Why is Finale bad on Mac?

Hi everyone - I'm considering upgrading to Finale 2007 on Mac OS 10.3. I've heard several people complain about the quality of Finale on Mac and say that Sibelius is better in this way. Yet based on my experience with PrintMusic on Mac, I haven't really seen why this might be true. Can anyone explain why? Thanks!

it could be because the Mac OS has gone through a lot of pretty major changes in the last few years, and I suspect the people at APPLE have been less than forthcoming about the inner workings of each new iteration of the OS. This puts software developers in difficult positions. Software developers end up running after all sorts of little details that always worked before but somehow no longer do, because of the OS. This is also a problem for those upgrading to Vista on PCs. So the mac people aren't the only ones affected.

Then again, the people at MakeMusic might also think that their Mac userbase is smaller than their PC clientelle.

I've known many people using Finale perfectly productively on both Macs and PCs. I'm not sure I'm that quick to say that "Finale doesn't work on Macs".

On the MakeMusic forum there are daily people ranting about how the last version of Finale that was "stable" was Finale 2005... and yet I've been using Finale 2006 since it came out (summer of 2005) without EVER getting a crash or bug affecting my work. And I use the programme on average 6-8 hours a day (and 10-14 hours a day when I'm really in the middle of something).

I've been using Finale 2008 since I got it last month and it's been wonderfully stable and the new tools (well, old tools that they redefined) are a blessing.

Playback is as smooth as in Finale 2006 (if not more so).

Notation is easier than ever (although I STILL do run around like a chicken with the head cut off looking for old tools that have been moved somewhere new).

Printing seems to work perfectly.

And of course, the upgrade to Finale 2008 with the inclusion of "Garritan Sounds for Finale" and the integration of SoftSynth with other Garritan sounds has given me extra work I didn't think I would have... I now have to completely re-write an old "new age" piece I had done around 10 years ago. NOT a project I had actually considered getting into at this time (I always had the great excuse that "well, GPO isn't compatible with the SoftSynths".. which is no longer true).

So all in all, I'm VERY happy with Finale 2008.

I use Finale on Mac. It has gone smoothly until that incident; Finale didn't work, but I have managed to fix it :thumbsup:

Never use Finale on a PC so can't really judge but I don't find it that problematic using Finale on my Mac.

I can't help it, I've been resisting this all day:

Finale isn't bad on Macs, Macs are just bad in general :)

I can't help it, I've been resisting this all day:

Finale isn't bad on Macs, Macs are just bad in general :musicwhistle:

Watch it you!

They have at least really awesome designers:toothygrin:

I can't help it, I've been resisting this all day:

Finale isn't bad on Macs, Macs are just bad in general :D

This is sooo true! Without a left and right click mac is fail! :D

This is sooo true! Without a left and right click mac is fail! :P

Have you been in a cave the last couple of years?

They actually have right and left click, and besides you can still have that option if you have only one buttoned mouse.

No I haven't been in a cave, I've been too busy using a pc that has had a 2 button mouse interface for many more years than Apple. :)

also, Mac's operating system is the only freaking operating system that when you click and drag something from a cd it only brings a link into a folder where you drag it.! :)