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FreeCAD, QCAD, ARESCommander... ...oh you mean professional tools with the features people need.

Aside from AutoCAD the CAD, CAM, CAE offerings are pretty thin for the Mac and really when you have great tools that work already who really gives a shit what operating system they're running on underneath.

You mean like Siemens NX:

https://www.tatatechnologies.c...

https://community.plm.automati...

Or VectorWorks (which beats the PANTS off of AutoCAD!) :

http://www.vectorworks.net/en/... ...and, as for PCB/Schematic Capture, now that EaglePCB is owned by AutoDesk, I guess it is "legit", too:

https://www.autodesk.com/produ... ...and although their website looks like a 8 year-old designed it, the venerable McCAD is still kicking around, and is actually QUITE nice. It's Autorouter, for example, is second-to-none:

http://www.mccad.com/ ..and there is also the Open Source XCircuit, which I know nothing about:

http://opencircuitdesign.com/x...

"Autodesk Education Community offers some products, such as Autodesk Maya, for the Linux operating system, starting with the 2016 releases." ref

7 Apps That Prove You Don’t Need Adobe Creative Suite on Linux

But no Adobe, Autodesk, Maya etc.

1. Adobe is not a program or product. It's a brand. Are you saying that Photoshop doesn't run on Linux? Because there's alternatives y'know. Or you might be able to run PS CC 2015 under Wine.

2. Autodesk also isn't a program or product. It's a brand. Are you saying that AutoCAD doesn't run on Linux? Because there's alternatives y'know.

3. Maya does install and run natively on Linux

Of course, when it comes to software, Linux supports literally everything except MS Visual Studio.

If you look at the Spark workflow (http://spark.autodesk.com/about) prominent on the list of features is "copyright protection". How exactly this system goes about deciding what you are and are not allowed to print could be quite significant, especially if Microsoft's market share makes it the de facto standard.

Bleh, after looking into this a bit I think it's even worse than that.

Autodesk is calling this an "open platform", but it's most certainly not "open" in the same way we'd usually talk about more permissive "open source" licenses, such as BSD or Apache. So, it's more of a "free as in beer" sort of open, as far as I can tell. They've got a bunch of cloud-related features that (I think) are intended to facilitate transfer of models from design to manufacturing regions, but it looks like it's all very tightly under Autodesk's control, and they're very clear that they're not giving anyone else any control or licensing rights to the code or platform.

Check out the Spark Terms of Service. Open, my ass. How do you get "open" out of that? They're simply defining open as "anyone can use it if they sign up with us", which is about as "open" as Facebook. I was initially hopeful that this might be a good thing for the 3D printing industry, but all it would do is cede a massive amount of control over the 3D printing process to Autodesk, and I can't see how that's a good thing at all.

Meh. Now I'm sort of hoping this dies.

ESRI does have some competition, just not a lot. You can find GIS shops that run Autodesk Map 3D (merged with autodesk topobase a while back) and Intergraph. Which of the 3 you use is largely dependent on your region. Intergraph is fairly popular outside the US. Autodesk tends to be more used in the western US, and ESRI is about everywhere else.

I see a lot of whining, but I think this is great. For a GUI, use the free edition of Maya. I'm sure there will be a way to get scenes out of Blender. For the hobbyist or student, this is the best news out of Pixar since Typestry. Thanks, Pixar!

You don't even get 4 GB of addressable memory. Windows will give you 2 GB, or 3 if the user enables the "3GB switch". And that's straight process addressable memory, you're not actually going to be able to utilize the entire thing. You can do the sorts of heavy-handed memory management that game engines do on consoles to avoid fragmenting it too much, but your addressable space is being chopped up in variable amounts by third party shared libraries (Nvidia's driver takes a bit of memory over here, Steamworks takes a bit over there...), so you can't count on reliably allocating large pools out of it.

>all of the best 3D and 2D tools, other than video, are entrenched in the Linux environment and perform best there

Um, no. What a ridiculous statement. Maya is for Windows and OSX only.

