I wasn't saying for Sony to make MACs, just to make it available for MAC users.

Well, yes, a few people have asked for this, and a few people have asked for Vegas on Linux.

While the rest of us curmudgeons say "it's not worth the trouble", go ahead and ask SCS.

The main reason you don't see Vegas on another platform is that Vegas isn't built on top of cross platform parts., but maybe SCS has a few skunkworks projects hidden away to make Vegas run on a Mac. Heck, Apple evidently had a working OSX for the intel platform for years, just in case they switched architecture.

Rob

I love Sony's software and would like to continue using it. I have no plans on using anything else in the future. I have nothing against Windows and I'm not going to get into the whole MAC OS X vs Windows. Why people say MAC vs PC is beyond me. All PC stands for is Personal Computer. I think people have gotten away from what a true PC is? People don't say Linux vs PC do they? People are just talking about the operating system because they're all PCs. I just thought that it would be nice to have it available on the MAC platform.

Have you tried Bootcamp - I've read that it allows Windows programs to run on a Mac, maybe as a dual boot ...

I'm pretty much in the same situation.
The only reason I still use Windows is because of Vegas. Otherwise I use OS X and Linux. I don't mind using XP, but there is no way I'm gonna use Vista. So I hope Vegas will continue to work under XP for a while...

>>>>MAC is just so solid and stable I don't see any reason for Sony not to release a MAC version. Any comments???<<<<

A good windows machine is just as solid as any Mac, if not more.
( I've had a couple of windows crashes in the last 3 years on 4 machines, combined ).

As we mentioned in the other thread, it takes money to develop a mac version, and to Sony it's not worth it. 6% of population uses macs, maybe 0.06% of that would use Vegas on OSX.

Sony is not the only one. A lot of Major players in the FX and CGI industry don't have Mac versions ( 3DStudio max, other autodesk stuff, XSI, Fusion, etc... ).

have pc and mac, but couldn't see myself paying mac prices for the bang i can buy pc's at.

i use the mac's more or less for testing web sites, video play back, but not for anything that requires any amount of grunt.

stability comes with careful selection of hardware, and running known software, and at times, not running it, eg, nortons....

leslie

"MAC is just so solid and stable..."

That's a fallacy.

"I don't see any reason for Sony not to release a MAC version."

For the same reason that there is no Final Cut for the PC.

have pc and mac, but couldn't see myself paying mac prices for the bang i can buy pc's at.

This has been chewed on here and elsewhere many times.

Unless you get white box PCs that you support yourself, many recent reviews have confirmed that Macs have on average the same bang for the buck across the range of different types of computers. Sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less.

i use the mac's more or less for testing web sites, video play back, but not for anything that requires any amount of grunt.

Sounds like your friend has a G5 or even a G4 laptop. "My dad's 8-core Mac Pro kicks your PC's rear panel..."

Seriously, several non-Mac industry publications have run comparisons recently only to find that the highest performance Windows machines were made by Apple... This in several segments, both notebooks and desktops.

Note: this doesn't mean that you can't find some PC model that runs faster in some cases. It only means that for widely available hardware, Apple makes high performance hardware that often beats same cost PC hardware from major brands.

"MAC is just so solid and stable..."

I agree that a competent technically skilled user can get the same stability on a Windows XP machine as on Mac OS X ditto.

Heck, even I do it every day, running them side by side.

What bothers me a lot is the very frequent interruptions of my work on the PC. Update virus signatures, get weekly security patches, scan for worms and other malware, ...

On the Mac: no antivirus ever, so no downloads for this, no worm etc. scans, and only rare OS updates. I feel more free to focus on my work.

"I don't see any reason for Sony not to release a MAC version."

It's not clear to me how those two would be related.

Apple has a small engineering department and doesn't want to defocus the company's efforts by doing too much Windows software where they are not strong, and where the future is uncertain: XP is on its last leg, Microsoft is pushing Vista but nobody wants to buy it, and little is known about next year's Windows 7 (because MS hasn't decided a lot of key things in W7 yet, just like they kept changing the goal posts on Vista features every month or two for years before it was finally released).

The Vegas development team made a decision a long time ago (when Bill Gates was running Microsoft) to bet the company on Microsoft being a leader in computer video and providing all necessary support in high level Windows APIs.

This had many advantages early on, but it also served to lock in the growing code base completely to what Microsoft was able to accomplish or not (just as intended by Microsoft).

The lock-in became controversial when Microsoft let Video for Windows fall by the wayside, content to have it be a solution for home video on the desktop, with no support for professional video (because Microsoft didn't understand that market).

Vegas has definitely suffered lately because of the strangled feature set in this API lock-in, which has even been a factor in delaying 64-bit Vegas.

A few years ago it made the developers' work easier, but now they have painted themselves into a corner, waiting for a path forward that can provide what pro editors need even if Microsoft screws things up for a while.

If you want to see how it really should be done, check out OS X's Core APIs. Very very nice functionality that is super easy to access and has great performance.

I really don't see Microsoft getting video until Ballmer retires or is forced out.

He is greed on a stick, which would be OK if he could make his lead engineers able to create new greatness without needing signoffs by 5,000 middle managers on every detail, but this hasn't happened and won't happen in our life time.

