The situation for VSXu on "Apple" / "OSX"

- Why isn't there any "Mac" version of VSXu?

- Long story short: Because it costs too much money to maintain one.

We get this question a lot.

First, regardless of OS platform, when releasing software, it has to be tested properly. This is for your sake as a user/customer, and it would be totally pointless - not to mention rude - to deliver untested software. It would most likely crash all the time. This kind of testing needs to be done on many levels, some things pretty regularly - and for that a virtualized environment has saved time and we'd go so far as to say it's necesarry.

So, in order to properly test VSXu on Windows and GNU/Linux - the same relatively cheap computer can be used (less than $1000). Development can be done in virtualized environments as well. Nightly builds (yes, for Windows also!) take place on GNU/Linux running on very cheap (less than $200) hardware.

But when it comes to Apple - the story is vastly different. Let's state some facts.

Apple DOES NOT ALLOW YOU to install OSX on your own PC hardware - you have to buy theirs, and it is very expensive.

The only hardware that is on par with our current test machine for VSXu (and mind you, it's an overclocked i7 with Nvidia GTX 580) would be a "Mac Pro" which would cost us twice as much as that.

Apple DOES NOT ALLOW YOU to virtualize their OS except on their own hardware.

Again - very different from both Windows and GNU/Linux where you can virtualize either on top of the other.

Conclusion

The development of VSXu is not for-profit so there's really not a budget, and since neither of us own or use "Macs" it would cost too much for us to go out of our way just to maintain a Mac version ($2500 as of now in fact).

And to be blunt and honest, we don't really appreciate Apple's arrogant walled garden opt-in attitude towards developers.

Might we recommend an alternative?

If you want VSXu running, cheaply - get a bleeding edge consumer PC with the latest technology that Intel and Nvidia has to offer, and run GNU/Linux on it.

Yet another alternative

Use "boot camp" to dual boot into GNU/Linux or Windows.

Apple's own VPL

Apple has a really good VPL called "Quartz Composer", go check it out. Of course the things you create will NOT run on Windows or GNU/Linux.

If you still think we should maintain a Mac version

You are always welcome to help us out, preferrably by annually donating new hardware from Apple, then we'd be happy to support it.