I couldn't let this pass without commenting.
>>> Hmm? Is there really a demand? Mac market share is below 10 percent in
>>> total (worldwide).
>>>
>> By this arguement, there is also no reason to build Java3D for Linux
>> either! Mac OSX is the most popular desktop *nix by far -- and much
>
> I disagree. Linux is used much wider in the science comunity than any
> MacOS. And Linux is free no one forces blackdown to bring Java3D to Linux.
> And there of course there is no license problem as on Mac.
It is accepted that the Mac market is under 10%, however it is 10% of a very large market. While other companies are struggling to maintain their share of the market Apple's is the fastest growing sector.
Apple have a two-tier approach to MacOS X. There is the commercial version, which is feature rich and fully supported by the company, and then there is the open source version (Darwin, http://www.darwin.org), which is the same as any other open source project (and very similar to the commercial version).
> Linux is used much wider in the science comunity than any MacOS
I think you will find the MacOS is the most prevalent OS in US Education and MacOSX is rapidly becoming the flavour of the month in the science community.
I agree there is an issue with the licensing aspects of J3D, however this is soon to be overcome.
I don't wish to come across as a Mac advocate - I am not. I am a computer scientist. However, we should not turn this into a slagging match.
For those interested in J3D on MacOS X then I would suggest that you subscribe to:
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/java-dev
rgds Dave
--
David Murphy
