Y'know, I know all my DLS brethren roll on the Windows side of the playground, but I'd like to make a request that you be careful with the use of "a ton" of Mac apps in reference to their cross platform-ness. There's a *lot* of factors that can cause this.

The first, in Skype's case, is probably that there are a lot of Mac users out there that already use iChat, which has had a pretty killer audio and video chat implementation years before Skype landed. iChat certainly can't call land lines, but I would love to see the statistics on how many people are actually doing that with computer-based VoIP apps.

There are actually quite a few companies out there who do a great job of doing simultaneous releases, and now that Apple has *finally* been able to make the switch to Intel chips, we've seen over at TUAW that this list of cross-friendly companies is increasing. Getting the giant hurdle of translating from Intel - PowerPC should do wonders for this.

It should slowly become smoother sailing from here on out. Let's hope that issues like these become a thing of the past for the greater majority of apps out there.

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So does Skype4win work under Parallels?

iChat is neat. But does it interop with anything? What about your friends who don't use Macs?

The Mac problem is not the major apps. It's all the small utilities and helper apps that get written for Windows first, Mac occasionally and Linux never. Think things like Linkedin toolbars, Plazes uploader.

Apple could help everyone by throwing some money at the Wine project.

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"Why are there always a ton of applications out there that aren't released for Mac until months, or sometimes years, after the Windows version comes out?"

Because (I'm sure I don't have to remind you) of the significantly smaller number of Mac users than Windows users.
It makes perfect sense for the developer to focus their efforts on a product that can be used by the greatest number of people which helps the product gain broad acceptance. (or disdain. There are plenty of crappy Windows apps that you are lucky have never been released for Mac.)
You could make the same claim about apps for Free BSD, OS/2, VMS or any other operating system that is not in widespread use. That is simply the price you pay for being in the minority.

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I've never used Skype. Is it better than ICQ or MSN Messenger?

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Thanks for news!

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