Maya has been available for Linux for years. See http://www.autodesk.com/produc...: "Available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems." It's just the free trial that isn't available for Linux.

Autodesk offers all of their software free to students, for 3 years. This article is mistaken that Autodesk is offering discounted software... EDU use is free.
http://www.autodesk.com/educat...

Autodesk Fusion 360? From what I can see they've got a quite comprehensive and professional learning resource set up.

The whole point of this printer is that you can use it without the expensive software.

Citation please. I read the article, and it does NOT say that. It seems to imply that, but it doesn't come out and say it unequivocally, and it uses lots and lots of weasel words, that could mean anything or nothing. The term "open source" is tossed around without any context. If you read the AutoDesk's press release, you will find more weasel words. They don't use the term "open source" themselves anywhere, even once. That phrase was apparently inserted by a journalist that misunderstood what AutoDesk was saying.

They're allegedly giving away the part you need to use the printer, that is, the driver.

Citation please. "Allegedly" giving something away, is not the same as actually doing it.

They're also giving away the design for the printer.

Citation please. They say it is "freely licenseable", which I take to mean "anyone can license it", but not "license at no cost". If anyone can license the design, use it for free, and maybe even modify or extend it, then WHY DON"T THEY JUST SAY THAT? Instead they wrap everything up in weasel words.

Autodesk has a cloud based CAD software, Fusion 360, which you can rent monthly. It does allow you to export files for 3D printing. http://www.autodesk.com/produc...

Right now is Windows. Final Cut Pro was bastardized into Imovie pro. and Linux has absolutely nothing that is useable.

Oh dear...

Windows has a lock on it as the only platform that runs AVID and Sony Vegas for the only two professional platforms for video editing

Most of those switching from FCP7 went over to Premiere or Avid MC on OSX.

and After Effects as the ONLY EFX software platform that is useable.

I think you meant unusable and what is "EFX"?. AE is a motion graphics tool that evolved into a compositor and does neither very well.

And this makes me sad. All the Linux options are utter garbage or for making videos of your cat, none are usable for a feature length film or even a professional looking TV show.

Not true... you could edit your cat videos in flame, Resolve or piranha (etc) if you wanted.

Of course the linux version of Resolve is $30,000 because... being the version in professional use it's only available with the control surface. Since you're making "a feature length film or even a professional looking TV show" and want to use linux, it should be right in budget for you!

Autodesk has a service already available that does what the Disney does, it's called Recap.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=21350337&siteID=123112

They have a cloud service that can make full 3D models from photos.

Yeah, I heard somewhere that many schools avoid subjects like that now in order to meet grading standards. But when I was going to middle school in the late 90s I had this awesome computer class tought by a guy named Mr. Wilson. The iMac and iBook had just come out, and the class upgraded over the break so I applied to come back to it the next year. I had my first introduction to 3d graphics on the desktop the very last day of that year. I don't remember the name of it but it was something simple like Truespace.

It left a huge impression on me. Kids these days... man I fear for them.

/OT

Here's Autodesk's Mac Compatibility page. It's kinda stretched with filler like a bad essay, full of apps that need virtual machines to run, and multiple versions of the same app. But... for what it's worth they at least bothered to make a list.

http://usa.autodesk.com/products/mac-compatible-products

AutoCAD WS is just a toy (phones/tablets) for do some minor corrections and annotations in the cloud. You dont even need a app or phone to use it https://www.autocadws.com/web. And AutoCAD http://usa.autodesk.com/autocad/ (the full thing who only runs on real Personal Computers), is where the real work its done. Is like comparing google docs to a full office suite.

Autodesk has never made the Macintosh one of their main platforms. Perhaps they are having some fun putting out little applets for iOS, but the CAD scene has never been strong on the Mac platform.

Historically Autocad was a DOS and then Windows platform. Real CAD historically was a UNIX workstation thing.

You need to look recently. Other than Inventor (which the still haven't ported for some unknown reason), AutoDesk has made a very STRONG commitment to OS X, and particularly with AutoCAD. And even Inventor (as well as others) are fully supported under Windows virtualization on the Mac.

