Apple just debuted the new Intel Macs.... anybody heard when Eovia is planning to release a compatible version of Carrara for the Intel Macs? Just curious...

Chuck

As an informal survey, how many of you users have ordered an Intel-based Mac? How many will make this investment in the next 12 months?

For me personally, the decision of when to buy the Intel-based Mac weighs on how quickly the software developers release compatible versions. So, if companies like Eovia, Adobe, Ableton & Propellerhead (the apps I use the most fall under these companies) release compatible versions of their software before the end of the year, then yes - I will definitely place the order for an Intel-based Mac within the next 12 months. Until I know there is software in place and ready to go, I doubt I will order.

Thanks for the quick response Bob.

Chuck

Thanks Chuck. Anyone else?

I am in the same boat as Chuck. I want to stay with Mac, so I'll buy one some day, if that is where Mac is going.

Hi Bob, It will be about 12 months from now for a studio upgrade here (speed to cost improvements about every 18months) Hate to jump on the bandwagon too soon. As Chuck mentioned, ALL of my apps have to work on the Intel platform, not just some of them. As my systems get "outplaced" they become render nodes for Carrara so Universal Binary for the render nodes would be a gotta-have. Mark

I did, but I suppose I don't count since I did it so I can test and ultimately port to there for the same customers you want to support too.

I am REALLY looking forward to either through dual boot Windows, Virtual PC, or Wine being able to support both platforms, including testing and fixing those nasty dual processor issues, with a single portable machine. That let's me consolidate at least two machines, maybe 3. I won't have to boot the old slow noisy power mac except to test the occasional OS9 version of a plug-in. May actually be able to retire it and get a mini that I can stick in drawer and pull out whenever that sort of testing is required.

That of course brings up another question as a plug-in developer, is anyone still using C1-3 on OS9? Do I even need bother targeting those anymore?

Thanks,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Carrara plug-ins

I just watched the keynote address this morning (just had text transcript yesterday)

http://macworld.apple.com.edgesuite.net/mw/index.html

And one thing I totally missed or didn't understand yesterday was "Rosetta" which appears to be a "Classic" type mode for PowerPC software to run on an Intel-Mac machine. To quote Jobs "Runs most PowerPC applications transparently." So, that might change my purchase timeline for a new Mac if the current apps run well under "Rosetta."

So Eric, you'll have to let us know how Carrara performs using "Rosetta." ;-)

Chuck

talking of mac's Eric, I have a little problem. My C5pro arrived and I'm trying to install toonpro but the .sit file for mac OS seems to only contain the PC version of toonpro. Love esther

esther,

Just sent you a message offline, with C5, you have to copy the TXT, MCX, and DAT file from the download to the extensions folder for the plug-in to work. The added TXT file seems to be hanging up many folks who are used to copying the MCX (or no extension) and DTA from the previous versions.

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Carrara plug-ins

okay, I'll do it - thanks. Love esther

My user base is waaay smaller than yours, but I stopped doing CS1 and 2 a while ago, and put a note saying to contact me if you want these versions. I've never gotten a request. Markd

Thanks Mark, that's good to know. I should probably just check my logs and see how many downloads I get monthly. Most of the new stuff is C4+ anyways so it's really just the older products.

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Carrara plug-ins

"So, that might change my purchase timeline for a new Mac if the current apps run well under "Rosetta." My guess is it will run like a slug. Classic mode sucked. So will Rosetta.

I'm very likely to buy one of the new iMacs - maybe even before MacWorld is over. Definitely migrating this year. Of course, I'm moving up from a B&W G3/350 with a G4/800 accelerator so even with Rosetta I'm expecting to see a BIG improvement. Has anyone run C5 under Rosetta? - Jasen.

I am bound to upgrade, but It's probable that I might miss out on the one year limit.

what's the one year limit?

In the next 12 months Bob? Definitley not. My current machine (dual 2.5 G5) is only sixteen months old now. Besides costing nealry $4000, it still runs like new so it's not getting replaced (or suplimented) by an Intel Mac anytime soon. Just make sure Eovia doesn't abandon the Power PC current user base. I have a feeling the Intel Macs will be the minority (of the minority that is already us Mac users) for some time.

"That of course brings up another question as a plug-in developer, is anyone still using C1-3 on OS9? Do I even need bother targeting those anymore?" OS9??? ...NO!! any person still huddled in the crumbling cave of Mac OS9 deserves to be abandonded IMHO and the $500 mac mini makes that tired old "new macs are too expensive" ,argument moot. OS9 is dead!!! gone forever!! thankfully OSX rocks ;-)

I agree that OS9 is dead however the Mac mini kind of sucks. Besides not coming with a moniter (which most enty level machines do) it is exaclty what you think a $500 dollar computer would be. Out of the box it bearly has enough power to run it's own operating system.

Actually I did go check on my logs and last month, the number of OS9 downloads of plug-ins was still in the hundreds. Not anywhere near what the OSX and Windows versions were, and quite a few downloads were from bots not people, but enough that I will continue to build for OS9 for the time being. This also tells me I need to update my robots.txt file to keep the bots from eating up all my bandwidth scanning non-content. Regards, Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild Carrara plug-ins

wolf359 OS9??? ...NO!! any person still huddled in the crumbling cave of Mac OS9 deserves to be abandonded IMHO and the $500 mac mini makes that tired old "new macs are too expensive" ,argument moot. Well... my wife still uses an OS9... ehem... Cube. (Yes... I was the guy who bought one.) She does writing and editing work for various institutions and companies that only require her to do excellant work, not to have the latest and greatest operating system. As a stay-at-home Mom, and a freelance worker, she doesn't have the time OR NEED to upgrade her machine. Still workes great at searching the web for info she needs, email, Word, (UGH!) and the like. At this point she can't upgrade her web browser to Firefox, (OS9 isn't supported,) or Word, (ditto,) or her other apps either without a significant outlay of expense. So please don't abandon those who can't afford to surf the upgrade tide... many of them are your customer base. Like the hobbiest, and the 'one-man-shop' graphic designer, and the students. Just my 2 cents. Thanx for listening. :D

warning on rosetta!! if you watch Steve Job's do his speech, he out right states that "it's not fast enough for pro's, but the average person will be able to use",... in other words, IT's SLOW!!!! give it time people and let apple fix all the bugs, both software and hardware, shouldn't take long. (6 months or so) As to Word upgrade Bluetone,... get NeoOffice, works better than Microsofts, and it's... well FREE!! I have been using it for about 6 months now and find it faster (well everyhere but start up which is slow) easier, and cheaper!! converts Word, excel, and all the others almost flawlessly.

OH... and for the "survey" I will be buying an Intel mac in less than a year... though probably right around a year from now

I currently use a dual 2.5 G5 and at work we are looking into several quads specifically for 3d work so the odds of getting an intel machine for heavy duty 3d within the next year is probably pretty slim here. I will say I can't wait for a render farm of 5 quad g5's. that will be like butta.

Well, as long as we're talking about porting, how about a Linux version? Carrara is about the only thing holding me to Windows. (Sorry for the digression...)