[Ham-Mac] Are you running OSX on your Mac ?

[Michael Carter]

Hello Chris and all.

I am using OS X on my B&W G3, but most of my development is on my first-gen
iBook which is running OS 9.1...makes for an easy "couch-based" platform!
I'm splitting development between CW and RB. I have a PC also..more for
kicks than serious work. Recently I've been using it for using the myriad
amateur radio apps available on that platform. I've been working, as have
you, on bringing the same versatility to the Mac.

I'm all for keeping those older Macs usable as long as possible! I still
use my Mac SE for controlling my PK-232 using PakRatt software, as well as
using ZTerm for my TNC and a couple apps I've written to control my radio
and do contest logging. I'm developing a contest/logging program that I
plan on releasing in 68k, Win and Carbon, as well as a UNIX/Mac logging
server to which many operators can connect and send their log entries to fo
multi-op events. While 68k Macs have been left behind by Apple and other
companies, I've found quite a bit of Hams have them lying around and would
very much like to use them in their shack.

Regards,
Mike K6MEC
Pilot/Programmer

Chris Smolinski wrote:

> I'm curious how many hams are running OSX on their "primary" Mac. I made
> the switch about 3 months ago (after spending about a year flipping back
> and forth between 9.1 and 10.0.x) after 10.1 came out, which was a big
> improvement. I like the stability of OSX, and by running it exclusively,
> I hope to prod myself to work faster on MultiMode OSX ;-)
>
> I noticed a definite uptick in OSX downloads of several of my (non-ham)
> programs when 10.1 came out, so it seems a large number of Mac users are
> changing over.
>
> I'm curious how things will pan out amongst hams though, who seem to
> have a habit of, errr, getting as much lifetime out of a computer as
> possible ;-) (68k Macs have been unsupported by Apple and commerical
> software companies for years now, and OSX won't run on anything other
> than a PCI PowerMac or iMac/iBook/etc)
>
> Here are some numbers to crunch on, these are based on downloads of my
> shareware programs for the month to date:
>
> Downloads of Morse Mania OSX and Classic are virtually tied. This is the
> only ham program I have that is both OSX and Classic. Yet for
> Audiocorder, 76.2% are OSX, 23.1% are Classic, and 0.7% are 68k. For the
> Atomic Mac, 16% are OSX, 79% are Classic, and 5% are 68k. This is quite
> surprising, I think.
>
> Apple is telling developers not to grow attached to Carbon, and start
> developing Cocoa (OSX only) apps quickly. Yet I can't see this
> happening, there's a large installed base of older Macs that cannot run
> OSX. Based on the System 7 experience, my guess is that most apps will
> continue to be Carbon for at least 2-3 years.
>
> So what are you running in your shack?
>
> 73
> Chris
> N3JLY
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