1. The software I use the most in Windows are: SAP2000, Etabs, Staad Pro, Revit, Civil 3D, AutoCAD, Fusion, GeoStudio, Rocscience suite, ArcGIS, Ansys, Excel, and a bunch of little software you have never heard of made by beautiful people, these little software are amazing not only because they are free but because they are highly specific and only run on Windows.
From talking to friends at AutoDesk, I would not be surprised to have Revit, AutoCAD, Fusion and potentially available on Apple Silicon Macs with versions that have feature parity with the Windows versions. If Apple are able to show (and sustain) a serious performance advantage with their new high end products, after a few years one might see some of the others, but it will not be quick.
I am curious if the free apps you mentioned are open source or not?
There are more, of course but these I use daily.
That list is a good start.
Of them only a few run on Intel Macs, and they for some reason are not the same as on Windows. None run on Apple Silicon right now.
I thought that the Apple Silicon version of AutoCAD had been released already.
Excel is my spreadsheet of choice and it is better on Windows, it has less features on the Mac specially on the programming tab which I use daily and cannot replace with anything, I would have to write a program myself and I already did that during my studies and don't want to do it again.
Microsoft has actually been working on bringing MS Office on macOS to feature parity with its Windows versions, and while much better than it was, it is clearly not there yet.
2. Linux is mostly for research purposes and I cannot give you details about it.
You cannot even answer the questions as to whether those apps are CPU or GPU based, and whether they are command line/GUI command line or real direct manipulation interfaces without naming them or even their type?
3. Why do you think I hate on Architects? I work with them daily, and my girlfriend is an Architect and I love her. I was just clarifying that Architects are not Engineers as the original comment said.
It was a joke. The smiley got removed in one of my edits and I did not notice it until your response. I have lots of friends in both architecture and Architectural/Civil/Structural Engineering so it is easy to recognize the response. My neighbor is an architect who actually has an AE degree from before he became an architect, so he makes the same jokes.
4. I prefer working on my workstation (desktop) but I have to switch to my laptop often, especially while traveling, during the weekends or when I am in the field. That should answer your other question: I do both field and office work.
That limits you to being able to run the software locally, rather than being able to run it in the cloud or on another system just using the other machine as a display. Hence why I asked. On the other hand, it does mean that a more powerful system with longer battery life and was also lighter would also be nice, if there were one that ran the software you needed.
but I just cannot put up with this fansh*t cr%p that keeps being touted here about how MacOS is the holy grail of privacy,
It is not the grail, but it is much more privacy focused than Windows (and iOS is not even in the same universe as Android).
Again, it has a much better security model than Windows and since its market share is still tiny, is much less of a target. For Mobile, iOS is again in a different class than Android. However, it is not perfect and the more popular it becomes, the more it will have to deal with many of the same threats.
As you said, usefulness really depends on the user’s needs. I used to need a high-end desktop to get my work done, now an iPad solves most of my problems. My needs have not changed, the power of the platforms has, making what used to be two standard deviations from the mean, well within the center of the curve.
when it is just another option in the market...
It is an equally viable option for most people (in fact, an iPad actually works for most professional users). For some like you, it is not currently an option.
and the other bull$%it argument about people not choosing it only for budget issues, come on, that is not true, not in my case and not on several others.
Here is where you are mostly wrong. Most people who pick Windows PCs over macOS systems have price as a major factor. Even when they are actually wrong and could have gotten along quite well with a less expensive Macintosh, they see the list price of the “starting at...” pricing and do not really compare like to like.
Yes, there are those who get Windows systems despite the fact that their configuration is more expensive, but they are a small part of the market (and certainly not the target of this ad).
