Where are the Native Vista Apps?
June 18th, 2008
Vista supports hardware-accelerated graphics. WPF seems to support really cool things like vector-based UIs. Yet where are the “native” Vista apps?
The Wikipedia WPF article mentions a handful of WPF apps, but for the most part, the Windows ecosystem is mired in backward compatibility hell. Bundled apps like Notepad, Paint, and the DOS shell are a disgrace, and have not really changed in years.
How can Microsoft expect third parties to develop Vista-specific apps if the bundled utilities don’t even take advantage of Vista features? This is incredibly hard to understand.
Good luck, Microsoft. I’m typing this on my new MacBook Pro, and it looks like I have plenty of native Cocoa apps from which to choose.
This isn’t an entirely fair comparison. How many native mainstream Cocoa apps were there in the Christmas of 2003? About a year and a half after the release of MacOS 10.0. Still not parity but at the time any application of note was running on Carbon for MacOS 9 compatibility (or was a classic mode app altogether). Just the greenfield apps were in Cocoa for the most part. Now apple was quicker in kicking OS 9 to the curb than microsoft has been to XP, and there was just as much wailing and gnashing of teeth with that transition too. Until MS can wean their customers from XP the apps count will be anemic. Now if the list looks like this in 2012…
I am convinced MS has lost the source code to Notepad.
Actually the thing I find interesting about Mac OS is that none of the apps are 64bit native. Looks like Snow Leopard will change that, but it surprised me. The only two 64 bit apps I have on my MBA are MySQL and Java.
Not a fair comparison? Seriously, dude, nobody cares about Christmas 2003. I bought this computer last week in 2008, that is all that matters right now. As far as I’m concerned, Vista’s advanced capabilities are all vaporware until someone — perhaps Microsoft — releases some compelling apps that demonstrate these capabilities.
@Danno
To say users have to be “weaned” from an old to a new OS version is very telling (in a negative way). A new OS should compel users to switch because of all the great new things it has to offer (like Leopard).
Looks like MS has to drag its users kicking and screaming to Vista, while developers hold out for Vista’s successor.
Eric: enjoy you MBP. I’ve loved mine in the year I’ve had it.
My first mistake was wading into fanboy territory, but it’s too late for that now. I’m on vista by choice, and I guess mys issue is that most people on vista by choice know to stay away from such baiting.
It was the same story with MacOSX 9 and their biggest market: education. The education market had access to Mac OS 9 for about a year after the regular consumers did. For XP, it’s the business market, and generally speaking they tend to do only every other release as it is for windows. Win2K got rather anemic uptake.
As far as your obsession with nobody cares about christmass of ‘03? Well realistically nobody cares about the particulars of the API you are using to make your app run. The biggest difference is that the early adopters have moved on from Windows mostly because it isn’t a mainstream platform now. It’s not the hot barely 20 year old two seater sports car without and trunk space to speak of but the late 30s mini-van with stow and go seating for the trips to costco.
Oh, there are compelling apps for Windows? Java 6 today and Photoshop CS4 64-bit later this year. Yes, these both run on XP, but most mac apps still run on tiger too.
Holy shit! Now I’m a “fanboy”. I just now bought my first Mac, and I’m a “fanboy”. And I also have an “obsession” with the Xmas 2003 comment. And I’m an “early adopter” ? Um, I’m quite late to the game, thank you very much.
Could you possibly be more insulting? Your name calling and insulting tone make you look like the fanboy, by the way.
@Dean,
Sorry, Leopard is just crap, though. I bought my first mac in eons when OS 10.0 came out, because I loved the idea of a modernized next step. I used it here and there, and by the time Tiger dropped, I was hooked, and I moved from Linux to Mac as my primary platform. I had become so impressed with the quality of Apple’s releases. Leopard, however, is crap. I find it hilarious that they poke a Vista when Leopard has already eaten my HD once (I was going to buy a TimeCapsule till I heard about all of *those* problems), had more panics in a few months of use than I saw in all previous versions of OS 10 combined, and has LESS usability with the new dock/menubar/finder sidebar.
