Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

17 Nov 00

Microstation for Mac OS X, the future is open

Continued from page two.

Business Rules: Lessons for the Sensible and the Cautious

Based on very in-depth investigation, there is a rapidly declining commitment from the engineering and design community regarding anything but Wintel. This is not something that we are proliferating, that's just a simple fact that nobody can deny. Maybe that will change -- if it does, we will certainly keep an open mind regarding it. Since we are very keen about what users want, if there is a significant call for new, commercial licenses of a non-Wintel port of Microstation, then we shall reevaluate. True, some people might view this as a chicken or the egg situation, however, we view our *offering* as the tail of the dog -- and everyone knows that the tail doesn't wag the dog. We need a genuine commitment in order to complete the port. Doing such on our end _before_ a commitment is realized does not guarantee any sort of ROI for us. Since we are in business for profit (without that, we become increasingly less competitive, thus benefiting no one), if we don't see an assured way to make money on our ventures, then they won't happen. We hope you can understand our position regarding this.

"Rapidly declining commitment regarding anything but Wintel"?? Does anyone really buy this line? What would the Linux folks in the sci/tech market say to this? Perhaps in AEC, this holds true, and that is the market most addressed by Microstation.

We Live in a Multi-Platform World

We understand very well that it's rare to find total platform uniformity when projects are large, last a long time, and involve multiple organizations. We do not get into the never-ending, never-productive, always subjective debate about the relative merits of any particular platform. Some people will have a strong favorite that they'll defend unfailingly and take any perceived slight to it as a personal insult. That's fine. Far be it from us to tell someone that something that they use and like is not the best thing in the world.

Our business model is to provide quality products for high-end engineering and design organizations. Should large-scale engineering/design organizations commit to other OSes in the future, then we have a good opportunity to explore the possibilities at that time. I don't believe that you'll find any other vendor that maintains such a stance. In the mean time, if you know of organizations that are willing to make such commitments, then please do feel free to let us know who they are.

"I don't believe that you'll find any other vendor that maintains such a stance". This is a bit of an amazing statement, and not one vendors like Nemetschek NA (VectorWorks) and Ashlar (Vellum) would likely except. There are plenty of CAD ISV's who are just as committed to keeping multiplatform support open.

If all this sounds too *negative*, my humblest apologies, it certainly is not intended to be that way. Unfortunately, there just aren't that many people like yourself who take time out of their busy days to let us know that there is interest in such a port, which is really a shame.

Here is where you, the Macintosh Microstation user (or potential user) comes in. Now is your chance. Let them know.

We are not saying that nothing will happen in this aspect. What we are saying is that, to date, a port hasn't happened due mainly to little or no commercial commitment (or even interest) from the engineering and design community. That's all. Is there a possibility of a port in the future? Of course. Is it probable? That depends largely on market conditions... if there is justification for the large amount of effort that would be involved, then it might be possible -- so far, we haven't heard of anything of any significance (but given the dynamics of the computing industry, that can always change). As mentioned previously, this is not something that we are proliferating, that's just a simple fact that no one can deny.

Technical merits aside, without a platform specific user base to justify a port, we really don't have much alternative.

Phil Chouinard, Bentley.

Architosh Analysis & Commentary: Architosh reader's should thank Koy for wanting to share this info. He felt it was more important that all Macintosh Bentley users know just where Bentley stands. And where is that exactly? Phil is right about the large enterprise level construction engineering market being entirely behind Windows NT/2000. That's a fact (at the moment). However, things can change and it sounds like Bentley thinks they eventually will. The question is, will it change towards Mac OS X? Or will it change towards Linux? Could it do both?

There is the other issue of what to do about smaller Mac AEC firms using Microstation. Clearly from a seat-count/business decision, it should be clear to all Microstation users that the chances of Bentley coming around for you on OS X are next to nothing. What Phil is saying is that a change in the OS wind at the enterprise engineering level is needed first. ROI is what is driving these decisions, not loyalty to platform or users.

Next week: More on Microstation on the Mac, Technically.