what the author of article means is the STEM students play a lot of PC games and hence require a PC.
LOL.
LOL.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Really? STEM Students Require a PC?!?
- Thread starter Chuckeee
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
For all the talk of CAD as a measuring stick here then I'm just getting against cross platform compatibility. I guess gatekeeping the software I will use for Mac and Linux is a good idea. I guess I won't need to convince certain people to offer compatibilities for Windows.
My needs is underserved by Windows and can't be relied on since the probability of a software being incompatible is too high and headache to fret over. The course I will take prefers to get a MacBook or a Linux machine.
I have been retired for 4 years, but the programs I used as a chemical engineer were written for windows. If I were working as a graphics designer it is possible that programs would be written for Mac. To me, which system you use should be determined by which system programs your profession uses are written for.
I’m curious what STEM programs you need that are only available/compatible on MacOS?
My wife went through stem in college and works on a stem related career in her graduate degree (gets her PhD in less than a month).
A lot of people in her current lab use MacBooks but they have a Windows PC in the lab to run Windows apps. Neither were required and she had the option of buying either. I noticed the a majority of the professors / students at her university use Mac.
Biology.
A lot of people in her current lab use MacBooks but they have a Windows PC in the lab to run Windows apps. Neither were required and she had the option of buying either. I noticed the a majority of the professors / students at her university use Mac.
Biology.
Last edited:
Astronomy. My professors all use macOS as their work computer and the remaining Windows laptop is relegated to administrative and simple tasks. I said about probability of incompatibilities.
you don't have to go into detail if you don't want, but that doesn't really answer my question. Astronomy is a field, not a software package. I'm trying to understand what STEM software exists for MacOS but not PC/Linux. I don't think I've ever come across an example (indeed, I have had issues with unstable or non-existent ports of the software on Mac that I use for research over the years, hence the fact my lab runs on Linux and Windows support machines - BUT, I'm in a different field than you!)
Then just use subsystem for linux. All good on Windows then. But what specifically are these astronomy programs that are mac/linux only?
I mean, I am trying to remember back, and I have found lots of windows only stuff for STEM, but no Mac/Linux (which also means UNIX) only?
Edited to add: A good example of this is freaking MS Excel. If you get into the engineering "weeds" enough, even Mac Excel is too different to work properly for certain statistical and engineering packages.
THIS. If anything, Mac always required a ton of workarounds when I was using it in STEM fields. This was 2000 to 2015 or so before I gave up and just used what was provided--I kept my mac for personal stuff only.
And most of the vendors I worked with that used macs, their IDEs where web only or they would connect to servers. So that makes sense. A setup like that is pretty client agnostic. (At least until you hit smart cards combined with Azure Virtual Desktop on Mac. Then you cry and sell your Mac--but that is a different issue).
we're running out of shared computers as my lab grows, and I actually polled my group this last week if they want some Macs for the new lab machines, since many of them are Mac diehards and bring their own Macbooks to lab for their emailing, writing, etc - did not get a single vote in favor of it. My old advisor's lab ran entirely on Apple products and it was perfectly fine, we did all the contemporary stuff expected in our field - but we had to forego a number packages and use alternatives, or do work-arounds to run them. My lab on the other hand... we just install whatever we need and get our work done. It is what it is...
It all depends on what you are doing...
If you are studying to be a machanical, Electrical or other engineer then you might be using CAD software that is Windows-Only. The high-end stuff tend to only run on Windows
Computer science magos likey could use anything but at some point many of them are going to need to have access to Linux. Tis could be done using a VM on macOS unless they are doing some kinds of AI that require a more powerfull computer and yu not want to tie-up you only computer with hours to days long runs
Math and biological science majors (who make up the vast majority of STEM students) could use anything. My daugher mostly uses her iPad but needs the macbook now and then
AutoCAD on Mac is not a great experience due to the U.I. It is no where close to the Windows version.
Last edited:
Then how come I keep hearing engineers saying their software isn't on macOS because they keep complaining they can't make CAD models on Mac when I tell them how good the GPU in Apple Silicon is.
No idea. People have blind hate towards Apple and say such things.
autocad is but one of many cad/engineering programs
I wouldn't really call it blind especially with Apple's stance towards installing software outside of their app store and their anti-Right to Repair measures
I specifically said Mac and Linux. And those two are more common on my field to have developers compiled for both of them.
Subsystem for Linux is so and so on support. They typically told you that it is on your own and things are only supported on Mac and Linux.
It depends on your field. You can search the internet on how various software and you can see the compatibilities in my field are majority Mac and Linux. It's rare for certain fields but on my field, it's not.
Its an extremely limited and outdated one based on original cad programs developed in the early days of the space race. A couple decades ago, when the sunset of Autodesks exclusive license was on the horizon, they realized they’d have to finally get off their butts, and bought some competitors & created parametric modelers, bim & plm software, created Inventor & Revit to try to compete with Dassault & Siemens in the modern Cad arena. When the core of Acad‘s ip entered public domain, Rhino and a spate of others rebodged it into their own cheap programs to hack AutoCADs market share off at the knees. Dassault even created its own version of Autocad called Draftsight and gave it away for free just to stick it to Autodesk. Compared to modern (post-2004) design software, Autocad is little more than an etch-a-sketch for technical writing and should have been laid to rest.
Thats not to say loads of companies don’t still use it, after all there are about 50 years of AEC projects in archives in autocad formats, so it’ll have relevance just for accessing that data forever. …but as stated previously here, I also see companies running WinXP yet, because their principal Architect or Engineering MGR is old and crotchety, proudly proclaiming “its never been a problem” or “if it aint broke dont fix it”. If they had any idea of how costly limiting their design capabilities, efficiencies & mfg processes to a static modeler like autocad actually is in 2010+, they’d realize why theykre stuck getting nickel & dimed making cheap basic parts & competing with china while their local competitors get the more complex (& profitable) work.
Apple has no problem with you installing Mac OS software from outside their app store. Most Mac software is not on that App Store.
Draftsight is a product of ARES Commander by Greabert of Germany. They also provide the program Corel sells as Corel Cad. I personally like BricsCad. The Mac version is pretty close to its Windows counterpart.
Most of the scientists I know use Macs almost exclusively. I guess if you wanted to train/run ML models locally, a discrete graphics card would be a benefit, but even that use case is becoming less limiting for Mac users as the major ML libraries are becoming more feature-complete on Apple Silicon GPUs.
I've seen Forbes articles trying to trash Apple many times before as well. In other forums, I've seen Apple haters always posting links to Forbes articles as a way to justify their point by leveraging Forbes's credibility. Not really sure what's going on at Forbes.
Edit:
A google search on the above topic revealed the same questions posted in Quora and Reddit as well:
www.quora.com
Edit:
A google search on the above topic revealed the same questions posted in Quora and Reddit as well:
Is Forbes anti-Apple?
Answer (1 of 2): The media/tech media can appear to be anti-Apple for two reasons. They feel it by being contrarian, they appear to be smarter than “the rest of us.” Just like the Economist is an anti-capitalism business magazine, it appears that they are above the fray and “smarter.” Now, it’s ...
What's going on at Forbes is it's a trash website. They were also bought by a Chinese company: https://www.scmp.com/business/banki...c-agrees-acquire-forbes-publisher-deal-values
Any reputation they had before has died a terrible death.