recent discussions about Apple vs PC utilization of Rhino have lead me to the question if it is possible to publicly announce the approximate relation of licenses. From what I believe to have read quite a while ago, is that these Numbers are not so easy to acquire since it would involve the resellers, but logically McNeel should be interested in knowing this information I assume.
So just for the sake of some developer(s) not showing any decent interest in facilitating Macs, is there any knowledge regarding this matter? @Helvetosaur do you have any Numbers you can announce? I think you were or still are a reseller? @John_Brock any ideas? @stevebaer ?
I just thought that its a pity that developers of very useful Plugins like @XNurbs dont show enough to no interest at all in contributing in cross platform servings. Maybe knowing If it would make more sense could motivate some, or maybe even demotivate…
So maybe you guys can say anything useful. The proportion of Rhino for Mac licences compared to Windows is naturally a fragment, but knowing a little better would also be generally interesting.
Personally I have been playing with this thought to switch back to Windows for a long time already. Mainly because of Rhino. Waiting for a complete and smoothly working Mac Version has demotivated me over the years and knowing that some Plugins might never jump towards Mac is for me a serious concern.
It’s hard to know right now, as for awhile I have only been selling V6 licenses - the Mac people can get their legacy V5 license for free. However, I would say that the percentage of Mac licenses here vs. Windows is less than 10%. There are a number of reasons for this small percentage, and most of them basically fall back onto one - Apple computers just do not penetrate into the larger industrial companies. And it’s obvious that it’s not their target market. Most of the commercial clients who buy Mac licenses here are small design or architecture offices with 2-5 people.
So it’s a self fulfilling prophecy -
There are not enough industrial users to make development of a Mac version economically viable
People in industry cannot find software they need that runs on Mac so they stay with PCs
There are not enough industrial users to make development of a Mac version economically viable
etc.
I don’t see this changing any time soon, as as I said before I don’t think it’s Apple’s priority to expand into larger industrial environments.
thanks Mitch for chiming in. if its anything close to 10% I would honestly be pretty amazed already. Mac users have chosen the dark side of the force it seems.
Still, a good alternative to the ever growing almost monopoly Windows Platform is necessary. Apple Computers are not bad at all, the OS is also pretty good, it just needs a few more Developers seeing the bigger picture and believing in it. Currently the direction of Apple is really not leading anywhere near that themselves, I still hope for some change.
@Helvetosaur may have an unusual view of this in that Mac use in the land of William Tell is twice the European average. The EPFLs policy of Mac use alone may have an impact on the number of architecture, design and engineering professionals using macs in the region, so I would expect that to be an upper estimate. On the other hand they are, on average, much wealthier than your average Rhino user so may represent a worthwhile target market for the right tools!
For the record I use both at home. I have had to use PCs throughout my working life in large engineering organisations.
That’s very possible… and yes, this is definitely Macland. Pretty much all the primary/secondary schools are all on Mac.
The higher education schools are divided though, maybe 65-70% of the architecture students at the EPFL might have been on Mac, but in many of the more engineering related disciplines, they have PC’s for running things like Solidworks and the like. Staff has their choice, obviously in the model shop we were all on PC, the only system with drivers/software that could run our lasers, CNC knife cutters and milling machines.
thanks for the statistics Graham, does not look super bad, somehow what I expected and pretty steady.
i am not sure i can fully agree with that, probably not all, at least not personally. i am by no means anyhow wealthy and just get by to be honest having several jobs. the reason why i got hooked to Apple is because i was bored with viruses, having problems with hardware configurations and driver updates and seeked out for a good alternative which solves all this issues, packing the experience into a good looking good functioning system (at least at those times, now its all pretty equalised) and most of all into a reliable peace of hardware which does not cost more, when you compare it to an equally equipped good named pc.
i have my MacBook Pro hooked up to the screen for 10 years now. besides having to lubricate the fans a little once, due to working in super dusty environment and exchanging the hd to ssd, its all running like on the first day without any big burps and issues. to resume that, using a mac is therefor a pretty economical matter, if you are not hunting for the newest most expensive piece of tech which you sell for almost nothing 2 years later.
I was not very clear here - I was comparing the mean average Swiss mac Rhino user with the global average Rhino user. I’m pretty confident of that comparison given the relative income / net wealth / turnover per person levels in vs
Well, to be honest, I do not have the same opinion… The “Mac reliability” (hardware wise) is for me a myth in the same way that “PC unreliability” (hardware wise) is also a myth. I have had more than a dozen desktop PC’s since 1997 (when I switched from Mac) as well as 4-5 laptops. My first PC (one of the first Pentium II’s!) had a hard disk fail - which taught me to back things up… Since then… virtually nothing. Knock wood, but I have never had any kind of significant hardware failure on any of my machines since then. Maybe I had a power supply go out once a long time back.
On the other hand, both my wife and my sister are on Mac. My sister has had to replace hard drives, mother boards and other stuff several times; we had to change out the entire screen on my wife’s 27" iMac (fortunately under warranty). YMMV of course.
I have a HP 8570 EliteBook that is a little younger - mid 2012 - and it still runs fine as well. Yes, I also changed out the HD to a SSD, and I upgraded to Windows 10 (which I shouldn’t have), but otherwise it’s the same. Yes, I do need to plug it in, the battery doesn’t hold much of a charge anymore…
My 17" mid-2010 MBP also still runs great (well, I hardly ever use it) but unfortunately I can not load Mojave on it - too old for Apple.
It is not my intention to knock Mac’s or Mac users…Simply to say that there are also bazillions of us Windows users banging away on our PC’s every day and for most of the people I know that use them, they’re pretty reliable too.
