New Epilog Mac Driver

[brian saban]

So I saw on Epilogs site they now have a Mac Driver available, unfortunately its only for there fusion models. Oh well back to Parallels for me :(

[Keith Outten]

It's just a matter of time before the laser and CNC manufacturers wake up and realize how large the number of Mac users has become. I expect in the short term the lack of support for Apple products will start having an effect on purchasing decisions.
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[Jason Hilton]

I agree, but would add it's long past time. Trotec now has an iOS app for job monitoring, but beyond that there's not a whole lot out there. Artists and designers prefer macs. That's not flame war bait, it's fact. There's really no excuse not to, the expense is minimal to develop for additional platforms, but it's likely the major manufacturers are under the very dated impression that it's much harder to develop for the MacOS platform, but it's not.

[Dee Gallo]

I think the issue is that Corel stopped making their Mac version a while back when they should have kept it. I had it and used it and then they ruined everything by canceling it. Obviously, the old version does not work with newer systems, so boo! Meanwhile, Bootcamp works just fine.

[Jason Hilton]

There are better options than Corel, Adobe Illustrator chief among them. Corel has a market space association, meaning it is associated with laser engraving and CNC machining in the mental model of the users in the industry, but it isn't necessarily the best or most powerful choice. Regardless, it's irrelevant to what platform the manufacturer chooses to support with it's software drivers.

[Dan Hintz]

the expense is minimal to develop for additional platforms

I disagree with that statement...

I'll also disagree with the "fact" part of designers/artists preferring Macs... when you run in certain circles, commonalities have a nasty habit of looking like fact. But I'm not going to battle about it.

[Doug Griffith]

when you run in certain circles, commonalities have a nasty habit of looking like fact.

I agree but I've also been in NUMEROUS advertising agencies, graphics houses, service bureaus, print houses, art studios, etc... over the last 25+ years. Macs are the standard in the 2D print world. Just like PCs are the standard in the 3D design and CAD/CAM world.

[brian saban]

Agreed Doug

[Jason Hilton]

We can agree to disagree on designer preferences Dan, but I work in the software design and development world, and have seen first hand the requirements in cost and time for developing multi-platform software. Every application is different obviously, but device drivers aren't terribly complex beasts when you get right down to it.

[Joe De Medeiros]

I think that having a MAC driver available to all current models that are still being shipped would be a plus for them.

[Mike Troncalli]

All of the above posts have their merits for sure. As a Mac owner I will give you an example of why they should develop drivers for the MAC... I use Quickbooks in my business, I want to update to QB Pro 2014. The problem is that the MAC version does not support the shipping manager module. Until then I will continue to run Parallels with my older version of Quickbooks. I know that whomever comes to the table first will have a decidedly better advantage to sell their product line to both OS users.

[Scott Shepherd]

Really doesn't matter who uses what to make what, all that should matter is that the manufactures are making products for all customers, which includes Mac and PC.

Glad to see Mac drivers finally starting to trickle out into the marketplace.

[Jason Hilton]

Absolutely. And while a company like Quickbooks can justify delaying or discontinuing Mac development by looking at their market and determining that the sales they'll lose are minimal, laser manufactures could potentially become more attractive and increase sales by supporting the platform designers are already using. Not having to buy a new computer to run my laser? Attractive. Additionally, not having to do my design work on my main machine, move it to a different machine, lay it out, test cut/engrave, tweak back on my design machine, and then send back again and again to the laser machine is a huge time and effort saver. Mac using designers (and designers in general) tend to have a very "get-the-hell-out-of-my-way" mindset when it comes to their tools. All else being equal with the larger laser manufacturers, a designer who already works on a mac is most likely to buy the machine that works with their mac.