This is Why Mac Apps Rock

Scott Stevenson at Thecacao (also of CocoaBlogs) puts down some great thoughts about that thing that makes Apple developers and their apps stand apart from their Windows counterparts.

The main point is that we prefer the user experience over a boat-load of features. Windows apps are notorious for over-crowded menu bars and options coming out the wazoo. The Mac side of the house is much more stream-lined (take TextMate for example) in appearance, even if it offers great capabilities under the hood.

Scott also speaks to the point that porting a Windows app to Mac isn’t a great practice, as the experience doesn’t transition so nicely..

A textbook example of this is Firefox. A great browser, but Safari is far more popular on the Mac because it’s designed for a Mac user. In fact, this runs so deeply that Camino — a Mac-only app which uses the same Gecko engine that Firefox does — enjoys a fairly strong following.

Skype is an excellent example of a port done right. The application has the same basic set of abilities as the Windows version, but it was clearly redesigned for Mac users, even though this meant more work on the part of the developers.

It’s a good, quick read, and really nails the situation perfectly as far as I’m concerned.

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