We ’ve been write about Windows a pile of late . The most late illustration is this month ’s “ 4 way to Windows ” ( page 42 ) , in which Rob Griffiths liken four software puppet that let you run Windows on the Mac .
The cause we ’re publish so much about that other operating system is that Apple ’s switching to Intel processors , and the consequent ability to run Windows on Intel - based Macs , has sound implications for the Mac . It could carry off the Mac persecution complex once and for all , exchange the outright hostility that many Mac users feel for Windows into articulatio humeri - shrug numbness , and make the Mac more popular than it ’s been for a foresightful , long time .
Trapped in a tiny box
Some Mac users harbor a pure hate for all things Microsoft . A few refuse to use any Microsoft products on principle . ( I ca n’t wait to see the letter we ’ll get about putting an actual Windows box on the cover ofMacworld ! ) Others do n’t really mind Windows but simply observe the Mac friendlier and easier to use .
Wherever you diminish in the spectrum , you ’ve likely see the thwarting of have intercourse that , as a Mac drug user , some cool products are out of your reach . Perhaps it ’s a newfangled Web site that runs only in the Windows version of Internet Explorer , or a software program that has no Mac financial support , or an innovative piece of hardware that wo n’t work properly when you secure it into a Mac .
Now , that defeat has largely gone aside . Almost every day now , I play a academic session ofDiamond Mind , a baseball simulation that runs only on Windows . I ’ve watched hours of free streaming television , using Netflix’sWatch Now feature article , even though that feature is currently compatible only with Windows .
Is it inconvenient to switch into Windows to use these thing ? Sure it is . Should Web and software developers support the Mac natively , without making us switch between Windows and OS X ? Of course they should . But some of them never will . From now on , that refusal does n’t mean you ca n’t visit that Web website , run for that program , or punch in that computer peripheral if you really need to .
Fear of abandonment
When the Intel Macs were first announced , many commentators enjoin that it would mean the decease of the Mac . Once Macs could lead Windows , the abstract thought went , developers would stop developing Mac versions of their software . That has n’t happened yet , and I do n’t see it happening on any huge scale anytime presently .
I take some comfort , for illustration , from a late unearthed 1997Microsoft memo . The memo was written during declaration negotiations with Apple . In it , Ben Waldman ( then the head of Microsoft ’s Mac Business Unit ) admits , “ The menace to cancel Mac Office 97 is surely the strongest bargaining degree we have . ” The scourge has grabbed headline . But if you read the memoranda , you ’ll see something else : a mathematical group of computer software developer intrust to making the well Mac product they can .
That consignment get Office 98 , an impressive tone ending that righted a lot of the damage in the legendarily bad Scripture 6 . Not only was Office 98 faster than previous version , it was vastly more Mac - like . The loser of Word 6 instruct Microsoft a valuable lesson : Mac exploiter need to use software package that work like the Mac , not like Windows .
That lesson still holds true today . The ability to run Windows software package might give Mac users some tractableness . But if they liked the way of life Windows worked , they ’d buy Windows PCs . Most Mac developers , include Microsoft , empathise that . The ones who do n’t have forget the Mac marketplace , and skilful riddance .
Where to next?
If Microsoft kill off Office for Mac now ( and there ’s no sign of that happening ) , it would n’t mean what it would have entail in 1997 .
Back then , the departure of Office would have signify doom for the Mac . If it were to befall today , Mac users could simply scarper Office for Windows or a file - compatible challenger .
The the great unwashed at Microsoft ’s Mac Business Unit still have a strong commitment to releasing the good Mac software they can . The next version of Office will be Intel - native and compiled in Apple ’s Xcode development environment , a mansion that Microsoft has made a serious investment in the future tense of the Mac version of Office .
And in the meanwhile ? We can run all our best-loved Mac programsandwhatever Windows ones we might call for . Who else but Mac user can do that ? Nobody , that ’s who .
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