Windows Vs Mac software crossover bias to Mac?

Posted by MadaboutDana
Dec 2, 2014 at 12:20 PM

I have to agree. As one who only recently transferred to Mac and worked on PC for years previously, I’m actually quite surprised by how little software the two platforms have in common. There’s been a lot of stuff carried over to Windows (mainly as a result of the near-death of Apple a couple of decades ago - viz. Adobe, Quark, Autodesk). But otherwise – nope, not a lot in common at all, really.

Outliner enthusiasts (presumably like most of us here!) will bemoan the fact that so many great outliners/info managers on the Mac have never made it over to Windows. But there are a couple of really rather good apps on Windows I occasionally find myself missing on Mac (the full version of OneNote, for example, including all the nice little folding/tagging touches! Not to mention the more polished version of Microsoft Office – the Mac version is a bit of a kludge. Note all of those Microsoft products were Windows-only to start with).

There have been laudable efforts, like Scrivener and Scapple, two of my favourite cross-platform apps. And, of course, a growing number of task management apps (many of which were designed for either Mac or Windows first of all, but have grown to be cross-platform).

So I don’t think there’s much evidence of a one-way flow. But if you really want to see something like DEVONthink for PC, it’s always worth contacting the developers! DEVONthink Pro Office does, of course, generate websites that can be accessed from any platform. But okay, that’s cheating… ;-)