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Re: Mac OSX [message #27155 is a reply to message #27034]

Wed, 10 October 2001 20:19

John Boccio
Messages: 12
Registered: December 1999

Junior Member

In article <MPG.162e8aaf5237957a989700@news.frii.com>, David Fanning
<david@dfanning.com> wrote:

> Randall Skelton (rhskelto@atm.ox.ac.uk) writes:
>
>> There are alternatives. I'll admit that none of them can compete with the
>> wide cross-platform support that IDL has enjoyed over the years but it
>> looks like RSI's cross-platform marketing approach has vanished.
>
> Gentlemen,
>
> I am sympathetic. I really am. I especially
> dislike the cheesy way this whole decision
> was announced. It denotes a lack of...well,
> respect...for the people who really do pay
> the bills it seems to me.
>
> And from what I hear at least half the folks
> at RSI are sympathetic. I don't think this was
> a unanimous decision, not by a long shot. But
> I don't think scientists are running the company
> anymore. And I don't think the people who made
> the decision really stopped to consider the--for
> lack of a better word--cultural significance of a
> decision like this.
>
> Quite frankly, losing a platform like the Mac matters
> to a lot of us, whether we use a Macintosh or not.
>
> But given all that, I don't think this decision
> will be changed. I don't know the leadership at RSI,
> or anything about them, but I don't expect them
> to change their mind for this reason.
>
> The Mac right now, today, is not a serious
> scientific computing platform.

This is a load of utter garbage!!!!

We are entirely a Mac shop

Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Biolgy
at Swarthmore College.

We use Macs for both the curriculum and all of our reseach programs
( a total of 31 different programs).

Wealso use Macs in an Apple Seed paprallel cluster (20 machines) to do
parallel computing calculations on plasmas, ,galaxy-galaxy collisions
and posittons in solids.

> I know, I know.
> MacOSX is going to change all that, etc., etc.
> But I don't believe it. And I doubt the folks
> making this decision at RSI believe it.

All of the above works better under UNIX ---> MacOS X,
which now has the largest installed UNIX base

> Not when
> perfectly good systems can be had for no more than
> $3000.

So what. The price difference are no longer that dramatic.

>
> Many of us using Windows today were once Mac users.
> Why did we switch? I switched, because practically
> everyone I knew was using a PC. And because the
> software I wanted to use ran better on a PC than
> it did (if it was available) on a Mac.

We find the opposite is true.

> Is that going
> to change in the next year? The next two years? I
> seriously doubt it.

Why?

> RSI is recognizing a trend that
> has been going on for a long time. The Mac may be
> the cat's meow in desktop publishing, but it is
> never going to capture enough scientific computing
> market share to drive software development on that
> platform.

I think you and Kodak are wrong about this.

> That is an economic prediction, not
> an indictment of the Mac's number crunching
> capabilities.
>
> And I am sorry to see the whole "Alternatives
> to IDL" thread appear again. We hashed this whole
> thing over several months ago. Yes, there are
> alternatives to IDL. But let's be honest, most
> of them suck in one way or the other. None of
> them, *none* of them, are going to capture more
> than an extremely small fraction of IDL users.

Maybe we will now come up with something that is better.
Will make sure it only runs on MacOS X.
>
> I really hate to be cynical on a newsgroup I
> love so much, but I don't believe the majority
> of the people beating their chests now will really
> leave IDL.

No you don't.

> Too many colleagues, too much invested,
> too easy to buy a new Dell machine and carry on.
> And you will end up needing the new feature IDL
> has added that is not available in whatever the
> alternative de jour is that you decided to use
> as a protest.

The easy way is not always the best!
>
> Yes, send your letters and e-mail. Yes, make
> your feelings about this decision known to the
> people who made it. Maybe it will cause them
> to consider more carefully the next time they
> make a decision like this. Yes, explore alternatives
> to IDL, if you must. But in the end, you have
> to realize that this is how things are in the
> real world. We don't always like it, I'll grant
> you that. But sometimes we have to accept it.
> Sometimes that is the best alternative of all.

Give us all a break!
>
> Sadly,
>
> David
>
> P.S. I just saw that sales of Eastman Kodak were
> 3.5 billion last quarter. Do you really think a loss
> of a couple hundred thousand dollars of revenue from
> disgruntled customers matters to them? This is just
> the price *we* pay for a corporate culture.

