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besson3c · Mar 9, 2006, 01:15 PM

Some discussion in another thread has sort of interested me in coming up with this list. I'd be interested in hearing you guys identify other populations in your area, other emerging trends in Mac-usage. No speculation here (e.g. I have a few buddies using Macs, therefore the direction of the wind must be changing everywhere else too), but significant populations of people you have been observing.

Around here, my perception is that there are significant populations of people using Macs for (in no particular order):

- Unix stuff/development/web

- Video

- Music apps (Garageband, Logic, etc.)

- Some sciences use Unix apps for some things, apparently some of them are on Macs on this campus

- Journalism (broadcast and other specialization. Blogs like Boing Boing suggest that a lot of journalists and authors are using Macs, and the Journalism school here has been using Macs for years, for reasons I'm not completely sure about)

- Graphic Design (I'm not completely sure as to the reasons why here either)

- The iPod halo crowd, if such a thing exists

- the iLife crowd (don't know how large this is)

- Frustrated Windows switchers seeking more security

Have you noticed anything else?

turtle777 · Mar 9, 2006, 01:20 PM

Military: the Navy uses Xservers, running Unix.

http://homepage.mac.com/techedgeezin...vers_linux.htm

-t

besson3c · Mar 9, 2006, 01:34 PM

I guess I should add to my list:

- former adventuresome Windows users simply looking for a change

Doofy · Mar 9, 2006, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

- Music apps (ProTools, Peak, etc.)

- Toys (Garageband, Logic, etc.)

Fixed.

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 9, 2006, 01:42 PM

Pretty much all photographers and creative/design shops. Reason. Most creative people are conscious of the design of the hardware and software, more importantly the colour accuracy and Gamma are better on a Mac. PC's Gamma is set to 2.2 which is dark, it is hard to tell dark grey from black.

PC's are used for programming, administration, sales people, project managers, CAD, 3D design.

Of course there are exceptions.

euphras · Mar 9, 2006, 01:42 PM

Scientists, who´ve been in "the states" for some years, often are infected by the Mac virus (as the beige Winblows box tinkerer call it). Not essentially UNIX folks.

Doofy · Mar 9, 2006, 01:42 PM

Here's one:

- computer illiterate users surfing the 'net for whom the admin can't be bothered with the upkeep of stuff like Norton AV. (i.e. just about everyone here's parents)

wdlove · Mar 9, 2006, 01:44 PM

I only use my Mac here at home. Finally DSL Modem ups and running. Also a Linksys Router.

buggsuperstar · Mar 9, 2006, 01:50 PM

My local library uses a fleet of about 20 Lampshade iMac G4s for browsing the library catalogue.

So I guess you could technically add library users to the list.

Doofy · Mar 9, 2006, 01:52 PM

Oh, forgot. The whole of the Isle of Mans' education system has gone Mac recently.

I Bent My Wookiee · Mar 9, 2006, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by wdlove

Finally DSL Modem ups and running. Also a Linksys Router.

Thanks for the update

Corpse of Chewbacca · Mar 9, 2006, 02:23 PM

Walk into the Harvard University Science Center. All the computers are Macs, all the profs use Macs.

Y3a · Mar 9, 2006, 04:10 PM

Some Lawyers,
Marketing folks
Frame shops
Furniture design
Flight sims (X-Plane)
Small graphics shops and individual artists who contract to big record companies, magazines etc.
veternarians

cjrivera · Mar 9, 2006, 04:19 PM

Doctor's offices (yeah, I know PC's can be used in a doctor's office too, but not if the doctor is the IT guy for the 12+ computers running in the system)

mindwaves · Mar 9, 2006, 04:42 PM

Math, engineering, physics professors here use them. They are also used in defense systems.

strictlyplaid · Mar 9, 2006, 04:51 PM

They're big among methodologists (statisticians) in Political Science. Most are former *NIX users who just love the command line and who talk up the security features.

PCs are still the standard throughout the discipline, however, and even a lot of methodologists still use them.

D'Espice · Mar 9, 2006, 05:08 PM

Artists love'em. Oh and professional, semi-professional and non-professional writers like'em as well.

Albert Pujols · Mar 9, 2006, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by mindwaves

Math, engineering, physics professors here use them. They are also used in defense systems.

The engineering, math, CS professors use them at my school too, but none of the computers in any of the engineering labs are macs. I'm not even sure any of the engineering apps we use are available for OSX.

mduell · Mar 9, 2006, 05:33 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Around here, my perception is that there are significant populations of people using Macs for (in no particular order):

- Unix stuff/development/web

[emphasis mine]

Very few people/organizations are using Macs for web serving.
The combination of poor MySQL and Apache performance (say what you will about MySQL, a lot of sites use it) on OSX/G5 doesn't make for an appealing server platform.

Even Mac related companies avoid OSX for web serving:
MacNN: FreeBSD
ThinkSecret: FreeBSD (formerly BSD/OS)
AppleInsider: FreeBSD
Spymac: Linux
MacRumors: Linux
ClubMac: Windows
MacSales (OWC): Linux
PowerLogix: BSD/OS
Apple.com: MacOSX (finally!)

besson3c · Mar 9, 2006, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by Doofy

Fixed.

Garageband is a toy, Logic is NOT a toy. A lot of great stuff has been done using Logic. I know a lot of pretty intense professional composers using it. If you prefer Protools or something like it over it, fine, but it is NOT a toy, it's a serious app that was acquired by a german company that has been developing the app and refining it for many years. In fact, I think it even has its roots in the Atari ST.

besson3c · Mar 9, 2006, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

[emphasis mine]

Very few people/organizations are using Macs for web serving.
The combination of poor MySQL and Apache performance (say what you will about MySQL, a lot of sites use it) on OSX/G5 doesn't make for an appealing server platform.

