Mac Envy

Posted by Hugh
Feb 26, 2015 at 12:28 PM

jaslar wrote:
I can’t speak to the relative difficulty of coding on each platform, but
>I do remember reading that Mac users have some distinct differences from
>Windows users. First, they buy, and use, more software. (Windows users
>tended to settle on Microsoft Office, and just a handful of others.)
>Second, because the platform is smaller than Windows, Apple (Mac and
>iOS) developers felt they were more likely to be noticed. Third, it used
>to be (although I hear this is not so much true now), they felt that
>that Apple worked well with them on the App Store.
>

It also used to be said that Apple encouraged independent Mac developers in other ways. For example, Scrivener on the Mac is partly built from kits of “components” originally provided, I believe, by Apple; in addition, I remember on at least one occasion in the past, Scrivener’s developer Keith Blount was able to raise technical issues he’d encountered directly with software engineers at Apple. At the time this seemed to be in contrast with procedures at Microsoft, though whether it was I can’t say. And I also don’t know whether these distinctions between Apple and MS still prevail.
>But yeah, I’d like some of the Mac apps on Windows (and Linux), too.