Oh yeah I'm with you there, Vegas is an incredible value and I feel competes quite well against FCP. The thing is though, Mac users, like my friend, tend to be quite loyal to the hardware. I think if Vegas made Mac compatible software, they would tap into the market of consumers like my friend. People who don't want to lose their Apple hardware but want more quality and value out of their software, especially in the audio/video world.

Interesting thing happened this week.

For a particular project, I had to learn how to use Final Cut Pro 3, as the Producer had allowed himself to be persuaded to buy a G4 with FCP etc etc, and wanted the program edited on his new rig.

The producer organised a couple of young "Wizzes" from a local TV Station to give me a tutorial.

In the course of showing me the ropes, these two guys came out with a classic comment - that they wished FCP was available on a PC, as they'd rather use a PC for its overall functionality than a Mac.

I shall in due course have them over to my place to see VV3 - I'm sure they will be blown away.

By the way, I found FCP to be ok but unimpressive - lots of common functions took several clicks/menus to navigate - VV3 really is an incredibly well designed application.

Maybe porting VV over to Mac would make sense. I suspect, however, that as soon as a Mac VV was introduced, FCP would suddenly be retailing for $499, and those loyal Mac users would stick with the Apple solution. What I think would REALLY make sense is to port it over to Linux, which I think is going to really clean Microsoft's clock over the next couple of years.

Back around the time the Mac first came out I was one of Apple's "Account Executives" trying to get a foothold into the Fortune 500. The Mac is kind of like a religion--a lot of it is based on faith, not just logic (not that that's wrong, or bad--just the way it is).

Whatever floats your boat...

Yep! The grass is always greener....I have to admit, I've done it myself. I'm a PC hobbiest, with an open mind and a couple of old MACs. But, when I get so sick & tired of PC DVD Authoring Drama, all I have to do is call my friend who is of the MAC belief, and let out my PC frustrations. He usually ends up asking me how to fix his latest MAC problem; the scariest part is, I usually know the answer.

I don't know how Apple does it -- maybe subliminal refresh rates? But they can take an old TRS-80, paint it some pastel, add a backlite Apple Logo, add a few neat looking connectors (of course, not attached to anything inside), Keep the B&W screen, Charge $1900.00, and the Penguins will line up in droves with cash in hand. The saddest part is, after they get it home and realized it doesn't work, they won't even return it, with justifications like "It Looks So Cute".

They have a following that puts the Pied Piper to Shame.

Jeffy82

I could never understand the fanaticism of Mac users. Kind of like the Islamic Jihad. They only see and know their machine and everything else is evil. I've experienced outright hostility from otherwise nice people when I tell them I'm a PCer.

I've worked on both Macs and PCs for a living and the Mac is just not that great any more: slow, crashes a lot, limited apps. Maybe at one time it was superior, but no longer.

The speeds of the new PC processors are just blowing away the Mac. In a few months the standard Dell laptop will be shipping with speeds of over 2GHz. But here's what the Mac guys are willing to pay for a 1GHz desktop with monitor: $5000.

Huh?

Speaking of the fanaticism of Mac users, once while in a crowded CompUSA store I and others watched with some amusement as a couple guys argued loudly the pros and cons of Windows verses the Mac operating system. The Mac guy was really getting annoyed, the typical Mac is so much better nonsense, with the Windows guy more teasing than anything else. It started slow, quickly built into a heated exchange and then came to blows with bystanders needing to pull the combatants apart resulting in a couple Macs getting knocked to the floor in the process. Ridicilious! Pretty much the same sillyness of the AMD verses Intel, which is faster, better debate.

did you take a picture of the fight? :)

There's a certain breed of Mac types I've encountered: the "creative" pony-tailed types who believe having a Mac automatically makes you an artistic genius. Well, having worked as an artist/illustrator before, I certainly know how to draw and in the traditional sense.

So here is this Mac guy showing off his drawings and cartoons, telling me that you just can't do this on a PC, that all the good artwork is done on a Mac, etc. etc. He was getting all riled up about it too. And then I look at his drawings and they stink!

Then a while later, I casually show him some drawings I did for some clients and said, "Hey pal, the 80s are over. Get a PC."

I thought he was going to take a swing at me.

Same thing with the Linux crowd, a lot of die hard fantinics that think anyone that uses Windows is is wuss. About a year ago I made the mistake of using my real email address in posting to some Linux newsgroup. I posted a couple less than complimentary remarks about the trouble I had installed SuSE which happens to be of German orgin.

My only complaint was right out of the box there was this little piece of paper saying the automated install they raved about on the outside of the box had a bug, don't use it, instead use the older install. OK, big deal I think.

Being a knob twister I decided to load all 7 CD's worth of goodies. Well half way through the process of switching back and forth between CD's, dumb in itself, all of sudden without warning the instructions changed from English to German. That's what I was griping about in the newsgroup. I got a flood of really nasty emails loaded with foul language accusing me of the usual you're a real idiot don't know nothing diatribe. Now if you really want fanantic, talk to a UNIX geek. They look down their nose at everyone else.

