- Architosh Staff ([email protected])
- 30 Aug 00
Apple and the Science: New Barometers, pg. 2 This caliber of guidance is critical to Apple's continued success in growing the Macintosh platform. Many scientist currently work in UNIX, NT and Mac environments and would prefer to eliminate NT in favor of Mac OS X. (see other comments in our Editorial and Petition for Autocad on Mac OS X.) As one National Laboratory IT specialist said: "I get the (dubious) honor of supporting 148 seats of PTC ProEngineering (Solaris Unix) as well as a back-up administrator to 60 seats of Autocad (WindowsNT). I wish both were available for the Mac. MacOS X will bring "real operating system" status to the Apple platform. It would be in Apple's best business interest to further the porting of professional level software to the Macintosh platform. While there are any number of "professional" software packages, the definition of such is pretty much subjective to the market they apply to, so it would be difficult for Apple to make a choice based on professional merit alone. But Autocad is an incredibly visible piece of software. Getting it operating on the Mac again would be a great incentive for other software vendors to follow." -- C. Allison, Lawrence Livermore National Lab As our our petition for Autocad on OS X has attested, there are many scientist in labs around the world who have used Macs in the past or are using them now in limited or specialized roles. These professionals believe OS X is a better compliment to UNIX iron than NT. And many Mac users don't realize just how prominent Macs already are in the biotechnology market. It Takes a Few Good Apps: Mac Software for Science Hillary Clinton may say it takes a village, and the US Marines may say it takes a few good men. But what does it take to make the Mac successful in a market? As the iMac has proved, from the start it takes a few good apps. These few good apps are really "anchor applications" that hold the whole market together. Just like the mall, if the big stores aren't there why go? | Let's hope that as Mac OS X approaches, many more top notch science applications move to the Macintosh, either from UNIX or Windows NT. The appeal of the Mac is that scientist can focus on their important research, and not the computer. | Apple doesn't need to put the likes of Arthur Levinson on the board to figure out what the anchor apps are for the biotechnology industry. Instead, such guidance will probably be directed at understanding the deeper trends in the scientific industries, 'what scientist really need', and how to approach them. A positive sign has come already with significant upgrades to anchor applications that are used in a wide variety of scientific fields, such as the all new Mac SPSS 10.0 and the program DeltaGraph 4.5 for Macintosh. A similar multidisciplinary product is longtime Mac software KaleidaGraph 3.5.. Data analysis and its presentation are just one thing. There are thousands of specialized programs used in the various scientific fields. Apple's Macintosh Product Guide (MPG) has various lists by scientific categories. You can also review all Science and Technology categories here, which include: Architecture & Construction, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Manufacturing, and Mechanical Engineering.[note there are no biotech categories yet in the MPG] Let's hope that as Mac OS X approaches, many more top notch science applications move to the Macintosh, either from UNIX or Windows NT. The appeal of the Mac is that scientist can focus on their important research, and not the computer. With such hot and promising fields as biotechnology, science is one field where Apple should want to be. 
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