Even Mac related companies avoid OSX for web serving:
MacNN: FreeBSD
ThinkSecret: FreeBSD (formerly BSD/OS)
AppleInsider: FreeBSD
Spymac: Linux
MacRumors: Linux
ClubMac: Windows
MacSales (OWC): Linux
PowerLogix: BSD/OS
Apple.com: MacOSX (finally!)

I agree, I think OS X Server is a poor choice for the Enterprise for a number of reasons I won't get into here. My own server (http://www.netmusician.org) is FreeBSD.

What I meant was web page development. A developer can be pretty productive testing PHP, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Perl, Apache, Python, etc. on their local machine, and utilities like wget and links/lynx are also available, in addition to several nice text editors.

olePigeon · Mar 9, 2006, 06:21 PM

Watch the extras on the Star Wars DVD. It's 95% Macintosh over at Lucasfilm. The only PCs I saw were used for 3D modeling, but even right next to the PCs were PowerMacs. Most of it was Photoshop, ProTools, FinalCut Pro, Motion, or some other programs I couldn't recognize (probably inhouse stuff.)

Doofy · Mar 9, 2006, 06:57 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Garageband is a toy, Logic is NOT a toy. A lot of great stuff has been done using Logic. I know a lot of pretty intense professional composers using it. If you prefer Protools or something like it over it, fine, but it is NOT a toy

I'l stand by my assertion that since Apple bought it, Logic has become a toy. If you ain't offering AMT, MTS, LTB or something like that and the hardware to work with it, it's a toy.

Originally Posted by besson3c

it's a serious app that was acquired by a german company that has been developing the app and refining it for many years. In fact, I think it even has its roots in the Atari ST.

I'm aware of its history as I've been using since it was C-Lab Creator on the ST. It's still a toy since Apple got a hold of it.

Anyways. That's enough derailing from me. Sorry 'bout that.

MM-o4 · Mar 9, 2006, 07:27 PM

the RTA (roads and traffic, Australian government) use the flowerpot imacs.
Spun my out to walk in and at every counter has these white LCDs in front of them.
They were running some kind of text based app.

MM

PacHead · Mar 9, 2006, 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by Doofy

Fixed.

You and I agree on certain issues, but I have to disagree with you on this one. Logic is no toy, it's a really good program and it keeps getting better. I didn't like it before, but I like how the interface is looking since Apple took it over. I also use protools plenty, so I'm not really biased one way or the other. I use them each for different purposes, I don't think there's any one single program that I would be happy with using.

PacHead · Mar 9, 2006, 07:47 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Garageband is a toy, Logic is NOT a toy.

Garageband is no toy either, it's not logic, but it's not a toy and if used in the right way (simple composing for example), you can get quite good results. It's fully possible to start a project in Garageband and then move over to logic or protools or whatever afterwards. For simple composing or songwriting, garageband is fine to start out with.

Cadaver · Mar 9, 2006, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by PacHead

Garageband is no toy either, it's not logic, but it's not a toy and if used in the right way (simple composing for example), you can get quite good results. It's fully possible to start a project in Garageband and then move over to logic or protools or whatever afterwards. For simple composing or songwriting, garageband is fine to start out with.

Nine Inch Nails did one of their songs on their most recent album in GarageBand (and released the file to the public, too).

PacHead · Mar 9, 2006, 08:32 PM

Originally Posted by Cadaver

Nine Inch Nails did one of their songs on their most recent album in GarageBand (and released the file to the public, too).

Yeah, I know which song you're talking about, it was a free download and I think they're the first major artist to ever offer a song in garageband format.

To be fair though, I don't believe the song was done completely in Garageband, they used other stuff also, and then they just compiled a bunch of stems of the track and made it available in garageband format.

Railroader · Mar 10, 2006, 12:09 AM

General Motors uses macs in their quality control on the factory floor in machining operations.

krillbee · Mar 10, 2006, 04:53 AM

at my college:

30% of the professors use macs

80% of the biolab computers are macs
50% of the physics computers are macs
100% of the art dept computers are macs
100% of the music dept computers are macs

thats pretty much how it works at my school. oh and maybe 10% of the students use macs.

Alcoholica · Mar 10, 2006, 05:00 AM

I know of two people besides myself that use Macs. Oh, and the local college has one 1.8GHz SP G5 tower. Quite shocking, really.

alphamatrix · Mar 10, 2006, 06:41 AM

Originally Posted by mduell

[emphasis mine]

Very few people/organizations are using Macs for web serving.
The combination of poor MySQL and Apache performance (say what you will about MySQL, a lot of sites use it) on OSX/G5 doesn't make for an appealing server platform.

Even Mac related companies avoid OSX for web serving:
MacNN: FreeBSD
ThinkSecret: FreeBSD (formerly BSD/OS)
AppleInsider: FreeBSD
Spymac: Linux
MacRumors: Linux
ClubMac: Windows
MacSales (OWC): Linux
PowerLogix: BSD/OS
Apple.com: MacOSX (finally!)

MacSlash.org being one of the exceptions. Those benchmarks are disheartening tho.

ism · Mar 10, 2006, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by mduell

[emphasis mine]

The combination of poor MySQL and Apache performance (say what you will about MySQL, a lot of sites use it) on OSX/G5 doesn't make for an appealing server platform.

Apple.com: MacOSX (finally!)

That article is very interesting. If apple are using OSXserver does this mean it's a tweaked in house version that doesn't have the problems shown in the article?