I know that this is an old and well trodden path, but I was curious to know the general consensus on the issue of what hardware will dominate the future of computing. Right now I think that for industrial applications, it is hard to go past the versatility of a Windows based machine, but the way I see things an OS’s popularity has a great deal to do with its ability to allow the layperson to generate useful apps. In that regard Xojo has a foot in both markets. To encapsulate my questions into one. Wll Xojo strengthen Apples OS position or Microsoft’s?
Neither. It’s a niche tool, a secret weapon of it’s users.
If I may, this question is largely irrelevant. As much as I love Xojo, I will never dare thinking that this great development tool can influence the course of either OS.
If by position you mean “standing among Xojo developers” then it becomes a bit more addressable. I have been developing for both systems for a while, and find Xojo amazingly good for both platforms. But there is a lot of competition on the Windows side, including Visual Studio, that Xojo does not have on Mac. And on Mac, Xojo is a terrific development tool for the Mac App Store. Hence I would say that Xojo appears to be a greater advantage for Mac development.
Lets not forget that now Windows has two different architectures for apps development : desktop and “Metro” (or “Windows Store”). Xojo addresses only the first one.
But overall, I agree with Brad : we are among a relatively small group of developers enjoying a terrific product which constitutes a remarkable asset under both platforms 
By using Xojo, does it matter? You can build for both or either one? Who knows, maybe in 10 years Linux will have replaced Windows as the dominant OS? (Which of course is supported by Xojo).
With iOS support and web support, even if iPads or Android devices replace desktop computers (which I don’t think they will, but I’ve been wrong before) you can still make apps that’ll work on these devices. I’m sure web apps work fine on Crapbooks, I mean Chromebooks.
After 20 years Linux has - as desktop OS - a market share of 1.62 %…
Usage share of operating systems
My question was asking if having Xojo in its app development inventory bias users to switch camps to either of the 2 dominant OS’s.
I have to agree strongly with Brad’s response Most of the people I have spoken to who are thinking of switching to Mac keep saying things like “but you cant make programs with a Macintosh”.
[quote=102907:@Eli Ott]After 20 years Linux has - as desktop OS - a market share of 1.62 %…
Usage share of operating systems[/quote]
Whats interesting to me is how XP is till on 1/4 of the machines out there and how small the OSX share is.
[quote=102920:@Patrick Delaney]Whats interesting to me is how XP is till on 1/4 of the machines out there and how small the OSX share is.
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I Think that if you overlook the dated eye candy of XP most users of XP agree that its stability is legendary. If you are running Fusion or similar XP is still the way to have your cake and eat it.
Tablets already account for 50% of Google requests, and iPad for half that. This is already double Mac OS X. They will probably never replace everything, as only feeble minds would try to let you believe. But I’ll say they occupy a very significant segment already. I can’t wait to feel the water with some of my MAS apps ported to iPad …
That’s all very well but if XP is no longer supported it doesn’t matter how stable it is, it’s time to get off the platform asap. I’d hope that number comes down quickly.
I would not count on it. Users have already voted with their feet, and will probably not switch until their machines die.
Agreed, If you take the pragmatic approach “If it aint broke, dont fix it” then XP still has a good 5-7 years of useful life left.
I’d say it may be closer to apathy than a love of XP. IMHO Windows 7 is a far better platform and stable, haven’t played enough with Windows 8 to form a valid opinion.
Just because it’s time to get off XP doesn’t mean it’s going to happen anytime soon despite my hoping people will get off the platform. I see the bad boys out there having fun with the people refusing to move…
5-7 years? God, I hope not! With the lack of support from Microsoft I certainly wouldn’t class it as useful life either.
I am sure that if nothing on it is broken at this stage of its life cycle then its sure to last a lot longer unless they suddenly introduce a 256 bit OS.
Exactly and in any case, as software developers, unless you have an application to support, why care about trying to target customers who use such old technology? They’re not going to spend any money on your software.
Getting back to my original question phrased differently. Does Xojo built better apps for the Apple OS or Microsoft?
Or is that a ‘depends who the programmer is’ question?
I’d be more worried about security holes and these are no longer getting patched. To not get off XP now IMHO is a mistake.
[quote=102949:@Patrick Delaney]I’d be more worried about security holes and these are no longer getting patched. To not get off XP now IMHO is a mistake.
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Good point. The problem with running Windows on a Mac is that you can get into a mindset that lets you believe that you cant be affected or infected by a virus. While the Mac OS may not be vulnerable, the Windows partition certainly is.
[quote=102948:@Chris Benton]Getting back to my original question phrased differently. Does Xojo built better apps for the Apple OS or Microsoft?
Or is that a ‘depends who the programmer is’ question?[/quote]
Is it not always the case ? From personal experience, I tend to like Mac better, but am more comfortable with the Windows API. So if I keep in pure Xojo, I am not sure the difference will be obvious between platforms. But when it comes time for declares, I’ll probably be able to do a whole lot more in Windows. Not to mention limitations imposed by the Mac sandbox.
Others here feel a lot more comfortable with Mac OS X inner working and will achieve amazing results with declares.
Yes, it probably depends ultimately a lot on the programmer.
It is probably indeed. But customers ultimately do as they please in the privacy of their machines. Even corporate users sometimes get extremely conservative and upgrade only when they have no other choice.
64 bits did not persuade XP users to evolve. Why would they for 256 bits ? The only thing that can force them to move is for the hardware to fail. Unfortunately, planned obsolescence was not as accomplished in the XP era 