And if you want a full Unix-Style OS X compatible World-Class CAD/CAM/CAE environment, look no farther than Siemens, who has ported their Unigraphics UG/NX PLM Suite to several platforms, including, as of 2009, to OS X. And I do believe that this package SMOKES that nasty AutoCAD, because even VectorWorks does that, quite handily. And VectorWorks has existed on Macs since at least 1989.

"For people who actually NEED the power, say folks like me who do video transcoding while running accurate physics simulations of sound propagation for commercial acoustic design and/or industrial noise abatement, and would like to still be able to work in their CAD suite with multiple detailed 3D views open, it is quite clearly NOT a "simple fact" that PCs are "insanely overpowered", that's fucking ridiculous you fool! The systems are never powerful enough."

Autodesk does 3D CAD rendering in the cloud now. Imagination Technologies offers a 3D ARM based ray tracing card called Caustic R2500. Transcoding has similar solutions.

You really don't need that screaming monster under your desk any more, nor the awful costs and effort of upkeep that come with it.

Big "Pro" graphical design apps like Adobe CS or Maya have no signs of getting linux ports

That's surprising, given that Maya's system requirements page lists Red Hat and Fedora as supported operating systems.

• Scripting in Houdini (python, etc)
• Nuke in python
• Maya scripting in python and MEL.
• Softimage scripting (python, etc)
• 3dsmax in python and MAXScript

• Scripting in Houdini (python, etc)
• Nuke in python
• Maya scripting in python and MEL.
• Softimage scripting (python, etc)
• 3dsmax in python and MAXScript

The Forbes article plays a video from some cooking show. With a player with no stop button.

There are other 3D printing service providers. Autodesk has a list. Autodesk itself also does some 3D printing as a sideline. They're more interested in selling the CAD tools for designing parts. Their printing service providers are more oriented towards working parts than decorative objects.

Not always true, you are making a huge assumption which anyone with knowledge knows is a false statement as given. Many apps will work sure, but not all of them. MS does care about backward compatibility, but it's not always possible. Maybe for games and such things will work, but higher end applications (generally with much higher price tags) will need to be re-purchased.

Compared to any other consumer operating system Microsoft wins with backwards compatibility, it is not absolute (nothing is) but Microsoft bends over backwards to support a massive library of software, especially compared to Apple. Are there edge cases? Absolutely, but that says more about the application developers than Microsoft.

Maybe for games and such things will work, but higher end applications (generally with much higher price tags) will need to be re-purchased.

You are making a huge assumption which anyone with knowledge knows is a false statement as given. You're claiming, as a fact, that you will need to rebuy it. Cinema 4D serial works for both platforms, invalidating your claim that you will need to rebuy it. Adobe will let you "cross grade" between platforms. AutoDesk does the same thing. Those are very popular software suites and these examples are in stark contrast to your claims, who is making the (arguably) sweeping statements?

The first point you mention is false. It took years for Apple to switch from PPC to X86. Portability of applications and making sure things work was the premier reason for the timing. You are trying to make it sound like Apple with just swap architectures without a care, which is a complete fabrication.

No where did I mention the speed of the transition, you inferred something which wasn't written. The fact remains that they've hopped architectures, if you've software written for the other architecture you are unable to use that, especially considering support for Rosetta has been removed. Legacy software support (and harware) is not one of Apple's strengths.

Even changing their architecture, how would that change their OS?

For one the way binaries are compiled, when a compiler generates code it does so with a particular architecture in mind. Are you able to run 6502 applications on a PPC (without an emulator!)? I'm sure other things will change, like how the scheduler works (sure the end result is similar but the nitty gritty will change) and other low level nuances. How memory is addressed is another concern (64 > 32) so there is that as well. For a more popular example look at the hoops developers jump through for supporting games written for various platforms like PS2, Xbox, Gamecube.

You are assuming 2 massive changes simultaneously, which again is a complete fabrication and FUD.