@Eric
Of course, everyone who owns a mac is a fanboi! As to “Vista” apps, though. There have only in the history of Windows only been two things that drive adoption of new MS APIs: Office and Direct X. Other apps in the space tend to follow Office’s lead because that really sets the LAF people expect from their “Windows” apps. The only other API MS has that really drives upgrades is DX, and thus far it is seeing fairly slow adoption. The driver problems that persist(ed?) under Windows have cut into that upgrade cycle, but the real issue is, nobody outside the Geek world can actually upgrade an MS operating system. I have never seen their “Upgrade” installer work properly on any version of Windows, and the proverbial “your mom” won’t do a clean install and check the HCLs. Macs (and most Linuxes) make it pretty easy to do a straight upgrade of an existing install, which I think has a lot to do with why people upgrade faster.
As long as nobody is upgrading, and XP still has a 70%+ market share, neither the game companies nor the business ISVs are going to bite down on Vista specific apps.
There are these games http://zone.msn.com/en/vistagames/ that are supposedly enhanced for Vista. But, I think Vista market share has to increase before application writers will bother to take advantage of the new capabilities.
I’ve been on OS X since Jaguar, having spent the prior years on various flavours of Linux. I switched to Linux because Windows wasn’t (and still isn’t) doing anything exciting for me. If Microsoft get their act together I’d switch back in a heartbeat. Right now I’m holding out for a mouseless multi-touch OS, and my money’s on Apple delivering the first usable instance (arguably it already has with the iPhone).
Microsoft seriously needs to put it’s annual five billion dollar R&D budget to better uses than tax breaks.
@Robert
Have you tried Leopard more recently? I had stability problems when it came out, but they were largely taken care of with 10.5.2 + a firmware update. That’s the point I upgraded my wife’s MBP. Since then Leopard — including the 10.5.3 update — has been mostly rock solid for me. I don’t have a Time Capsule, but have heard it has issues. I use Time Machine with an external drive and it works great.
I just wanted to say that I love you all.
Just as an FYI, I’m a cocoa dev and all cocoa apps are 64 bit “native”. Snow Leopard is just extending the functionality. Leopard currently runs 32 bit and 64 bit apps side by side seamlessly. Without the need for a 64 bit version of the OS.
As for Leopard issues, I certainly have had a few but most have been sorted out now. My current whinge is the video card driver on my brand new MacBook Pro is pretty shoddy. Tearing and glitches all over the place. Apparently, though, this is a known issue and is being patched in the next OS X update.
Thanks @Danny. After installing Vista SP1 and the latest nvidia drivers, I should note that I frequently see this horizontal line across the display when first logging on, or switching users. Fortunately this artifact generally goes away, but it indicates a bug somewhere in the video driver or hardware. So far I haven’t noticed any visual artifacts on my MBP
There are no Vista apps because nobody has purchased Vista, and nobody is going to. How many native Microsoft ‘bob’ apps were there, or Windows ME apps ?
@Dean Yeah, I mean, I use it on a daily basis. It still crashes all the time. The unmounting of SMB servers when you come back from sleep on a new network will still panic the box 1 time in 10. Finder still has some kind of runaway in it that eats CPU until you kill it every so often.
@Danny That is not true. Cocoa apps are 64bit capable. There is a difference. Literally none of the apps that ship with Leopard are compiled for 64bit, and the JDK 1.6 is the only apple app they have shipped a 64 bit build of. Snow Leopard isn’t “Extending” the functionality, they are actually shipping a 64 bit finder, a 64 bit iTunes, etc. That is a big difference.
** Holy shit! Now I’m a “fanboy”. I just now bought my first Mac, and I’m a “fanboy” **
LOL! welcome to the world of anyone who dares to choose a Mac or some Apple-related product…
I have had macs sin 1994, by choice, and “having to” use MSDOS, Win 3.11, 95, 98, XP, 2000, some Novell stuff, and some Linux flavors. I’ve always been called a fanboy, even when nobody even knew what the hell macs were—I was just that weirdo who didn’t use Windows… that’s can’t be a *real* computer! … :-/