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Working with Flash: Mac or Windows?
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iloveipod
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Feb 26, 2006, 03:11 AM
 
Hi, I thought this was the appropriate forum for this question, so if it isn't, I'm sorry and please move it, thanks.

I need your opinion on this. The Mac OS system appeals to me a lot and I've been thinking about buying a new computer. And since I work extensively with Macromedia Flash, and I was just wondering which would be more suitable for this type of work: Windows or Mac?

I've seen a lot of graphic designers use Apple systems on television (ie: Donald Trump), and military forces use Dell computers most often. So, if you have another point of view on this, please let me know.

Thanks!
     
iloveipod  (op)
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Feb 26, 2006, 03:29 AM
 
Oh, and can anyone also tell me if the Apple button lights up on the new iMac G5?
     
Big Mac
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Feb 26, 2006, 03:36 AM
 
Authoring should be comparable on both platforms, but the Windows Flash plugin runs a lot faster than the Mac version.

What Apple button are you referring to?

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iloveipod  (op)
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Feb 26, 2006, 03:56 AM
 
Oops, I shouldn't have said "button" but rather "logo". The Apple logo on the front. I've seen that it lights up on the notebook computers.

Ok, I just wanted to make sure that authoring on both operating systems will be similar.
     
lookmark
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Feb 26, 2006, 10:26 AM
 
Yup, the Apple logo is backlit on Apple's laptops.

Q. for all: is the Flash plug-in on Macs still *that* much slower than on Windows? It sure as hell used to be, but the latest version (v.8.x.x) has sped things up tremendously.

And a warning for the OP: if you're a heavy user of Macromedia Flash, you should (alas) stay away from the new Intel Macs until the Universal version of it is released, which will very likely not be until (at best) late this year or (more likely) early next year. Fortunately, Macs have very good resale values on eBay and what-not, so if you take good care of your computer, feel free to buy a PPC one now and sell and trade up next year.
     
sushiism
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Feb 26, 2006, 12:43 PM
 
I use it and find it perfectly fine, it runs at a decent enough speed on new macs (mines an old G4 800 powerbook) and if your content is running really slow you probably need to optimise it anyway.
One thing I prefer is it doesn't take over the entire screen as much as the windows version which I find very counter intuitive to have an application covering the entire screen. Also you can use the osx colour picker in flash which makes the windows colour picker look like a childs toy.
     
harrisjamieh
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Feb 26, 2006, 01:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by iloveipod
Oops, I shouldn't have said "button" but rather "logo". The Apple logo on the front. I've seen that it lights up on the notebook computers.

Ok, I just wanted to make sure that authoring on both operating systems will be similar.
No, the Apple logo only lights up on Apple laptops as the backlight from the laptop screen lights it up. No desktop macs have a light up logo.
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harrisjamieh
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Feb 26, 2006, 03:28 PM
 
Originally Posted by lookmark
And a warning for the OP: if you're a heavy user of Macromedia Flash, you should (alas) stay away from the new Intel Macs until the Universal version of it is released, which will very likely not be until (at best) late this year or (more likely) early next year. Fortunately, Macs have very good resale values on eBay and what-not, so if you take good care of your computer, feel free to buy a PPC one now and sell and trade up next year.
I have studio 8 (fireworks, flash, dreamweaver) installed on my iMac core duo, and it seems to run fine. Flash starts up within 7 seconds, and is very responsive, and so are the other apps in the suite. This is probs helped by my relativly large amount of RAM.
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lookmark
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Feb 26, 2006, 03:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by harrisjamieh
I have studio 8 (fireworks, flash, dreamweaver) installed on my iMac core duo, and it seems to run fine. Flash starts up within 7 seconds, and is very responsive, and so are the other apps in the suite. This is probs helped by my relativly large amount of RAM.
That's good to hear -- I've heard having a large amount of RAM helps Rosetta quite a bit.

I guess I should amend my earlier statement... if you're OK with Flash (the authoring app, not the player) running at about the equivalent of 1gz G4, then you could squeak by running Flash w/ Rosetta on an Intel Mac. The good thing about this is your machine is future-proof; once you purchase the next rev of Macromedia Flash/Studio (come, er, next year) your speed will shoot through the roof. The bad thing is that you're essentially running your primary app at considerably reduced speed.
     
harrisjamieh
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Feb 26, 2006, 03:48 PM
 
Originally Posted by lookmark
I guess I should amend my earlier statement... if you're OK with Flash (the authoring app, not the player) running at about the equivalent of 1gz G4, then you could squeak by running Flash w/ Rosetta on an Intel Mac. The good thing about this is your machine is future-proof; once you purchase the next rev of Macromedia Flash/Studio (come, er, next year) your speed will shoot through the roof. The bad thing is that you're essentially running your primary app at considerably reduced speed.
I also have the studio 8 suite on my iBook G4 (see sig), and the apps on my iMac run considerably faster than on that.
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Hornet
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Feb 26, 2006, 10:26 PM
 
Note: for reference, check out my game at www.ninja-man.com

All done in flash. First up, plugin performance. Yes its been **** forever, but flash8 is substantially better - on a G5 as your baseline. G4s still don't perform acceptably. With the intel native plugin, performance on an imac 1.83 core duo is significantly less than my 1.67ghz G4 powerbook. Here's hoping we wont have to wait until studio9 to see the intel plugin actually work PROPERLY. Summary: get a G5 for work 'right now', as the intel plugin is pretty horrid

IDE/authoring performance. Terrible on a mac. I have many files that take minutes to open, and 15 second delays in clicking around. It has improved a fair amount from previous flash versions - true. The library in its behaviour hasn't improved at all, and still feels like a really poor windows port (scrollwheel support is 'recent'). On G5s its not so bad. Under rosetta, on intel machines, its about half the speed of my G4 1.67. This situation wont improve until studio9, and dont count on that until late 07.