Sony Vegas would not work right on a Mac OS X The reason is that Vegas relies on too many windows conventions and that is the primary reason it works so well and requires so little training to learn. It builds upon the users knowledge of windows.

So the best way to get where you want to be is to simply install your Vegas product on your MAC! I have done this here, mostly as an experiment but bottom line is this is the easiest way to get what you want. Have Vegas editing on the MAC. My Mac is a 15" Macbook Pro with 2Gb Ram.

Here's how you do it: ( This does require the intel processor Mac however. )
1. Get a software called Parallels. Cost is about $60 I think street price. Install it on your OS X
2. Buy a fresh copy of windows XP Home, not the upgrade. About $150 as I recall.
and install it on your Mac
3. Now install Vegas or any other PC software and begin to have fun. I have done a few projects on the Mac with the above installation and it works with no bugs.

> "What bothers me a lot is the very frequent interruptions of my work on the PC. Update virus signatures, get weekly security patches, scan for worms and other malware, ..."

Course, for many years, I have not allowed my main work PC near the internet, and it just works ...

I disable all the automatic stuff.

"What bothers me a lot is the very frequent interruptions of my work on the PC. Update virus signatures, get weekly security patches, scan for worms and other malware, ..."

That's interesting because I have never had any of these problems. Auto updating can be turned off and you can run updates at a time of your choosing (which is what I do). I don't run virus programs.... never have.... and I have been internet connected since the days of Win3.1, dial up, and public bulletin boards. And I download updates maybe once a month as opposed to once a week. I suppose you could download once a week if you wanted to but I would say that it would be massive overkill.

I have a hardware firewall (a router) and a software firewall, and I'm very careful about the sites that I go to, and the things I download. And if by the off chance I down load something a tad unhealthy, I'm fully prepared with backups and disk images on an external drive that spends most of its time physically disconnected from the system.

MAC owners should pray that the MAC does not become as popular as PC's because that's about the only reason hackers are not interested in it. If you think MAC's have higher security coding than say... Blu Ray's BD+ (which has already been hacked), then you would be mistaken. At this stage of the game, hacking a MAC is just not very interesting, and that's its ONLY savior from the "weekly" security patches.

As for software manufacturers and the MAC... well.... ever since they started building MAC's a bit more like PC's, it HAS gained in popularity. Smaller software manufacturers who are looking to collect as many dollars as they can have started offering choices to MAC owners, and I would suspect that the larger software makers will follow suit when they see the potential profit surpass the overhead in the creation of the software by a large enough margin. But be careful what you wish for because as said above, the only thing keeping the hackers away from the MAC is popularity... or lack of.

I've been a long time user of Vegas (since early Sonic Foundry days) and have used just about every version of all their products. I am dean over the creative branches of a college (music, arts, theater, literary arts, media studies, film and video) and most everyone uses macs. I have always preached "both/and" reminding people of the great Vegas editing tools but I was never "both/and" myself since I never owned a mac.
I recently bought a MacBookPro and I love it. Just about everything it does it does better. Oh, and I run Vegas without any problems on the Windows XP partition through bootcamp. So there. I'm out of the closet! I still do plenty of editing on the desktop Vegas PC that I built a few years back and it is just fine too, but now that I'm "both/and" I'll never go back to "only".

Plus I must defend Vista...It has been a completely trouble free experience for me, Vegas runs perfectly on Vista 64Bit ultimate as well as Vista Business 32Bit, as do all my programs, It is far superior to XP in my experience...As for Mac programs, its a numbers game, not enough people use the Mac to justify the costs sony must put out....Those Mac commercials really irk me, One would think any piece of hardware or software just simply dies on a windows based system...geezzz I cant remember any programs or hardware that my windows based system could not handle with ease....

We ought to clarify something here, though. We all assume that SCS won't go to the effort of porting Vegas to another OS but it's not totally impossible. Just doesn't seem likely.

Rob Mack

Course, for many years, I have not allowed my main work PC near the internet, and it just works ...

That is 100% effective, as long as you don't hook up any flash drives or hard drives that have been near any other computers.

I just find that I have so many software apps, that I don't want to spend my time keeping track of which ones have a functional update. Most apps nowadays use an internet connection to advise you of these, how would I replicate this without also running the app on a separate machine?

Go to the 20+ manufacturers' support pages say once every two weeks?

Many people think that the only reason Macs don't need virus and worm scans is that they aren't popular.

I think this is true only in a limited sense, because so much trouble is stopped by one simple security feature that Windows could add but hasn't and won't:

*Requiring the system password to install any software.*

Marvelously effective.

I have worked hard to automate as much as possible of my business, and going offline would create more work for me.

I know a few people who have used Windows PCs online for years without even using a virus checker. They all have in common that they have the rare good judgment, and that they don't do even 1% online of what I do.

I agree with it, and respect it, but it doesn't fit with how I operate my business.

"I wasn't saying for Sony to make MACs, just to make it available for MAC users"

I have never used a Mac but I do write software for PCs and I have some customers who use it on a Mac with an emulator. Maybe that will work with Vegas.

Apparently XP and the Mac OS are seamless on the new Intel based Macs.

Andrew

I have Vegas 5 running on my Mac. I have for weeks.