My intent wasn't to imply these happening at the same time, just that they can happen. You're looking into something I didn't write, if I had intended that perhaps I would've written "and" or used the world simultaneously. Ever think of that?

And if you want to bitch about not being able to run your IOS for PPC apps on IOS for X86, make sure you bitch about not being able to run Windows for DEC on your Windows for X86.

What the users of 10.8 are noticing is features are being removed and what is being added is more iOS like. No where did I claim I wasn't able to run iOS apps, I linked an article highlighting some valid grumblings. I'm not 'bitching', the only one here doing that is you with respect to your last line. Perhaps my posting history will illuminate my position about OS X/Windows/FreeBSD, why would I be concerned about something which doesn't affect me? Do you worry about supporting platforms your company doesn't

All Autodesk software for Win only. (3DS Max, Maya, Autocad) .

Really?

This is not the first time AutoCAD has been hit. If I remember correctly, this problem also had some links to China. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13717811&linkID=9240617

Not all native applications. The company I work for still has a few. The organisation I worked for before had a few ActiveX only solutions.

Fair enough.

Everywhere I've worked has used Outlook.

Outlook Web App

World of Warcraft doesn't run in a browser

I'm afraid it does

and only has official clients for Windows or a much more expensive alternative.

If you are referring to OS X, you are gravely mistaken:

Windows 7 for $72 - $239

OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard for $29,
OS X 10.7 Lion usb drive installer for $69,
OS X 10.7 Lion App Store download for $29.99, and
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for $19.99

Photoshop doesn't run in a browser.

Photoshop in a browser. and here's 9 more alternatives of varying complexity and ability.

AutoDesk doesn't run in a browser and: "Note: The Autodesk Design Review Browser Add-in does not support scripting or automation in the browser because Firefox and Chrome do not support COM controls." - Windows only restrictions on their browser plugin.

Autodesk in a browser. Of the particular plugin of which you speak, that is true. But since you last looked, they have made a new, different, web based CAD application that indeed allows you to create, edit and use the familiar tools of the native application.

Hardware drivers don't run in a browser and again the alternatives don't always support hardware as well as Windows does - look at the criticism of both NVidia and AMD this week for worse support for Linux than Windows.

I don't see how this matters, but you got me! I can't find any browser based hardware drivers.

Face it. You and your hysterical friend below are wrong. Windows is entrenched. It's the 21st century mainframe. It might go away eventually but we're stuck with it for now and for a long time to come. There is no realistic alternative to it. That's realistic, not just another OS with a GUI and an slightly worse office suite, but an OS that can run whatever people want and need it to. That is Windows largely.

I think you might be a little out of touch... stuck in 2002 perhaps.

These days, that Windows is still most popular among commercial installations is, again, incidental. All it takes is a progressive CIO or CTO to unseat Windows from any particular installation. It is a desktop... it is not essential. Any desktop will do.

Mac OS X is great but the devices it runs on are far more expensive than Windows machines. No corporation will be spending twice as much on computers that won't run all their software and Mac home users tend to have a Windows machine/partition as well.

I don't know why this myth keeps getting perpetuated. Feature for feature, Apple's hardware is always proven to cost within 10% of the competition or less. This is

Scaleform?

http://gameware.autodesk.com/usage/games

The one thing I think all of these games has in common: a terrible UI. Coincidence? I think not.

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

Flash or Apache Flex (yep, Adobe donated Flex to the Apache software foundation).

Flash is still king of 2D GUIs that's why AAA games use it for their interfaces via Scaleform

http://gameware.autodesk.com/scaleform/usage/games

If you want to do it via Flash tecnologies, you can build .SWF, .AIR or native export via Apache Flex too, the SDK of which works like Java's JDK (you can write the code in any text editor, then compile use the SDK.

I've yet to see an HTML5 site that runs anything close to the old 2Advanced site without brining a dual-core CPU to its knees. Or anything done as slick for that matter in iOS or Android. The old 2advanced site runs full speed on an 800MHz Android CPU btw.