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[Message index]

		Mac OSX By: Richard Adams on Mon, 08 October 2001 03:53
		Re: Mac OSX By: Dick Jackson on Wed, 10 October 2001 12:21
		Re: Mac OSX By: colinr on Thu, 11 October 2001 01:17
		Re: Mac OSX By: Dennis Boccippio on Fri, 12 October 2001 07:22
		Re: Mac OSX By: Pavel A. Romashkin on Wed, 10 October 2001 12:46
		Re: Mac OSX By: Stein Vidar Hagfors H[1] on Wed, 10 October 2001 11:34
		Re: Mac OSX By: colinr on Thu, 11 October 2001 01:19
		Re: Mac OSX By: Paul van Delst on Wed, 10 October 2001 12:38
		Re: Mac OSX By: Todd Clements on Wed, 10 October 2001 10:43
		Re: Mac OSX By: Pavel A. Romashkin on Wed, 10 October 2001 07:55
		Re: Mac OSX By: Noam R. Izenberg on Wed, 10 October 2001 07:22
		Re: Mac OSX By: Jaco van Gorkom on Wed, 10 October 2001 06:18
		Re: Mac OSX By: Richard Adams on Wed, 10 October 2001 05:56
		Re: Mac OSX By: Randall Skelton on Wed, 10 October 2001 05:24
		Re: Mac OSX By: Bernard K. on Wed, 10 October 2001 00:37
		Re: Mac OSX By: Rob.Preece on Fri, 12 October 2001 07:29
		Re: Mac OSX By: Bernard K. on Wed, 10 October 2001 00:33
		Re: Mac OSX By: Wayne Landsman on Tue, 09 October 2001 23:18
		Re: Mac OSX By: Randall Skelton on Tue, 09 October 2001 22:55
		Re: Mac OSX By: Pavel A. Romashkin on Tue, 09 October 2001 21:28
		Re: Mac OSX By: gschneider on Tue, 09 October 2001 16:01
		Re: Mac OSX By: Stein Vidar Hagfors H[1] on Wed, 10 October 2001 12:20
		Re: Mac OSX By: Pavel A. Romashkin on Tue, 09 October 2001 14:09
		Re: Mac OSX By: Mark Hadfield on Thu, 11 October 2001 13:45
		Mac Scoop (Long) By: Noam R. Izenberg on Thu, 11 October 2001 14:25
		Re: Mac Scoop (Long) By: msienkiewicz on Fri, 12 October 2001 17:30
		Re: Mac OSX By: Pavel A. Romashkin on Thu, 11 October 2001 09:24
		Re: Mac OSX By: richard hilton on Thu, 11 October 2001 09:06
		Re: Mac OSX By: Andrew Cool on Sun, 14 October 2001 17:09
		Re: Mac OSX By: John-David T. Smith on Thu, 11 October 2001 09:06
		Re: Mac OSX By: John-David T. Smith on Fri, 12 October 2001 07:47
		Re: Mac OSX By: Martin Otte on Thu, 11 October 2001 14:49
		Re: Mac OSX By: Pavel A. Romashkin on Thu, 11 October 2001 08:48
		Re: Mac OSX By: Noam R. Izenberg on Thu, 11 October 2001 08:23
		Re: Mac OSX By: Randall Skelton on Wed, 10 October 2001 23:01
		Re: Mac OSX By: David Fanning on Wed, 10 October 2001 21:25
		Re: Mac OSX By: John Boccio on Wed, 10 October 2001 20:19
		Re: Mac OSX By: David Fanning on Wed, 10 October 2001 19:00
		Re: Mac OSX By: Mark Hadfield on Wed, 10 October 2001 18:33
		Re: Mac OSX By: David Fanning on Wed, 10 October 2001 16:41
		Re: Mac OSX By: pit on Sat, 13 October 2001 11:44
		Re: Mac OSX By: Randall Skelton on Wed, 10 October 2001 14:54
		Re: Mac OSX By: David Fanning on Wed, 10 October 2001 13:39
		Re: Mac OSX By: Noam R. Izenberg on Wed, 10 October 2001 13:27
		Re: Mac OSX By: Pavel A. Romashkin on Wed, 10 October 2001 13:12
		Re: Mac OSX By: David Fanning on Wed, 10 October 2001 13:09
		Re: Mac OSX By: Ken Prager on Fri, 12 October 2001 09:06
		Re: Mac OSX By: Noam R. Izenberg on Fri, 12 October 2001 08:01
		Re: Mac OSX By: pit on Mon, 15 October 2001 12:21
		Re: Mac OSX By: Craig Markwardt on Sun, 14 October 2001 17:51

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