GIS for Mac?

I remember when ArcView had a Mac version. It was ArcView 2, and it wasn't selling very well (the Mac version, that is). I did teach an ArcView course for Mac users once back then, and it exposed me, the Unix/DOS/Windows guy, to the cult that was, and still is, Apple Macintosh computer users.

I was a Windows snob and didn't take Mac users very seriously. How could I? Macs were glorified Fisher-Price activity centers for adults, weren't they? Apparently ESRI had similar feelings, because they dropped the Mac version of ArcView at release 3 (I think).  At about the same time Autodesk dropped the Mac version of Autocad.

Fast-forward ten years or so. The Mac is staging a comeback, both technologically and culturally. Paul Graham writes that “Windows is for grandmas.” Robert Scoble, former Microsoft top blogger, writes that “Lots of developers like using Macs now”. And Slashdot readers report that Macs are making serious advances in corporate IT.

My good friend Ivo, a Mac convert himself, has been trying to get me to switch for quite some time. Given that the tools of my trade (ArcGIS) are currently only available for Windows, a switch is out of the question. But had there been an ArcGIS version for Mac, or an equivalent AJAX-y web application, I might seriously consider a switch.

Would you?

 

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