. I won't speculate about where the problem lies but there is certainly a problem.

As far as security goes I wouldn't be to quick to disregard the differences between an OS where most users are forced to run as administrators because many software packages won't work otherwise, Xara I'm looking at you, and one where users have limited privileges by default.

**BONES** · 11 December 2006, 03:44 AM

Originally Posted by davelash

My own quest is to achieve a dramatic increase in my "output/effort ratio." I use graphical tools to present, teach, and consult; they're a means of communication, not "my full time job." After 25 frustrating years with Windows, I watch my two young adult daughters produce multimedia gold with their iMacs with nary a bead of sweat on their brows. I watch Al Gore perform presentation wizardry.

I don't think that has much to do with the [B}iMac[/B] so much as the user. I do a fair amount of presentation work and whilst I really, really hate Powerpoint I am able to do amazing things with it. One of my work colleagues has some amazing plugins or extensions or something with his PowerPoint that make it do even more amazin gthings. I'm sure if you have a look you will find plenty of PC-based alternatives to PowerPoint if you don't want to use it.

I'd like to be creative with Keynote and iWorks and not dealing with anti-virus and network problems.

I really don't understand this. I've been regualrly connected to teh internet since about 1997, I've never used any kind of anti-virus software or done anything specific to protect my PC, apart from exercising some common sense, and I have never had any problems with any kind of malicious software. Possibly it is down to the simple fact that I have always used Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox and never use Outlook outside the secure corporate network but its been a total non-event for me. Downloading Firefox and Thunderbird might be a lot easier than switching to Mac. Same with networking - it might have been a hassle 5 years ago but you shouldn't have any problems at all today. As part of my job I regularly [once or twice a week] have to integrate my laptop into a customer's network and it always just works.

From my non-technical viewpoint, it seems to me that the Mac is becoming an awesome creative publishing machine for individuals, while Windows Vista, by necessity, serves many masters.

I see the opposite - Mac was for many years falling further and further behind and the only way they have found to catch up is to become more and more like any other brand name PC. Almost nobody develops on their platform anymore, most things are made for Windoze and ported to Mac so you have to think that the Windoze version will generally perform better, especially now that the hardware is almost identical [or can be].

Originally Posted by hillsy

I could use Linux, and I could even get Xara for it

But I'd be forced to use GIMP for bitmaps...

Forced!?! You'd need to be forced? I'd take GIMP over Photoshop any day. In fact I did in 2000 and haven't looked back. I love its workflow.
[QUOTE=jedfrechette;187885]I'm a research scientist not a developer but I use OS X for much the same reasons as hillsy. It provides a UNIX laptop that plays nice with the rest of the networked world while having good hardware support, power management and all of those other nice things that I don't want to think about while I'm on the road.[QUOTE}
I'm sorry, is this a joke? Do you not think that PC laptops have power management or that its not at least as effective as a Mac? The power management on my laptop extends to the graphics card [not just the monitor but the graphics card itself] so that it can run in low power mode on batteries.

I can also add my own anecdote about the relative stability and efficency of OS X versus Windows, as far as I'm concerned OS 9 and its predecessors were a steaming pile that I wouldn't touch with a 10 ft pole.

But I'm sure you never thought that at the time.

Anyway, some of the work I have been doing recently has been working with vizualizations of multidimensional data sets containing tens of millions of points. In order to work with this data my lab recently purchased a quad core, 4 GB monster from Dell that makes the lights dim when you power it up. Running under 64-bit Windows the software that we are using regularly falls over. However, I'm able to work with the same software on the same data sets on my 2 year old iBook with only 1.25 GB of RAM, a wimpy video card, etc. and haven't been able to get it to crash yet. I won't speculate about where the problem lies but there is certainly a problem.

Yeah, but I'll guarantee it is neither with the hardware or OS.

As far as security goes I wouldn't be to quick to disregard the differences between an OS where most users are forced to run as administrators because many software packages won't work otherwise, Xara I'm looking at you, and one where users have limited privileges by default.

I see it a little differently. I don't quite grok why you would want to run your computer as anything but an Administrator. Perhaps that's why you see a problem where I don't. If someone cannot be trusted to use their computer without breaking it, I don't think they should be allowed to use it at all. I always work as root in Linux and I've never broken anything, even though I mostly have no idea what I'm doing.

**jedfrechette** · 11 December 2006, 11:22 PM

Originally Posted by BONES

Originally Posted by jedfrechette

I can also add my own anecdote about the relative stability and efficency of OS X versus Windows, as far as I'm concerned OS 9 and its predecessors were a steaming pile that I wouldn't touch with a 10 ft pole.

But I'm sure you never thought that at the time.

Actually I did. I suspect that you would be surprised at the number of "technical" users that Apple gained when they made the switch to a *nix based OS.

Originally Posted by BONES

I always work as root in Linux and I've never broken anything, even though I mostly have no idea what I'm doing.

Good luck with that.

**coldfuel** · 12 December 2006, 07:34 AM

As this thread has become a very hot topic for both XaraX on Mac and the pros and cons of Mac/PC, i've started a poll which will hopefully give a better idea of how many would really like to see Xara on the Mac http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=24845

**thorpug** · 12 December 2006, 06:35 PM

Did your poll Coldfuel...good idea. As a graphic designer I am one of the unfortunate ones who are being turfed by Adobe for having purchased Macromedia FreeHand and not their precious Illustrator! I was looking for a replacement with all the attributes of FreeHand and Xara Pro seems to fit the bill.... with one big exception. I regularly import DXF files from Microstation and Autocad. Now I've found how to export out of Xara to the dxf format using a third party solution BUT "how do I import a dxf file???"

Any help will be greatly appreciated as it t may make the difference whether we purchase or not.

Thorpug

**thorpug** · 12 December 2006, 06:45 PM

I should have explained better... I run both MAC and Windows (much prefer Mac of course) so would love a solution for both.

Running software "piggyback" solutions like SoftPC is not the way to go no matter what (too slow for my needs and just like buying bells and whistles on a car...more things to break or go wrong! )

**Cara_m** · 12 December 2006, 07:09 PM

I am Desperate with a capital D for Xara on the Mac. I've tried running it on an emulator, but it's just not acceptable for a number of reasons...accessing fonts etc. I'm just at the point where I'm wondering whether it's worth pledging some money for it to run on Crossover for Mac, but would this really make any difference? When they Open Sourced Xara I got really hopeful that we would see it on the Mac, but it seems as though there isn't the support amongst the developers for this to happen any time soon. I'm beginning to lose hope that we will see it, and I for one would be willing to pay decent money for this.

**jedfrechette** · 13 December 2006, 04:54 PM

Originally Posted by Cara_m

I'm just at the point where I'm wondering whether it's worth pledging some money for it to run on Crossover for Mac, but would this really make any difference?

Perhaps a more direct approach would be for those of us who want a Mac version to come up with a way to pledge money for a developer to work on the bugs that are holding back the open source version on Mac. I would certainly put up some money for this. Although the amount that an individual could contribute, at least in my case, wouldn't go very far in terms of developer hours perhaps if there is enough interest sufficient funds could be raised.

I don't know if Xara would have any interest in this but they could certainly set up some kind of bounty system for work on Xtreme. If not there are other sites around the web where bounties for work on open source programs can be posted.

Potentially, everyone could benefit from feature bouties for Xtreme. Users get the features that they want, more developers become familar with Xtreme, and Xara gets new features for their commercial products at virtually no cost.