Excellent article. I like that he pointed out that Mac users won't pay for garbage or clones. It's true. The clearest example I can think of is when Maxis made SimCity 3000. This was basically SimCity 2000 with some extra bells and whistles, and Mac users weren't going for it. Because of this, Maxis decided (despite the number of Mac users who voraciously purchased SC2K) that "Mac users aren't interested in our products." It took them forever to think about The Sims for Mac. Mistake.

I agree, though, that it probably doesn't make sense to develop for Macintosh if you are only going to make one product and you are limited by audience size, programming language, or something else like that. So, Joel isn't wrong per se. His argument for why he doesn't want to make a Macintosh version is perfectly acceptable. You have to consider the bottom line, especially if you are trying to make it without the gobs of financing that people seem to expect all companies have when they start up these days.

And hey, it's just like having kids: if you don't want to do it, the world is a better place if you don't even though everyone says you should.

Posted by: Lydia on October 17, 2002 07:04 PM

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Damn it, I thought this was going to be about someone designing specificially for me. Next they'll be telling me that "Return of the Mac" isn't about me either!

I spent some time working on a 'mac' version of some software in the 80's. We gave up after a few months because Apple's attitude to developers was absolutely awful. They didn't seem interested in encouraging developers to write for their platform. Microsoft on the other hand, have always seen the benefit of courting the developers, and this approach has paid dividends for billg.

I hope that Apple have changed their attitude since those days, as I would like to do some work for the Mac someday.

Posted by: Mac on October 18, 2002 07:21 AM

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