Platform percentages

Anyone have any idea how the user percentages break down on Mac vs. PC
platforms for Macromedia products?

This is not meant to spark a war nor compare the merits of each system but
rather I'm just curious since so much of the documentation (screen shots
mainly) you see in various books and online is Mac-centric.

Again, just curious.

--
Rick in Tacoma

Dont know about percentages but all the books I have read most seem to be
specific to windows unless specified mac on the cover. Now that I think
about it I dont know that Ive ever really payed much attention to it.

Steve

"OldCop" <rebethmyshoes (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Anyone have any idea how the user percentages break down on Mac vs. PC
platforms for Macromedia products?

This is not meant to spark a war nor compare the merits of each system but
rather I'm just curious since so much of the documentation (screen shots
mainly) you see in various books and online is Mac-centric.

Again, just curious.

--
Rick in Tacoma

Really--specific to Windows? My experience has been the opposite.

--
Rick in Tacoma

Mac uses a dif type of shortcut system like cmd button instead of ctrl and I
don't remember reading about a cmd button in the books I'm reading. Then
again I could be wrong. Just seems odd that they would write a book about a
program and try to make it work both seems to confusing for the reader. What
books do you use?

"OldCop" <rebethmyshoes (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Really--specific to Windows? My experience has been the opposite.

--
Rick in Tacoma

Virtually any book I read about any Macromedia--or for that matter Adobe
product shows predominately Mac screen shots; it's not confusing to
me--their differences are not that great anymore.

I just wondered why.

--
Rick in Tacoma

The differences are significant when it comes to HTML development, if
only because Mac browsers have their own quirks -- just like the PC fleet
does.

As for books that contain Mac shots, here's my guess: most art houses
or ad agencies I've dealt with work with Macs. They just do. So when many
books are made, if they're farmed out to an ad agency -- at least, the many
I've dealt with -- the developers in such companies make their
screenshots with the computer at hand, namely a Mac.

As for percentages ... any answer to that may indeed cause a war. In my
own experience, Mac users as a general public (that is, not as art/ad agency
developers) are less than 10%. However, many schools -- especially grade-,
middle- and highschools -- have Mac programs and Mac labs. One of our
biggest clients in the office lately, NASA, uses Mac more than PC (and of
course, I don't know that that means all of NASA uses Macs predominantly,
but our group does). So follow the old adage, "know your audience."


David
stiller (at) quip (dot) net


"OldCop" <rebethmyshoes (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Virtually any book I read about any Macromedia--or for that matter Adobe
product shows predominately Mac screen shots; it's not confusing to
me--their differences are not that great anymore.

I just wondered why.

--
Rick in Tacoma

I think you're probably correct on the ad agency/art house "guess." But what
I meant by saying their differences are not that great anymore was that the
interface in DW (or most programs available for both platforms) are usually
nearly identical, differentiated mostly by the CMD/CTRL and ALT/OPTION key
combinations.

And the percentages are probably in line with whatever the percentages are
for computer users in general.

--
Rick in Tacoma

"OldCop" <rebethmyshoes (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

I think you're probably correct on the ad agency/art house "guess." But
what
I meant by saying their differences are not that great anymore was
that the
interface in DW (or most programs available for both platforms) are
usually
nearly identical, differentiated mostly by the CMD/CTRL and ALT/OPTION
key
combinations.

And the percentages are probably in line with whatever the percentages
are
for computer users in general.

I may be wrong, but as I recall from several conversations with
Macromedia employees over the years, the percentage of Dreamweaver users
on Macs used to be significantly higher than the overall percentage of
Mac users - but has been steadily moving towards overall stats as
customer base has grown.