Please give to MAC Xara products!!!!!

[RedWombat]

And now a few words from our sponsor . . .

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To me, it really doesn't matter. Use what works for you. I've used both over the years. Graphics wise, Macs are ok, although I don't see them as better. Development wise, I would rather have my PC. It's just a tool as it's been pointed out.

Funny thing about the Mac/PC thing . . . I really know people who have purchased a Mac, use Boot Camp and run only Windows on their Mac. Crazy, I know, they don't ever boot into OS X.

I would add one thing to this discussion. From my perspective, it often isn't the cost of the hardware that would keep people from switching from one platform to another. PC to Mac, Mac to PC. It's the cost of replacing the software. I have to buy a new systems every few years anyway. But, it would take much more money to convert my software from one platform to another. A license in one is not a license in another. The only way that would make sense is to switch from PC to Mac and run Windows on the Mac. But then, why switch?

[covoxer]

I really know people who have purchased a Mac, use Boot Camp and run only Windows on their Mac. Crazy, I know, they don't ever boot into OS X.

Why crazy? They simply buy a quality hardware. After all it's not crazy to buy a PC and use Linux instead of Windwos, right?

[Xcellent]

I'm seriously thinking about switching to Mac. One of the reasons holding me back is Xara. But the future of windows seems not to be so bright!

After talking to some of my friends who are software developers and testing their apps on latest Windows 2007 betas, they said they don't see a future for any realtime applications on windows in future, the same applications (e.g. Audio applications like cubase) on xp/vista running slower than ever in W7. In fact one of them is just switching to mac himself after testing W7. Audio applications in Vista (even on a high end machine with 4 GB Ram and quad core) simply don't run smoothly and sound crackles for realtime playback - and this is worse on W7. Google yourself for on benchmarks for XP vs Vista vs 7. Shocking, simply shocking!

From a software developers point of view, developing software on mac seems to be a nightmare I have been told...

I worked as a freelancer alot with Mac's and once you get used to it you will appreciate how smoothy they run. The only downside to me on mac is the missing software, other than that, it IS a stable system. I'm on windows since 95, do registry hackinng and a bit of programming myself, so after reading all this latest W7 trouble, i think i had enough.

Personally I refuse to move to Vista and for sure not to W7 - so the future for my choice of OS is limited.

So, Xara on Mac would make my choice much easier.

[DougO]

Hi All,

Just a comment on this Mac vs PC thing. Wanted to pass along that you can switch a software license from PC to Mac. At least Adobe will let you do this. I moved to the Mac platform some years ago and Adobe let me transfer my PC Photoshop license to a Mac Photoshop license.

And yes, there are several apps that only run natively on one or the other. Xara only runs on Windows, so I have a Windows laptop for that. One biggie for video editing is Final Cut Pro. Basically "the" tool for professional video editors. And it only runs on a Mac.

I moved to the Mac platform since it was the defacto tool for graphics design and video production. All the jobs I saw out there wanted you to know the big three (Illustrator/Photoshop/InDesign). And most used Macs. It's pretty much the same out there these days. So I made the switch for work reasons. To get a job ;-)

So, for the last six years I have been using a Mac. Before this I worked in the corporate world using Windows with CorelDRAW and Xara for almost thirty years. And I never bought into the Mac vs PC wars. But I must admit I do love my Mac. I mostly use Photoshop, Flash, Director and Final Cut Pro for multimedia development. And in six years I have never experienced a crash. Simply amazing. I still use Xara on a laptop running Windows XP for my graphics needs. I tried learning Illustrator, but became frustrated. And fortunately none of my contract jobs required it ;-)

I definitely agree with Big Frank. A persons experience tends to shape their allegiance to one thing or another. So I have been "won over" by the Mac and OS X. My wife still uses Windows. And I kinda just smirk to myself (much safer that way) when I hear her mumbling about how slow her computer is running, another crash or need to download yet another Windows update ;-) Also in the six years I have had my Mac she has gone through three laptops ;-)


DougO

[Ross Macintosh]

Before this I worked in the corporate world using Windows with CorelDRAW and Xara for almost thirty years.

Windows 1.0 was released in Nov. 1985.
CorelDraw was first released in 1989.
Xara Studio was first released around 1994(?)
CorelXara was released 1995.

Doug, it just feels like 30 years! I started using CorelXara when it was first released. I saw a two-page preview for the upcoming release in a Tiger Software catalogue. I was really impressed with what was promised so I pre-ordered it. (In those days you had to hand fill out an order form and mail it with a cheque -- no www). I ordered it even though I had a mac at the time and no pc to run it! I proceeded to order a new mac with a Apple-designed DOS card in it. I would run CorelXara on my Mac. The problem was the dos card was a load of crap as I couldn't print when running windows applications and liked to crash the mac every 30 minutes or so. Apple had ripped me off by selling me (expensive) hardware that didn't work. No sooner had my new mac with its dos card arrived when Apple announced they were discontinuing the model. Furthermore less than a few months after discontinuing the dos card they stopped supporting it. If you called the support line (long distance non-1-800) you'd wait on hold for an hour only to be told they didn't support the hardware you bought a few months before. I switched to a 486 PC and have been using PC's ever since. For someone named "Macintosh" you can probably understand what a big switch it was. I had been a hardcore mac fan previously. Our household continues to have macs but I avoid them -- I particularly find the 'finder' a poor design and cringe everytime I have to use it.

Regards Ross

[DougO]

Sorry, just lazy typing on my part. I worked in the corporate world for about thirty years. We started out doing everything with pencil, ink, vellum, drawing boards, templates, Leroy lettering guides, etc. Our first shot at computer graphics was via an HP 1000 mainframe computer. The OS was Pascal based. Backups were done via reel to reel data tape. We had a huge cabinet that stored the tapes. The monitors were monochrome. Very amazing how things have progressed in such a short time. Then we switched to PCs using Windows. And then migrated our software to CorelDRAW. The company never embraced Xara. I think the main reason was that we had so much invested in our graphics libraries. And we had a lot of money invested in corporate user licenses. So I used it on the sly ;-)

Really, when you think about it, this whole PC vs Mac thing is rather silly. Kinda like the guys that argue between Ford, Chevy and Dodge trucks ;-)

DougO

[WheelBrat]

Really, when you think about it, this whole PC vs Mac thing is rather silly. Kinda like the guys that argue between Ford, Chevy and Dodge trucks ;-)

Thanks guys .. you've answered questions quite fully!

I have decided it's time for me to upgrade my system & the only thing that has been holding me back from going to a MacBook Pro (with an i7 chip/ 8Gb ram, etc., etc.) is of course being able to continue using the ONLY true graphics program XARA (oops, this comment has the makings to start another war) Anyway at the moment I am in the chip$ & find I need try something different like a MacBook Pro. I agree with the main gist here .. it's definitely not got anything to do with the OS's.

But I must admit that with a Scottish name like MacIntosh "ya canna go wrong laddie!" Ceart gu le�r a' Ross?
Seriously folks I know I'm not much for posting here but I do value the opinions of you all! Thanks much appreciated.

Reji