Cheerios.

Well if you need AutoCAD, how about using AutoCAD?

Mac-Compatible Products

Any alignment except one that isn't flat, you mean. "Flat" means in a single plane.

This is a flat roof.
This is also a flat roof.
This is not a flat roof. It has two faces in two different planes.

Interesting approach. I would have loved to have seen the presentation, but also today at SIGGRAPH, Autodesk had a presentation by Kevin Wittkopf and Geoff Richardson showing off using the Kinect in production with Maya. Why bother with a suit and a bunch of cameras when Kinect rigs and only going to be getting better (and waaaayyy cheaper) Autodesk is streaming their presentations from the exhibit hall. I'm not sure if they are going to do that prese again tomorrow or Thursday, though. (please don't everyone check it out at the same time...I'm trying to watch it)

Interesting approach. I would have loved to have seen the presentation, but also today at SIGGRAPH, Autodesk had a presentation by Kevin Wittkopf and Geoff Richardson showing off using the Kinect in production with Maya. Why bother with a suit and a bunch of cameras when Kinect rigs and only going to be getting better (and waaaayyy cheaper) Autodesk is streaming their presentations from the exhibit hall. I'm not sure if they are going to do that prese again tomorrow or Thursday, though. (please don't everyone check it out at the same time...I'm trying to watch it)

Interesting approach. I would have loved to have seen the presentation, but also today at SIGGRAPH, Autodesk had a presentation by Kevin Wittkopf and Geoff Richardson showing off using the Kinect in production with Maya. Why bother with a suit and a bunch of cameras when Kinect rigs and only going to be getting better (and waaaayyy cheaper) Autodesk is streaming their presentations from the exhibit hall. I'm not sure if they are going to do that prese again tomorrow or Thursday, though. (please don't everyone check it out at the same time...I'm trying to watch it)

You can get 3dsMAX, the full version, completely functional, for FREE. This is not warz or cracks. Autodesk gives students a 36 month free license on a significant portfolio of their software. It is the real deal. No watermarks. Sign up here: http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=login&logout=1
You need to register and you must use a valid school email, ie, it ends in .edu.
I teach Maya at Phoenix College and encourage all my students to get this deal. It is truly amazing and you simply can't beat it. You can license the software on two machines so you can support your desktop and your laptop.

A lot of the high end editing and finishing systems (Davinci resolve, anything autodesk, apple shake (old), maya, etc) as well as a lot of sound gear (namely the midas xl8) have their OS based on the linux kernel. The apps cost 6 figures and are mostly NOT open source, however. Most of pixar's stuff is nix based as well

All the high end autodesk feature film finishing apps require redhat or centOS: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/item?id=16477734&siteID=123112

Lots of feature films rely heavily on linux, just not on the open source aspect of it. Linux as an OS is very good at handling the very large data sets that thousands of 2k and 4k film scan files are, they also scale way nicer than any windows of mac OS based system ever will. For the right price there are several of the above mentioned companies that will send you a totally closed linux box that "just works" much like apple was years ago, on a way higher level though. I don't even know if they'll give you the root password.

To clarify my point: while I was a student there, Jack Baskin Engineering 2 was built for $61 million. Two years later construction was finished on a new five-story Physical Sciences building, and just last year ground was broken on a $65 million biomedical sciences facility. You can be sure the liberal arts may have got a few million to renovate over the past decade but the sciences get orders of magnitude more funding; admittedly, there have been large alumni donations helping to fund those (a few million dollars) but it mostly comes from the state budget (you're subsidizing STEM majors as well) and tuition fees. And the literature department was the largest one at the school, with (when I was there) something 970 students out of 11,000.

I'm a troll, yet you are the one saying that dia is a suitable replacement for Visio?

If you use either Dia or Visio for project management then you have been promoted well past your level of competence.

Hell, why use dia at all, just keep everything in flat ASCII files and if you need the information, you can read the whole file?

