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So how much accounting, sales order processing, customer relations management, HR, payroll,stock control and other business related software is available on a Mac? Or Linux?

Glad you asked!

My personal favorite in the ERP world is xTuple (formerly Open Mfg). They even have a free QuickBooks-Like version. Speaking as an ERP software dev. myself, this package is strong enough that I have seriously considered becoming a VAR for it.

Then, there are the longstanding AccountEdge/MYOB, and AppGen/Custom Suite (AppGen Custom Suite is pretty cool, IMHO). I also see FlexWare Accounting, which has a Manufacturing add-on. Don't know much about FlexWare; but it looks pretty complete.

Then there are the interesting database/app-generation systems, such as Omnis (which had the whole idea of "web apps" NAILED more than a decade ago), and, last but certainly not least, 4D, also sporting a wonderful web-app solution. Both are big database-oriented Application-Creation packages that have marched along for years, never quite getting traction, but never quite falling over, either! In fact, 4D's web server was eventually spun-off into its own product (name escapes me, sorry!), and has the enviable reputation of not only being faster that snot, but also has never been hacked... Both Omnis and 4D embraced the concept of being able to "publish" applications directly on the web, such that the apps retained all, or nearly all, of the look-and-feel of the "desktop" versions. Quite cool, actually.

And the hidden advantage is that pretty much all, if not all, of the Mac business software is actually cross-platform; so you get platform-independence "for free". What's not to like about that?!?

As far as CAD/CAE tools go, there are several choices. My personal favorite is VectorWorks, which whips all-over AutoCAD (but maybe not so much on Inventor). I have a longstanding Mac consulting client, who has to live in a world of architects who use AutoCAD, and he has zero problems using VectorWorks with their files, import or export. The only "problem" is that VectorWorks actually supports many things that AutoCAD does not; so he has to be somewhat careful not to use features that AutoCAD (by all rights, should, but) does not support. In fact, when AutoCAD became available (again) for Macs, he wasn't the slightest bit interested in switching away from VectorWorks. And although not widely known in this country, the extremely high-end CAD/CAM/CAE system Siemens PLM NX/UG (Unigraphics) has been available on OS X since at least 2009, and is also available on Linux.

And let's not forget Qt. It's a royal pain to develop in; but you can certainly churn out some pretty complex cross-platform apps in the environment. Eagle PCB is a good example of how advanced a Qt-based app can get... As a (now former, I guess) embedded developer, I used to lament the lack of good (or really, ANY) development tools for Macs. But even that has been (slowly) changing. Microchip now supports both Macs and Linux with MPLab X (helped along considerably by the acquisition of Hi-Tech, and their cross-platform C Compilers). And BTW, Microchip even addresses the question of "Why not just

4th Dimension(al) Database has already been done. I used this back in 1993, 94 or so.

No, but the voices reassure me and tell me not to listen to you.

Since I used to work with 4D(http://www.4d.com/), the *easily* most insane development language/toolkit ever made, MY voices reassures me that it's OK not to.

Cool.

I looked at the 4D link but was unable to find anything that simply described it by saying, "4D is..."

I have worked for over 20 years with Wang PACE (Professional Application Creation Environment). PACE is a 4GL and relational database without an SQL interface per se, but with limited SQL in its Host Language Interface that allows using database functionality in several high level languages.

PACE is an exceptionally powerful tool that supports relationships and referential integrity rules in its Data Dictionary, and allows creating default apps at the touch of a button that contain Display, Add, Modify, List, List Add, List Modify, Delete and Query screens that can further be modified by an exquisite screen editor. Complex apps can integrate Host Language Interface (HLI) code either to enhance screen and field functionality or even to completely control the flow between screens and screensets.

Entire straightforward PACE apps can be created, containing many screensets and screens and dealing with many related tables, all without writing a single line of code.

I began working with PACE about 1986. In 1989 I got involved in an Oracle project. I was shocked at how primitive Oracle was compared to PACE. Yes, it had a solid database engine, and yes, it had ad hoc and stored query capability, but it knew nothing about referential integrity unless you had the CASE tool, which faked referential integrity by generation of zillions of triggers in SQL*Forms. Heaven help anyone who tinkered with such forms because they could disrupt referential integrity without realizing it. And heaven help anyone trying, as I did, to build forms from scratch -- it was necessary to figure out and painstakingly write all the forms triggers necessary to accomplish referential integrity.

PACE is still a contender today for rapid development of finished database apps and maintenance thereafter.

No, but the voices reassure me and tell me not to listen to you.

Since I used to work with 4D(http://www.4d.com/), the *easily* most insane development language/toolkit ever made, MY voices reassures me that it's OK not to.

http://www.4d.com/ ... Too obscure?

Source for GUI is not open. Source for GCM is available at GISS. We'd love to do Linux but our interface language, 4D, does not support it. Please file requests with them until we re-do with a cross-platform language or web-based technologies.

What are they?

4D is not too bad. It's hard to make a recommendation, because the entire concept of "personal databases" is obsolete and was probably a bad idea to begin with. But 4D works on Mac and Windows, is well-engineered, well-supported and used for lots of serious applications. It's less toy-like than Access, there's less focus on eye-candy and more on performance and scalability.

Today in fact, we had to hack our way into Microsoft's patch and a third party library because M$s latest patch broke our software, and the third party refused to fix a bug in a four year old - and therefore unsupported - version of their software.

If only their newer versions would have been near stable, we would have upgraded years ago. Closed software - sigh.