r/Control4 • u/Shot_Luck7837 • 13d ago
Composer Mac app
From what i have seen there are many people running composer on mac or at least trying. I really do not get why in that domain of Smart Building or however you like to call it none of the tools(apps) run natively on mac. I am running composer now on a managed parallels instance which is a pain cuz of the device name ect only issues i got it working now but I seriously want to migrate all my employees to mac, but don’t know if I should do it cuz managing the devices that way is a pain but I can’t see those Windows machines anymore.
Why won’t they release a mac version.
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u/Impossible_Smoke6663 13d ago
I bought the cheapest Windows laptop Amazon had at the time to run Composer. Parallels must be better than it was the last time I used it; but I’m never going back.
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u/No_Cartographer3693 13d ago edited 4d ago
I would prefer a Linux version.
It does look like its getting a lot closer to running on wine now. Which also means possibly closer for Crossover office. Last I checked, it was mainly the encryption causing issues in Wine..
For those who don't know, these technologies allow Windows apps to run natively on MacOS / Linux (they provide the code needed for it to run like its on windows)
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u/No_Cartographer3693 8d ago
Yep.. just checked.. Still encryption issues.. No real solution until Wine has implemented the missing features
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u/ADirtyScrub 13d ago
They do. Savant's software only runs on Mac. Josh.ai only ran on iOS and now has tools for windows. Some companies decide to standardize on one or the other.
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u/UniquelyForgetable 13d ago
I've used a Mac since 2011, using parallels the entire time. Composer works great. Not sure what struggles you're having but it works great for me and my employees.
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u/Anonymous5791 13d ago
It’s a shame. I don’t know anyone technical who uses windows any more other than gamers. I have to run it via parallels, too, since it’s been 15+ years since I owned a windows machine. My day job has a team of 800 folks working for me, all software engineers, and not a single one has asked for or wanted a windows machine in the whole org even though IT gives them a choice at hire time.
Truly sucks and the UX is so bad it makes me cringe every time I have to boot it.
Don’t get me started on how bad outlook, teams. and o365 is compared to Gsuite. My firm got acquired and they forced us to convert over to office. I actually lost a lot of my best guys over having to go to inferior tooling. Just turned collaborative work into friction and wasn’t worth it for folks who could choose to work anywhere.
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u/shoresy99 13d ago
Everyone in the finance and banking world uses Windows. Bloomberg Terminal only works on Windows or something like Citrix. I have never used a Mac in my ~40 year career in engineering and finance/portfolio management.
Composer does not appear to have changed much. I have been using it for close to 20 years since something like OS1.6 and it is pretty similar to what it was back then. It seems like they have never bothered to spend much time improving it. I have used both Composer HE and Pro over that period with each major OS iteration.
What would really make sense would be to create a web version of Composer. Other software like the Unifi Controller can be run completely in a web UI so why not C4? That also makes it OS agnostic so it should work on Win, Mac, and Linux. Or even a phone/tablet.
I also wish that they would make the programming easier. The drag and drop style of programming is annoying AF when you want to do the same thing for similar devices. I know there is a way to edit some stuff behind the scenes by copying to a text editor and making changes but that is kind of klugey.
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u/mstaff388 13d ago
There was legitimate talk at one point about a web based version, but alas it never came to be.
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u/DendriteCocktail 11d ago
"Everyone in the finance and banking world uses Windows."
The VC world I work with is mostly and increasingly mac. PE is moving in that direction as well. Fintech appears nearly all mac except for when they need windows machines for testing.
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u/shoresy99 11d ago
How does the Bloomberg Terminal run on those?
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u/DendriteCocktail 10d ago
Why would it need to?
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u/shoresy99 10d ago
Because it is a crucial tool for the finance industry, at least for those with exposure to capital markets. For the terminal directly and also for the Excel and Python APIs. And used for messaging and trading.
Even someone in PE or VC may need it to pull data on comparables.
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u/DendriteCocktail 10d ago
It's a tool. One of many. And in the world of AI an increasingly insignificant tool.
Just because someone might have a windows box with a display or two for Bloomberg doesn't mean every device they use has to be Windows. For years I had a dedicated Bloomberg terminal as well as a Windows PC. One didn't preclude the other.
When my son was doing PE stuff he had four displays and three computers; Windows for Bloomberg and a couple of other things and two macs. Today he's all mac (and I believe uses Bloomberg Anywhere when needed). Most of the VC's I know are Mac.
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u/gochisox2005 13d ago
Just run a VM. Why is this hard for you?