PC vs MAC

That being the case, what's the big deal? You have to accept the FACT that for as long as you use a Mac you will have to use the virtual machine to have an acceptable range of software.

Yes, but writing cross platform applications is just not that difficult.

I suspect that they have a bunch of ugly legacy Windows code that passes down from one version to another. That seems pretty apparent in the problems with screen updates, flickering, video driver conflicts, mouse driver conflicts, etc.

At the same time, If someone chooses the alternative platform with the smaller installed base, they have to take the bad with the good. I ran OS/2 for a few years, so I know how it feels.

-- Jim

While I do not disagree that there is legacy code that creates difficulties for current maintenance and improvements, I do disagree that it should not be so. The marketplace wants costs kept low ... replacing code that basically works is too expensive. The fact that writing "cross platform applications is just not that difficult" may or may not be true ... but it is way too subjective. And it suggests what is nearly ridiculous: that since writing cross platform code is so trivial, that there is no good reason for Intuit not to do so. I anxiously await anyone to make the case that Intuit is incapable of understanding what it takes to write code for multiple platforms, or that Intuit has lost their corporate minds and are simply refusing to make a profit when one is staring them right in the face.

And as to the mouse driver conflicts: I'm not sure how you propose that they could possibly be avoided solely by Intuit. At least one mouse problem in Quicken was caused by Microsoft creating a new mouse driver for an old mouse in a new operating system ... and changing what the mouse driver transmitted to the application (without any notification to application developers). New drivers shouldn't break existing code ... especially code written in accord with examples provided by the mouse driver developer.

I doubt that there is a big enough market at $30-$50 a copy to make it worthwhile. That is why there are so few viruses for OS-X and Linux. There just aren't enough users of those operating systems to make it worth the effort.

"Better" in the corporate world means it makes more money. While the programmers may get a lot of satisfaction by cleaning it up, the management has to make a profit. That is their job. It currently (usually) works well enough for a cheap piece of software. Would you be willing to pay $75.00-$100.00 for the next version if they cleaned up the old code? I wouldn't, and I doubt many others would either.

-- Jim