I'd love to try this, though the large number of projects that only support MacOS perplexes me. This excludes at least 80% of people with computers that would like to use your software and effectively limits it to a class of folk with money, creating a sort of nasty exclusivity to the software that does this when there doesn't seem to be a platform-limiting factor.
Their Windows Support Issue was opened on Jun 29, 2022 and the Linux one on the same day, so they're just under two years old. It seems that this isn't source-available right now either, though they mention they'll open source it at some point, but it prevents contributions toward this end too.
Genuine and non-argumentative question; why? Easier to focus on one platform for the purposes of achieving good stability before supporting more than one OS, or trying to get a userbase that is typically more willing to pay for your software? Investor pressure?
Edit: Another comment mentioned the FAQ. So it is about validating the project toward the end of making money it seems. I guess they chose Mac because Apple people have a history of being more willing to pay for stuff.
* Project’s developers use Macs - you are going to code to what you use. If the source was available then I’d say the onus is on developers for the other platforms to port it if they want it
* Simpler target - both in hardware and software Mac as a platform is easier to target IMHO. Like some of the new AI stuff that gets ported to Mac or built for Mac, even if the hardware isn’t the best available (GPUs mainly but also CPU) it’s a known quantity and set configuration. Every M3 is like every other M3. Much easier than “Hey I have 2 ABC123 video cards, how do I use them with your library?”
* Smaller problem space - instead of having to deal with the lowest common denominator or edge cases in other OSes you can focus on just 1. That greatly simplifies things.
Windows may be 80% but the configurations are wildly different and Macs are far more homogenous (with less baggage due to less focus on backwards compatibility). You might be hard pressed to find a subset of the windows population who all have a similar homogenous makeup that rivals the Mac size. Similarly an iPhone is an iPhone is an iPhone, the same is not true at all for Android even though its market share is much higher (aside from the US).
PowerPoint, Photoshop, Excel, Illustrator, Lightroom, Premiere, Atom, and After Effects were all released first on the Mac. In fact the only applications I'd call landmarks that weren't initially released on the Mac are Word and VS Code, which weren't released first on the Mac for obvious reasons.
Your argument is that products that start on Mac and later get acquired and ported by megacorps do better?
This is a text editor similar-ish to VS Code, though Code is made by MS so yeah. Sublime’s first release was on Windows.
Atom supported all three above at release.
Other landmark software not launched exclusively on Mac first; Steam, Google Chrome(though I guess based on WebKit, itself based on KDE-built KHTML, so I guess WebKit can be added to the list).
btw, I got a Quest 3 recently. I saw that you work in that area, so thanks for the awesome software. Quite enjoying it so far.
Their Windows Support Issue was opened on Jun 29, 2022 and the Linux one on the same day, so they're just under two years old. It seems that this isn't source-available right now either, though they mention they'll open source it at some point, but it prevents contributions toward this end too.
The websites this (https://github.com/zed-industries/community/issues/2197) list as the reason for blocking the other OSes though it's quite sparse and doesn't say much.
Genuine and non-argumentative question; why? Easier to focus on one platform for the purposes of achieving good stability before supporting more than one OS, or trying to get a userbase that is typically more willing to pay for your software? Investor pressure?
Edit: Another comment mentioned the FAQ. So it is about validating the project toward the end of making money it seems. I guess they chose Mac because Apple people have a history of being more willing to pay for stuff.