If you can not see the intrinsic utility in gantt, project and resource prerequisites, etc. then you are apparently missing the point of computing in general. Sure, someone might not need those things - but they sure save a hell of a lot of time, money, and general material/human resources.

Rude and empty rhetoric. Yes I know what Autodesk is and which products they sell. [wikipedia.org]

Yet, they sell a great number of other products, too. None of them have a correlative product available on Linux, never mind as 'free' software. I have no idea why you would automatically assume I meant Maya when I refer to "AutoDesk" and "drafting", unless you've got no actual professional experience with what we're talking about and/or have torrent sites as your primary source of education. Consider the AutoDesk products: pretty much all of them deal exclusively with the engineering, surveying, and architecture fields. Maya is an auxiliary acquisition which compliments their portfolio, but is by no means the focus of their product line(s).

Unlike Maya productions (where the returns are more significant on a big production), the margin for typical engineering/physical technical work is significantly less. "Re-tooling", as it were, is not nearly as much of an option when you're making something functional as when you're trying to push the boundaries on art.

It's a simple economic computation, and if you can't grasp this fact, you really don't belong in this argument. It's not ideological, it's economical. If I can not meet my deadline for a project if I resort to using software with inferior features, I can't simply justify charging more (because I'll be beaten out by competitors). I can't justify it to customers (with "I use free software so it's going to cost more to get it done" or otherwise).

I can agree with you - to a point - that free and open software is ideologically better, and technically better from a "liberation" standpoint. When it comes time to get shit done, however, you've got to make a compromise or not do it at all (except for in the rarest of circumstances).

The only real argument I have left with piracy is that it distorts the market.

Piracy distorts the market by shifting production and distribution into more mundane - and profitable - channels.

High School Musical XII gets the green light because Disney knows that its audience will buy the DVD and Blu-Ray disks, tickets for the arena stage show, the theme part attraction - and license the show for their High School drama club.

Production costs? $10-20 million.

Tron: Legacy, as fan service for the Geek. More like $300 million.

This is especially seen in the software market - where the incumbent publishers get undeserved market share through piracy - locking out alternatives. Repeat offenders giving piracy the wink-wink-nudg-nudge would be Microsoft, Adobe, and Autodesk. How else would they build their userbase if they made it impossible for HS and college students to pirate full editions?

Undeserved?

Their products remain - typically - best-of-breed, tools for the professional.

MS Office Academic Professional is an $80 download, direct from Microsoft. Look around and you will discover that Microsoft has even better deals for students, not just in the states, but globally.

As for Autodesk: Find schools with students already downloading free Autodesk software. If the student's profile is public, see the designs they are creating.

The piracy argument is lame snd lazy.

I thought it wouldn't matter to true slashnerds, but then I remembered what their system requirements page said:

"Maya 2011 is also capable of running on other configurations such as boutique distributions of Linux. "

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=13577897

Oh Noes! The end of Maya isn't just for Windows!

If you disagree, name one skill -- just one -- that kids ought to learn, that can only be performed on a Windows PC. Or name an invaluable educational resource that can only be accessed by Windows users.

Like I said in my first post, kids ought to learn basic Windows skills since most businesses run on Windows. Having to walk people through the most basic Windows commands so they are able to use their Windows-only business software and navigate to the project files for the project is a giant waste of time and money for any business. Think, if your hiring someone would you choose to hire someone who know nothing of the systems your running that runs on 90% of all computers and have to waste time, money and effort to train them to use your systems as well as make sure to field there other questions in the future about Windows basics? Or just hire the person who knows basic Windows and won't need nearly as much training? This is what its like in the real world and why most people who are going for a job from basic secretary to most manager levels will place on their resumes that they have an understanding of Microsoft Windows because they know odds are highly in their favor that these will help them. Mac OSX skills are rare in need or even in use in most businesses so they won't help get that job.

AutoCAD is a industry standard software that is used in many businesses and is Windows only. So any business that relies on AutoCAD is going to be Windows only.

