So I was sitting tonight, minding my business using my mac, when all of a sudden a window appears on my screen. It’s an ad for a CorelDraw sale (I’ll attach it here if I can... Looks an awful lot like the ones I see on my PC). Now I know what you are thinking… I was using Corel, I was surfing the web… nope! I had Mac mail open, I was writing in iMessage and not another thing was open and running! Most Mac users would find this peculiar I would think?
When I click it, it does not identify its host program in the title bar, only finder. I cannot resize or change the window in any way… there is only the ability to close it. I move if off to the side of the screen to investigate further. I open and close various programs, still there. I start activity monitor and look for any services running that may contribute to this… nothing jumped out at me, though I'm not sure what I'm looking for.
I figured it was because I had downloaded the Mac demo of CDGS2020. I want it to be great, the Mac version… but it’s never quite been as fully cooked as the PC counterpart, so I continue to use it in a VM. A little miffed at Corels apparent intrusion, I decide I’ll remove the demo from my machine. Wait… I already did? Thats right… my demo expired, and I tossed it in the trash, and emptied it some time ago... maybe a month or more? My PC version resides in a VM on my desktop... not even my laptop!
To be sure however, I did a search and spotlight returned a massive amount of data. My library folder is FULL of Corel files… gigs worth of information, not just a few pesky leftover files. The application is gone, but not the additional data.
So the question that begs to be asked, how was Corel able to serve up advertising to me, for software that was uninstalled from my Mac? I have never had another popup window suddenly appear like this before, offering ads, especially without identifying itself on my Mac. Especially after said software is supposedly removed from the computer? Which… with gigs of leftover data in my library folder, I would hardly consider this “removed”. Did the developers get sloppy?
A moot point, but when I hit the X to close the window finally, it rather awkwardly moved itself to the middle of my screen, and slowly scrolled itself out of site under my taskbar!
Anyone got any explanations? Corel? Care to explain?
Well I’m happy to report that after I took out the trash for Corel, no more ads! Interestingly enough… we’ve yet to have anyone from Corel comment?
It’s funny, it’s been a lot of years since I have been in this forum, and it’s great to see David is still debating the the merits of Mac and PC. I say, to each their own! I drive a Toyota, you might drive Ford… they’ll both get from point A to point B. Is there a reason we need to hash that out, over and over? I think if you are here for a “who’s got a bigger sword” fight, you’ve completely missed the point of my post in the first place.
I’ve used CorelDraw on both Mac and PC, and you know what… it draws! :) The point of my post is to get someone from Corel to acknowledge and explain why they leave all this junk behind on my Mac, after I’ve removed their software. Why do they feel it’s okay to serve me up unrestricted ads in my OS, after I’ve removed it? How does this fit in with a privacy policy or disclaimers when we install? Is there somewhere in the fine print that says we have to give our machines to Corel perpetually for their advertising needs, without a proper means to remove it?
I’m just curious what anyone from Corel has to say… or will they say nothing?
I'm not sure that Corel knows their uninstall does not work! They may actually think that an uninstall works or they may be jerks. It would not suprise me that it's a screw up, the programming for 2019 and 2020 is just that bad.
I keep track of the industry, being in it for 45 years I must say the industry performance is a stellar decline towards poverty. Since introduction of computer graphics according to trade publications a 78% decline in output providers, 87% decline in work force, pays scales at 1980 levels. In my local area it has been worse than that.
So I regularly ask why a MAC?
We ran our previous 60" HP latex pinter with Caldera Linux RIP as it performed so much better than Onyx during trials. Thus now installing a HP700w we are giving a Mac mini M1 a try as is available as a Caldara RIP. . The theoretical advantage is it should also work with the Mac software and is easier to use with our color laser printers etc. than Linux. So this may be a reason or two as to why Mac. We still have multiple PC licenses of Coreldraw and are unsure if Corel will ever work well on a Mac, I had it many years ago and it was sooo buggy. I will try on this M1 if its a no cost alternative as we had one spare licence from that old Mac crap.
I have more of a chance of becoming the Pope than CoreDRAW has of running well on a MAC.
Onyx has been interesting in terms of performance, I was always upset with its lack of support for live transparency.
The RIP industry has for way too long been centered around Global Graphics RIPS as the core of a modular process. Having worked in top of the line press RIPS for years many based on Global Graphics cores I know the ink jet RIOS can be improved.
The only thing Apple-branded I own is a large iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil.
The sign company where I work has been Windows-based for decades. Very little of the industry specific software for the sign industry runs native in OSX. Caldera is one of very few exceptions. That situation locks us into the Windows platform whether anyone likes it or not. I still think it's important for Corel to get its act together regarding the Mac version. However, it seems like they can't even get the Windows version rid of bugs.
