
The Cross-Platform Myth - mcav
http://marcuscavanaugh.com/blog/the-cross-platform-myth/
======
harpastum
I think one area in which this might not be true is gaming. Since so much of
games are abstracted away from the OS anyway, it's not too hard to provide an
identical interface on multiple platforms. It's not the best example, but I
can't avoid a shameless plug for my checkers game [1]. It's in java, and I
like to think the UI isn't horrible on either platform.

[1]<http://www.tranquilapps.com>

~~~
randomtask
I think you're right. Gaming certainly seems like it would suffer a lot less
from this, because the interface doesn't generally function like that of a
typical Windows/Mac/etc. application with a familiar look and feel. Your game
mostly gets away with it, but it's always subtle things that give away a non-
native app. In your case it's using control instead of the apple key as a
modifier key, which is not the expected behaviour for a mac application.

Edit: But you're right it's quite a nice interface.

------
patio11
My Mac-using business associates have told me a hundred times that my (Java
Swing) program is an abomination unto the eyes of Jobs and will never sell
until I embrace the One True Way to do a Mac interface. (I'm a Windows
programmer at heart and my Mac port most certainly has issues -- some of which
I'm cognizant of, and some of which I addressed over the years.)

But regardless of my friends' feelings on the matter, my stats just do not say
that Mac users are rejecting the program. They convert at fully twice the rate
of Windows users. If anything I need to look at what I've screwed up in doing
a Windows-y interface that wasn't Windows-y enough, apparently!

~~~
mcav
Yeah. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your position), users are
often content with "good enough". The apps I mentioned (Adobe CS4, Firefox, MS
Office) obviously haven't suffered in the marketplace. People complain, but
enough buy that it really isn't a huge issue.

That said, having a truly native interface can't hurt: if you were to pit a
native interface against a non-native one, the non-native application would
have a hard time competing.

~~~
CalmQuiet
But I think that the three examples you mention have very little competition (
or competition that has major problems) for OS X users.

------
frossie
To trot out a well worn cliche, the only intuitive interface is the nipple. I
have recently been sat in front of a Mac; I do not find it particularly
intuitive, and had to ask for hints as much if not more than I would in front
of a Windows box (I am primarily a Linux user today, though I have used many
OSes in the past - VMS anybody?).

What Apple have is a _consistent_ interface. This is the real point here, that
if each OS has a consistent interface between native applications, then a
cross-platform application will be at a disadvantage because by definition it
will be inconsistent with most platforms. This is true to some extent.

But these days the real competitor to a native app is not a cross-platform app
- it's the cloud. It would be interesting to see some data as to whether
people prefer an inconsistent cloud app (say, gmail) to a native consistent
app (say their native mailer). Absent any data, I am not sure what can be
learned here.

------
bcl
It really depends on the application. If it is in a niche with little
competition the users are going to be less interested in eye-candy. But if it
has a number of competitors on the same platform the one that doesn't
'conform' is going to do less well than those that do.

------
Hexstream
I'd love to read this article if it would just LOAD :/

~~~
mcav
Sorry, haven't had much blog traffic before and hadn't checked to make sure
WordPress caching was on. Should be up now.

