One look at www.iusethis.com will show the abundance of open-source projects available to mac users. A quick look at my most used apps reveals a few as well:
cMap [concept mapping program]
Desktop manager [key-activated desktop switching]
Disk inventory X [visual disk usage utility],
Google earth [free]
myNotes [intuitive note-keeping/writing app]
Quicksilver [launchpad, one-click style access to commony used folders, apps, etc.]
Sidenote [quick, drawer-style notekeeper]
Vienna [RSS aggregator]

These are all programs I use literally every day to some extent. But if you'll notice, they are all 'life' things; things to make a computer truly all you need to store thoughts, ideas, memories and access information and media.

Where open-source becomes less popular for the mac mind (and understandably so) is for the more complicated, R&D-driven pieces of software, or, Work software. When we're working on a project [of any kind] we want the creative process to flow without us thinking about the work it's taking to do such. The second we have an idea that's complicated to accomplish with our current toolset is the second we are dissatisfied with the tool. Using a drawing program should be as easy as using a pencil, that way we don't have to 'master' the program, only master our minds (that's the ultimate goal, isn't it?).

As of now, there are groundbreaking programs going in the right direction for 3D (Zbrush), Architecture (Sketchup), and 2D/Bitmap (Painter/PS)... all available for Mac and Windows. There is NO groundbreaking, easy to use, intuitive, well-thought out Vector program for the Mac. I've been lightly using Illustrator now for years now, and I can honestly say it hasn't gotten any easier. You have to formulate ways to accomplish tasks in Illustrator, instead of just being able to accomplish them. Xara is the Zbrush of vector, and the mac community would appreciate AND INVEST in the option of Xara. With Xara, I don't have to really think about what I'm doing, I simply do what feels natural and it somehow works. Anyone who's ever used sketchup extensively knows how I feel!


Granted, the average user of ANY machine spends $400+ to browse the internet and write documents. But I can assure you that what previous posts said are true, WE WILL PAY FOR SOMETHING THAT WORKS THE WAY OUR MINDS WORK, it's well worth it for me. I wish I had the interest to develop my own software, but code has never done it for me, give me some paint any day!





I did the whole 'switch OS's' every time I needed vector work done for years to use Xara, but I'm too spoiled now and just can't stand to work with windows anymore. So in the mean time I slave away in illustrator, checking back every once in a while to see if Xara's made the [smart] choice to put some R&D into a mac version.. I'd pay ever cent.