Now just for everyone that read to the end of this silly post, the following link can be a real treat if you want to dig into the history of how some terms you know and many you don't got their start and how to "properly" use them. Mostly serious, but also loaded with some very clever, witty and shameless put-downs too.

WARNING! A HUGE file for a single HTML page so allow ample time for downloading.

http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/jargon.html

Just a small sample:

PLONK
plonk excl.,vt.

[Usenet: possibly influenced by British slang `plonk' for cheap booze, or `plonker' for someone behaving stupidly (latter is lit. equivalent to Yiddish `schmuck')] The sound a newbie makes as he falls to the bottom of a kill file. While it originated in the newsgroup talk.bizarre, this term (usually written "*plonk*") is now (1994) widespread on Usenet as a form of public ridicule.

newbie /n[y]oo'bee/ n.

[very common; orig. from British public-school and military slang variant of `new boy'] A Usenet neophyte. This term surfaced in the newsgroup talk.bizarre but is now in wide use (the combination "clueless newbie" is especially common). Criteria for being considered a newbie vary wildly; a person can be called a newbie in one newsgroup while remaining a respected regular in another. The label `newbie' is sometimes applied as a serious insult to a person who has been around Usenet for a long time but who carefully hides all evidence of having a clue. See B1FF; see also gnubie.

I'm with you on this one, BillyBoy. My office WAN is unix based. Those guys are in love with the OS, I believe, because it (falsely, I believe) gives them a sense of security, something they know a lot about and the rest of us "semi-"literate computer types can't really work with.

In the meantime, much $$ is spent developing weak implementations of functionality that doesn't begin to address my day to day needs as well as Win based aps.

To be sure, our Unix system has never crashed to my knowledge, but, then again, it is totally text based, so, I would expect it to be more stable. In the mean time, there is a whole team of IT guys/gals working to fix this, fix that. We have a Lotus Notes BBS devoted to communicating the latest bugs and fixes of the Unix system - no ground breaking development, mind you. Stuff like various transactions that don't post properly under certain conditions, etc.

In the meantime, report output from this system looks terrible and is hard to read. I wind up porting most of the info to excel, access, or word so that I can send out something that another person can understand.

Sorry to go on so, and I know I'm a bit OT, but, I very much appreciate the powerful functionality that Windows and WinApps has brought to the typical desktop user, and, while we sometimes complain, Windows/PC is a far less expensive environment.

My 2-cents.

Caruso

Hi,

This is an absurd tread, I love my Mac, I love my Win Pc, I love my Linux Pc, I love my Unix Mac, but I want a Pc designed by Apple.

Bye

If the Mac architecture is so great, then why are there not a lot of Mac clones like there are for Intel based systems? (For those who don't know any better, this is a rhetorical question, I know the answer(s)!)

Everyone knows that the Mac OS was the superior OS at one time. That's why Bill stole it for Windows. Lately though, Mac has not kept up with technology and is suffering because of it.

Anyway, instead of a Mac vs. PC/Windows battle, why can't we just get along? There will always be a loyal Mac following, so I agree, maybe there should be a Mac version of Sonic Foundry products (Not just VV).

I'm not a MAC user, obviously, so I selfishly vote that SOFO continues to use their precious resources making VV (and their other products) better on the PC rather than expending the countless hours it would take to port to the Mac and Linux. Or, perhaps they should port to the Mac when the Apple ports Final Cut Pro to Windows. Is that the sound of a glacier forming in hell I hear.

:)

Tom

Hello,

I don't agree, I think that sofo spend a lot of time in Windows. I want a distribution of Linux made by Sofo, exclusive for his applications, OS and programs work together in a sinergic union, OS designed for audio. I think that Linux is a very good way. Total control for Sofo

Bye

Just imagine that, the full product line of SoFo ported to Linux! LOL
That would be wishful thinking, plainly impossible. Up to date, I don't think there is a decent full blown audio editor in Linux. For video editing, from what I know of: mainconcept ported mainactor 3.6 a while back.
There is also some freeware around but nothing for the mainstream user - the non-geeks ;)
unfortunately, the R&D just to port for example Sound forge 6.0 into linux would cost too much and the profit generated from it would take too much time to materialize. :(

Let a semi-newbie help balance the picture. I agonized over not buying a Mac last year, but all my software was Windows. Then regretted getting a PIII (866) instead of waiting a bit for a P4. Enter VV3. I sit in front of the TV with the wife each night, driving her crazy during commercials, going "I can do that...I can do that too...I know how they do that." Now do I wait for Apple? Pish tosh! I wait for VV in 4:2:2!!!!!

Hello,

Not all the Linux applications are freeware, I will paid for a Sofo applications ported to Linux (The same price as Win applications).

Imagine: Sofo with the total control of his software and the OS (OS modified for help the software).

Bye