The licensing terms of CorelDRAW for our existing copies is another factor locking us into the Windows platform. We have two licenses grand-fathered in on a $99 annual "upgrade protection" rate. That cannot be transferred over to the Mac version. Corel locks customers into a specific OS at the time of purchase. Perhaps Corel hasn't noticed what its rivals are doing. With Adobe Creative Cloud it doesn't matter if you're running a PC or a Mac. One CC license can be installed on 2 computers; one could be a PC and the other a Mac. It doesn't matter. I can do things in Adobe CC apps for iOS and open those assets in their Windows-based counterparts.
I have an aging notebook for home use that I'm going to replace soon. Apple's notebooks are absolutely not a consideration at all. Apple's notebooks are horribly over-priced. Nothing in them is user-serviceable or upgrade-able. The RAM and a bunch of other stuff is soldered into the motherboard. Some Windows-based notebooks have similar issues. I won't buy a computer with RAM baked into the motherboard from anyone. As to my buying choice, currently I'm leaning toward the new Dell XPS 17 9710 or the new X17 from Alienware. Both have plenty of parts that are user serviceable and can be upgraded after purchase (such as buying faster after market RAM).
Over the last 30 years I watched the evolution of installed devices. It used to be all MAC for work stations and servers. We used to have to remove the control characters from PC postscript code to run it on MAC systems.
Within 5 years the MAC servers started to disappear, within a decade they were gone, replaced 99.9% of the time with Windows.
About 25 years ago the PC edged its way into work stations for graphics. What changed the ratio of PC to MAC in the industry more than anything was the decimation of the graphics industry. Nearly every print shop ahd service bureau had put in a few PC's but every shop that closed pulled multiple MAC'S out of service and Nationally tens of thousands of shops closed for good.
Starting about a bit more than a decade ago in my area the advertising industry started being decimated like the print shops, I now know more people who used to be in advertising than who still work in it. What is left is a mess with many running real old systems and web dominated services, Unix or Linux servers mostly hosted in farms many mixed bag of PS, MAC workstations.
Currently this decimation is crushing the photography industry. Thousands of photographers on YouTube with tutorials because they face a very stiff business environment. Supplemental income is needed to survive. They're not trying the videos because they're teachers at heart!
It appears to me the MAC way of thinking caused a good deal of the problems, very costly upgrades. Not that big a deal with workstations, about double the PC cost but when it came to imposing, trapping and RIPS, WOW hundreds of thousands of dollars for ineffective software and hardware, verses $30K for PC alternatives.
I got involved as a service provider in two lawsuits. Vendors sold MAC based equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to 2 companies. The print companies had me consult on solving the problems. It turned out that they both had very low cost Harliquen systems in place that rendered their huge investments useless. Luckily they all settled and now all the principles are out of business.
There's been a huge amount of bad business thinking in graphics and many surrounding the MAC.
I don't think Apple takes the position of OSX very seriously in terms of professional, industry-specific uses. If anything, they're selling Apple-branded notebooks, iMacs and even their ultra expensive Mac Pro towers as fashion items for consumers. The devices are there as an ecosystem supplement to the iPhone. The more expensive devices are sold as a status symbol for people to show off their money, particularly the cheese-grater Mac Pro.
The MacOS never had a credible "beach head" in the sign industry. The first setups for computer routing tables and vinyl cutters/plotters were driven by MS-DOS systems or some kind of proprietary, closed setup. Any sign companies that had been established for some time quickly got entrenched in the MS-DOS then Windows platforms. Large format printing has changed very little in what computing platforms sign companies typically use. The same goes for LED-based variable message displays. Nearly all of that is Windows-driven, be it a jumbotron system at a sports stadium, digital billboards or a modest display on an ordinary pole sign.
The 1990's were a pretty rough decade for Apple. They came into the decade with the general public thinking anyone doing high end creative work on a computer must have been using a Mac. Companies like Silicon Graphics torpedoed that image via the visuals coming from movies like "Jurassic Park." The gaming industry boom in the late 1990's helped spur Windows-oriented PC vendors to get more competitive. The OpenGL tech first used in visual effects helped make that happen. Meanwhile Apple had been struggling for years to find its way without Steve Jobs. The company was moving too slowly to modernize its OS. There was the difficult 040 to PowerPC transition. They even tried licensing the MacOS to "clone" vendors in the style of what Microsoft does with Windows. The MacOS platform languished and for a time it looked like Apple might go out of business.
When Steve Jobs rode in to rescue Apple he shifted the company's marketing focus into a very consumer-oriented, fashion-conscious direction. The situation has been that way ever since.
The sense of professionalism has been killed across much of the creative industry, from graphic design to photography and even video. Everyone thinks they're an artist, regardless if they have any talent and expertise or not. The cost of many tools fell low enough to attract a lot of self-taught amateurs. There is a big difference between someone who can really sing versus someone who attempts it badly via Karaoke. Much of the graphic design I see these days is Karaoke-quality graphic design.