Also, many businesses use .Net and that again is a Windows only option. While you can of course use Mono, it's not a perfect replacement and some .Net commands don't fully work, and in a business enviroment many companies would rather take the fully supported version then one that might cause issues even if your not going to be coding in it, if they use it, they'll more likely be using Windows. Saves headaches and possible glitches leaving it down to again the person must understand how to use basic Windows concepts and commands.

Another system you might not be aware of is that one of the largest Point Of Sales systems is Micros. What you might not see is that Micros is a Microsoft only product, meaning of course that behind the scenes, the companies that utilize these systems run on Windows since they are all networked. So any part of the job that will need you touching a work computer that isn't a part of the Micros system will be a Windows system and will need general Windows understanding.

While I understand that it doesn't seem fair or right that so many use Windows (I'm a Linux user myself), you can't just say no to learn the industry standard that will be found in most businesses. Even if you don't see the Windows icons, you'd be surprised what truly does run on Windows only.

I submit to you something far more complex than Photoshop. Autodesk Maya.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=13583877

Like Adobe, they got burned when the 64-bit Carbon API was scrapped, and it took more than 2 years. But it's here now.

A thingy I can draw on and watch movies with?

You can do those things with just about any electronic device on the market in the past 10 years...

interactive

WRONG. These devices are all about consumption, not creation.

Hey, Lex, chill out and look at the first thing I would buy for an iPad: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=6848332

no probably Carl Bass

AutoCAD has supported Direct3D since February 2009. Here are the drivers: http://www.nvidia.com/object/autocad_pd_perf_drivers.html

It always surprises me when people mention AutoCAD as if it has stood still in the ten years they've used it since high school, while the rest of the CAD industry has charged ahead. Nontrivial, 3d geometry is well possible in AutoCAD today. It's no CATIA or UGS NX, but most parts in a car or aircraft can be modeled in AutoCAD with high fidelity today. Five to ten years? Good luck predicting ANYTHING in the software industry at that extent.

Here

So what do I need a 3D Camcorder for?

Here

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=11946449

Anyone remember that sig that says troll and flamebait are not replacements for disagree? It says it requires Windows XP. There is no word on any Linux or OSX version at all. Therefore chances are it won't work for them unless you really want to, i.e Crossover.

Somebody get this into people's heads, seriously.

most large commercial software do have free trials
what $600 purchase are you alluding to that does not?

Photoshop http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?platform=windows&product=39
autocad http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/mform?id=9106363&siteID=123112
Sony Vegas http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/trials/vegaspro

MS office- http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/default.aspx
you can in fact with a tech net subscription-
trial EVERYTHING Microsoft produces for $349 a year--
which is a worthwhile investment and negligable sum for ANY company large enough to have a full time IT person on staff

not an unreasonable purchase amount at all.

Parent is right: money is not the argument, that is worth the switch. Software companies, Microsoft included want students to learn MS Office, Adobe, Matlab, Autodesk Inventor, etc. Some companies even give their student versions of really expensive software packages away for free, just have a look at Autodesk.

For the students it is of great value, if they are able to work efficiently with open source software. Just a few days ago I helped someone to switch from Endnote to Zotero+Jabref. It was quite a pain to convert from the Endnote format to something more open like the Bibtex format and there are several websites which show you 10 different hacks how to do it somehow.

With open source the file format is always documented, at least in the code itself. So if you want to work with your reference in 5 years without upgrading Endnote to Windows 8 this is the only sane choice.

For science in general it is necessary to check your results carefully and be able to reproduce other people's work somehow. How are you going to judge a paper claiming: "We simulated bla with this $$$ software package and it looks marvelous"?

Besides file formats and reproducibility in my opinion it is in most cases better to teach something that can be useful for the next 5-20 years, instead of some fast moving target. Software vendors often change their products and break backwards compatibility (Labview is great, but going back 2 versions is a no go) not because they invented this new must have feature but to sell the next version. If your students can do statistical analysis in Gnumeric and R they are well equipped for advanced work and do not have to worry about all the errors in Excel (statistics in Excel).