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We do have world standard private companies here in Australia that do a lot of work (special effects, etc.,) on Hollywood movies. One of them at least exclusively uses Windows by preference.

Last I checked, Industrial Light + Magic in San Francisco, the biggest visual effects company in the world, was pretty much all-Linux for most of what they did. They also have a pretty big Mac department, but not nearly as big as Linux. Only a fraction of their work is done under Windows. And everything is linked by a 10-gigE network, using about 300TB worth of storage (as of last year, anyway). (Skywalker Sound, roughly 30 miles away, is about 80% Mac.)

I seem to recall the second-biggest visual effects company in the world, Sony Pictures Imageworks, is about 60/40 Linux and Windows. Not sure how much they use Macs, but I can find out.

When I worked for the now-defunct Cinesite, we were about 80% Unix and/or Linux. Very little was Windows. About 25% of our staff moved down under to go to work for Peter Jackson at Weta Digital; I'll send an email to a friend down there and find out what they're using.

My point is what I said above: a person who complains that he or she can't accomplish something on a given platform is like a carpenter blaming his tools for the poor quality of his work. A competent person should have no problem dealing with multiple platforms. Your manager's argument isn't a valid one, because they never really tried to learn how to use the Mac.

Again: keep in mind my partner and I live in a house with six Macs and three Windows machines we use nearly every single day of the week. (I think that number is low, because there's some other machines not on the network at the moment.) The difference between OS's is not the vast philosophical gulf you make it out to be. Using both is not a big deal. Because I use both every single day of the week (and more Linux than I care to think about), I'm more qualified than most people to say that the Mac is head-and-shoulders better for what I do.

Small side-story: my brother and I have more differences than similarities. He's 12 years younger, a little taller, bald, straight, married with kids, loves watching sports, and has a 9-5 job. I'm a little shorter, have most of my hair, gay, longterm relationship, watch movies, and work bizarre hours. Radically different lifestyles. We like different movies, different music, different poltiics, all kinds of stuff, but we get along. Yet my brother is 100% in the Mac camp, because he's a graphics designer, a total Photoshop/Quark wiz. I'm a technical guy working in audio and video, and a writer and consultant. Macs couldn't be more appropriate for people in our respective fields.

Unless you spend lots of time working with both Macs and Windows, I don't think you can make a fair, objective decision on which works best. I agree it's a personal choice, but I think it's unfair to dismiss the Mac this flippantly, especially when so many arguments (cost, choice of software, etc.) no longer apply.

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I think I will just reserve the right to my lighthearted and well-intentioned Aussie flippancy. The alternatives are far too serious for my tastes. :icon_twisted:

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