Little Fish and Big Fish

There's a small computer 'game' (it's actually not that fun) out there called Fishbanks, which is used to teach students about resource allocation. The prof for the Global Food Security class that I'm TAing is using the game for its intended purpose. The caveat was that we needed several laptops to work from and lo and behold, she didn't believe there was a Mac version.

She was wrong, because there certainly is a Mac version and it is now sittin' pretty in my hard drive.

My beef is not with Fishbanks, but rather all the GIS and CAD software out there. There's tons of anecdotal evidence that Macs are used all the time for graphic design and such. Obviously, Apples have no problems dealing with graphical software. My question is, why the hell aren't there GIS and CAD software out there for Mac users.

Granted, we're a small percentage of overall users, but guess what, GIS and CAD users are a small percentage in and of themselves. While you may argue that this is their argument, that the market is way to small for them. Yet, Microsoft has no problem creating cross platform software (see MacOffice and MSN messenger) and neither did the creators of Fishbanks. So what gives?

ESRI, makers of ArcGIS, and what I believe to be the leader in GIS software, is a pretty big group. I would think that they could definitely reach out to new users if they offered a Mac version, even if it's a basic, streamlined one. MapInfo, the other major GIS software designer, used to put out a Mac version about 3 versions ago. Now? Nothing. and don't get me started on Autodesk, makers of AutoCAD...they're nowhere.

Maybe this is an anomalous company, but Matt's dad's consulting company does transit consulting work, the entire office uses Macs, except for the PCs required for the GIS software. That's at least one example where MacGIS software would come in handy. I'm sure I could find more if I looked hard enough.

So, in the end, I'm an urban planning student with Fishbanks on my computer but not MapInfo or ArcGIS or AutoCAD Map.

Yeah, this makes a whole lot of sense to me.