![]() ![]() ![]() This foresight means no pain for them today!) Now, however, the plausible choices have quadrupled to include Android and iOS on portable devices, and Linux and OS X on desktop systems - in addition to Windows on desktop and portable devices. (A few CAD firms, such as Graphisoft and Vectorworks, began on the Mac some twenty years ago, and since then developed their software simultaneously for OS X and Windows. Admittedly, a mere five years ago, no CAD programmer would have dreamed of writing code for anything other than Windows. For instance, a programming team at Autodesk took 18 months to rewrite AutoCAD for Mac and OS X, and even then something like 30% of commands were left out of the initial release, as were most programming interfaces for third-party programmers. Microsoft deliberately made it easy for programmers to write software for Windows, but then came the cost of making it excruciatingly difficult to tear away from Windows. Even for a large, wealthy firm like Autodesk, porting CAD programs to other operating systems is a difficult undertaking, because most of today’s CAD software is intimately intertwined with the Windows operating system. The problems lie behind the scenes, specifically in the areas of programming interfaces and user interface elements. Porting is the term used to describe the process of making a software program work correctly with another operating system. Here are the comparison charts from each CAD vendor for the functions included with the various operating systems: AutoCAD Windows vs Mac: BricsCAD Windows and Mac vs Linux: SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF PORTING SOFTWARE TO LINUX The part of the CAD system that deals with geometric objects is not a problem in porting. Bricsys now ships their Mac version just after the Windows version comes out. Autodesk has a version of AutoCAD for Mac computers, but it has only about 85% of the commands found in the Windows version. Bricsys is working hard to ensure that nearly all of the features in the Windows version operate properly in the Linux version. AutoCAD is not available for Linux, but BricsCAD is. One firm told me that replacing Windows with the free Linux operating system saves them 10% of their annual IT budget. The Dual OS Office To further save money, some firms switch some of their workstations from Windows to Linux. ![]()
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