Digi slowly phasing out Mac support? (rumor)

[tha k man]

By the way, speaking of retarded. Microsoft owns 9.1 percent of Avid, as part of a deal in 1998 when they sold SoftImage to Avid. Soon thereafter, guess who started making NT software?

What were the terms of the deal? That Microsoft would not buy any more stock for 5 years. Avid put the clause in there to fend off Microsoft from buying them out after the agreement, a nasty little habit Redmond has. Well, 5 years is up.

Here's the CNET article for those of you who can read. (I can't, I'm retarded, after all.)

Now, I don't think that Pro Tools is gonna convert to all Windows. But if Bill Gates woke up one night and decided to throw a billion dollars at it, he could do just about anything he wanted.

Microsoft already makes the singular most importent, best-selling, retarded application for Mac (Office) and used to make the second, Internet Explorer, as well. If Bill wanted to get into the DAW business, either to go head-to-head with Apple's Logic or, more likely, to incorporate the movie and audio code into Windows, what would be a good first move?

What I do think, even as retarded as I am, is that there wasn't even Pro Tools for Windows at all until a couple years ago, and now even mediocre Windows machines are top performers as far as raw power goes. That was fast. Retarded fast.

The Windows forums for LE are getting more traffic than the Mac forums, and I would be willing to wager they have a larger install base by now.

Need more credibility? Some of the most respected DAW's in the world run Windows. Sadie is one example I can think of.

A few years ago, no one took Linux seriously in movie production studios. Now, a lot of the top houses run Linux farms to do their rendering, replacing their SGI boxes. These kinds of sea changes are decided by a handful of people with a retarded amount of power and money.

Look guys, I really don't see any of this actually happening. I'm just playing a little bit of devil's advocate on Thanksgiving eve. My point is that as far as software goes, no one can see even five years down the road. You can all sit back and chuckle about these foolish notions, but I guarantee there will be lots of surprises.

And calling strangers "retarded" reflects low breedin'.

Well said Clorox.
Additionally ;
any other retards like me been to Avid/Pro Tools demo's recently - which are all running on PC's.(i believe). There were sessions sponsored by Microsoft - on Pro tools for XP.

I ran my first TDM rig on a QUADRA 840AV. ( some of you will know how long I've been doing this for )

For the first time EVER -now we have a PC running a HD ACCEL rig here - that walks all over any G5 at the moment ( yes, it's rock solid - any it's very fast)
Dont' get me wrong - I love my Macs - I own 2 of 'em, and I sell them. But one thing to consider - who would've said 6 months before Emagic dropped support for PC's that they would do so ?

I dunno, Maybe I'm just a retard .......

[WorldOfWiz]

kmshroom

Ok your still kind of new. but there have been posts from PC users saying that they wished Digi would drop Mac support. You may have a open mind about this but not everybody does.

Wiz

[s2n]

And, we all know AVID has NEVER dropped anykind of Mac support....

[froyo]

By World of Wiz

Ok your still kind of new. but there have been posts from PC users saying that they wished Digi would drop Mac support. You may have a open mind about this but not everybody does.

Hello. Well I would have to agree with kmshroom. I don't know anyone who feels the way you describe Wiz. When you say 'a lot of PC users', I would say that it's probably a small percentage of zealous PC users. But those are balanced out by the zealous Mac users. Hey Wiz did you read this next quote. I don't understand it and if means what I think it does, here is an example of a Mac user who wants Digidesign to drop PC support.

By Nexxt

So what happens when Digi continues to push Win (I hope this does not happen)?......this twelve year user goes native Mac, I guess.

I absolutely do not understand what this means. Please clarify. Are you saying that if Digidesign makes a push to bring the PC version to true parity as the Mac version you will drop Pro Tools? Or are you saying that if they make a push to sell more PC TDM versions you will drop Pro Tools? Either way, I don't understand what one thing has to do with the other. Why would you drop it? Are you saying that you want Digidesign to only promote Mac versions, push sales of Mac's, do R&D for Mac, etc. otherwise you drop them? I don't get it.

As I mentioned before, Digidesign was created on Mac and was Mac only for the longest time. The fact that in 2003 they are finally catching up and getting close to having a true equal product on both versions does NOT mean they want to drop Mac support. Why does it threaten anyone that they truly want to make an equal product?

[clorox]

Yeah. Anyone one, Mac or PC, who wants to phase out the other side is just not using common sense.

Both platforms benefit each other by providing competition, and thus a pressure for new features, stability, etc. Choice is never, ever a bad thing for the consumer.

[WorldOfWiz]

ok maybe I shouldn't have used the world "alot" . But I have seen posts like that more then a few times.

I think what Nexxt means is if Digi drops Mac support then he drops Digi. I'm in the same boat. I'm not a fan of windows and alot of people who use Macs as well as some who use windows don't like windows.

Wiz

[Nexxt]

Bingo. WorldofWiz reads between the lines and assimilates with accuracy.

Froyo, clorox: I never said I wanted Digi to drop PC support. That was not my point. Sorry if you read it wrong or I didn't spell it out for you. My philosophy is to each his own and I personally feel that I've chosen wisely based on my interests/needs....and that's where I'll stay.

I see a favoritism, not a parity, blossoming in Digi's marketing of PC based systems. (I know where Digi came from and I understand *most* of the eng/dev staff heretofore has favored the Mac platform.)

What I seem to detect is a push from outside influences, ie MSFT, to push Win development faster and beyond. I hope I'm wrong. However, if that perceived trend is valid and continues to grow, then the previous Avid situation of decreasing/dropping Mac support seems to be an inevitable situation.

In that case (get it? ), I'm outta here. Never have used a PC, don't want to learn its idiosyncracies and never <gulp> will.

[Drew Mazurek]

Has anyone looked at the picture of PT on xp on the software page on digi's site? How can windows users stand the garish annoying look of XP? The blue is loud and irritating.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Actually, I doubt the push is from Microsoft.. Sony recently bought Sound Forge.. a Windows based digital editing company.. they may very well be moving their productions to be Windows based -- which would require Digi to make sure that their software has parity on both platforms.

Rail

[Guitarman2k2]

what on earth is the problem with there being a great version of Pro Tools available on both Mac and Windoze? Choice = competition = better features = possibly better value.