All that said, I still intend on buying an intel mac soon. Plugin performance will improve soon, and I do all my coding outside of the main authoring environment so I'm free from the poor performance there.

Make of all that what you will. Purchasing for stuff *now*, or for the longevity of it all (ie studio9 and beyond)
     
iloveipod  (op)
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Feb 28, 2006, 02:39 AM
 
Hmm. Flash opens in around 7 seconds? That's faster than my current computer.
But my computer is getting old anyways. :x
     
york28
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Feb 28, 2006, 03:56 AM
 
Donald Trump is not a graphic designer. Even if he was, don't use something because you saw it done that way on TV.

As for Flash, it runs better on a PC. Both the Authoring Environment and the browser plug-in. However, I would consider whether you should choose a computing platform based on a single application, especially considering the cons of Windows in general.
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mactopsuit
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Mar 1, 2006, 11:39 AM
 
Studio 8 works pretty fine on Mac, can't expect everything to be lightning fast
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Millennium
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Mar 1, 2006, 12:27 PM
 
As far as developing the Flash itself, it's more or less a toss-up. Macs tend to have better tools for working with the media you'll incorporate into your Flash content, though, so that's a plus.

Macs have never gotten a lot of love from Macromedia when it comes to the Flash plugin, though: it's much slower than the Windows version. If you intend to develop primarily on the Mac, you'll need to learn and use techniques that optimize the performance of your Flash movies. Then again, you should be learning and using these techniques anyway, so this isn't entirely a Bad Thing: it may help make you a better developer. However, it wouldn't really be accurate to call it an advantage of the Mac side.
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swatson
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Mar 7, 2006, 11:29 AM
 
And a warning for the OP: if you're a heavy user of Macromedia Flash, you should (alas) stay away from the new Intel Macs until the Universal version of it is released, which will very likely not be until (at best) late this year or (more likely) early next year.


Don't knock it until you try it.

Flash 8 Professional is very fast/usable on my MacBook Pro 1.8 with 1 gig of RAM (adding more). Considerably faster than on my G4 desktop (I skipped the G5). I have been very pleased developing in Flash on the Intel core duo. I was very impressed.

I used to spend A LOT of time in Flash (I still spend a significant amount of time). I have always used Macs. Personal preference. I work with a lot of PC flash users.

A note about the PC: a lot of third party apps that complement flash are PC only (not all, but many). Never a problem for me, but I would have looked at them closer if they existed as mac apps as well. Some of them are pretty lame anyway.
     
iloveipod  (op)
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Mar 21, 2006, 02:07 AM
 
thanks for everybody's advice!
     
Hornet
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Mar 21, 2006, 04:20 AM
 
Originally Posted by swatson


Don't knock it until you try it.

Flash 8 Professional is very fast/usable on my MacBook Pro 1.8 with 1 gig of RAM (adding more). Considerably faster than on my G4 desktop (I skipped the G5). I have been very pleased developing in Flash on the Intel core duo. I was very impressed.

I used to spend A LOT of time in Flash (I still spend a significant amount of time). I have always used Macs. Personal preference. I work with a lot of PC flash users.

A note about the PC: a lot of third party apps that complement flash are PC only (not all, but many). Never a problem for me, but I would have looked at them closer if they existed as mac apps as well. Some of them are pretty lame anyway.
What desktop did you have before? I went from a 1.67ghz G4 Powerbook to a 2.0 iMac, and flash 8 professional is slower on the Intel machine than on the powerbook. Flash plugin is slower too - though the absolute latest release of flash player in adobe's beta labs (might actually be a UB now, vs just intel binary) IS a good deal quicker than the one that ships with the intel macs.

In short: my money is in flash, and it runs a bit slower than a highly clocked G4, but I'm still using it. Its the fact you can have so much more running in the background chewing up cpu time and still be able to work that makes a huge difference
     
xMetal
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Mar 21, 2006, 10:23 AM
 
at teh macromedia developers conference, the flash product lead specifically demoed the flash 8 app and plugin the mac with the specific point of showing that the plug-in in particular was many many times faster than older versions. It's completely comparable to windows.

I've been using Flash on the mac for more than 5 years, and it's perfectly fine. I do exceedingly complex apps with it, and only once did I have a performance issue in the dev environment. And that was cleared up with a Save And Compact, and restarting.

I think you would be well served doing this stuff on the mac. As has been mentioned, all the ancillary media development will be smoother in general.
     
   
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