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Architosh Staff ([email protected])

30 Nov 00 Updated: 1 Dec 00

Autocad on Mac OS X: 2500+ petitions and counting!

Responding to overwhelming demand, Architosh.com has been running a petition for Autocad on Mac OS X since this past summer. At the time of our last update on the status of petitions back in August we had gathered over 1200 petitions for the porting to Mac OS X. We are now over 2500!

[updated] Our plans are to present the petition data to both Apple and Autodesk when we have reached over 4000 petitions. Originally we thought 10,000 petitions would be an easy achievement within six months. We now feel that is not reachable.

One may ask: "how many seats would Autodesk need to sell of a Mac OS X version for the port effort to be worth it to them?" How many? That's a good question and one we are not equipped to answer. Obtaining 4000 petitions now seems like solid data and an achievable goal by end of January 2001. We are also going to do follow-up survey work to help determine how many seats the average petitioner is speaking for.

This is important. For example, a number of petitioners have said they are speaking for university computer labs (even whole departments). But how many seats are they really speaking for? And how many licenses would they purchase within the first 12 months of a Mac OS X version of Autocad? How many additional or future licenses may they purchase after 12 months? This applies to big corporations and research labs as well. We have petitions from multiple US National Laboratories, NASA, and places like Boeing, not to mention foreign equivalents in Europe and Asia. These petitions are not coming from employees without decision making power; they are coming from heads of departments and IT directors.

Favorable Data...So Far

While we are fast approaching 3000 petitions gathered, the best news about the petitions so far is not the number but the response to the questions. (To take the petition questionnaire yourself click here.) We encourage all users to take the petition, faithfully. And only take it once.

To review our first findings go to our Preliminary Data Report 1.

Refinement in the Works

As we approach the 3000 mark we are planning on doing follow-up survey work to determine potential seat count and other vital stats. If you are interested in learning more about our Autocad for Mac OS X Petition work please write to us at Architosh.

Taking the Petition

To take the petition for Autocad on Mac OS X please go here. To make your voice heard about Autocad on Mac OS X, write to Autodesk (not Apple).

Architosh would like to acknowledge MacEvangelist.com and MacGuardians (of Germany) who have helped us to translate and gather this survey.