Seems like the Mac version will always be somehow better than the Windows version, but it also seems silly for me to get a Mac just to run one piece of software, Scrivener, so I was wondering…anyone here using a Hackintosh, per chance?? How’s Scrivener Mac on that???
Just curious; thanks. 
I am curious about this as well. Scrivener is the only program that has even remotely made me consider using a Mac.
My understanding is that the Windows version is due to reach feature parity with the Mac version around the end of this year. Between now and then there will be at least one upgrade on the Windows side that will close the gap somewhat – with a beta currently available from a link at the top of the Windows Tech Support forum. There should be a new beta in a week or so.
I briefly looked into a Hackintosh, and collected links to the various pieces I would need (based on this article at Lifehacker, but went no further than that. It didn’t seem like it would be all that difficult, but just involved enough to get it set up and running, plus the time I’d inevitably spend playing with it as a novelty, that I decided to not pursue it further. Would be nice to find a 1-click Bitnami-like installation of the whole thing.
I have never run MacOS on a Windows machine using a virtual machine because doing so is ethically ambiguous and in breach of software licensing terms.
In particular, I have never run Mountain Lion using VMWare on a Windows 7 host system and then installed Scrivener for Mac v2.4 on it (despite the fact that I have owned a Mac license for Scrivener for a lot longer than I’ve had access to a Mac… go figure!).
As such I have no idea that Scrivener will work fine, within the constraints of the operating system itself. That is to say, I am unaware that MacOS is designed to work on a very limited set of hardware and therefore certain parts of your system may simply not work. Webcams, CD drives spring to mind here (pure speculation, you understand) and I can imagine in such circumstances that audio might be patchy too.
Another thing that might happen (one imagines) is that you can have problems opening application windows from time to time such that they appear at the wrong size and even opacity. Again, that would be an OS compatibility thing. Within that constraint you’d find that Scrivener itself (v2.4, say) would work as expected.
One thing that I do have verifiable experience of is the other way round: using Scrivener for Windows on a Mac, by running a Windows 7 virtual machine in Parallels. I found Parallels to be quite poor in it’s implementation, and not like using a native machine AT ALL.
My suggestion: stick with Scrivener for Windows. It’s an excellent piece of software which does far more than you need it to, is incredibly robust, and avoids all of the additional steps, delays, problems and legal wranglings that a hackingtosh (or VM) would require.
Why not just get a basic Mac Mini for Scrivener. It’s the cost of a standard tower, and it would allow you to try out all the cool features you might get for Scrivener. I got a MacBook Air as a (late) Christmas present from a family member that’s been trying to get me to switch for years, and the only real reason was to run Scrivener. Now, come to find out, it runs all the other stuff I like to do just as good, if not better, than my old gaming laptop, which was getting a little long in the tooth mind you. But if you don’t feel all that great about setting up a Hackintosh (which I’ve never tried) due to legal issues, then you can probably use your current keyboard, mouse, and monitor (provided you have a desktop) to give that little guy a whirl. Then, if you feel like you want one, you can get a machine that fits your needs.
I’ve been using the Windows Scrivener since it was in beta, and immediately purchased it as soon as it came out for Windows and loved it. Now that I’ve got it on Mac … :mrgreen: ! There are little bits and features that the software uses direct from the operating system that make it perfect for writers that Windows doesn’t offer (like built in dictionary/thesaurus/spelling/grammar checkers) or can’t do as well because of the way the OS is built. And I haven’t even used a lot of the extra features the Mac version has over the Windows version. But the Windows version gets the job done too. I actually have both on my Mac (the Windows version is running inside a Wineskin wrapper ;P).
Wow, I don’t know if I’ve been very helpful on this post.
Well, in that second post by “KB” at viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25223, he seems to indicate that the features parity will only be temporary. I really like the way this company feels (except for the misleading “complete writing studio” sales copy, everything else I see here is just so laid-back and open) so I’d really like to try Scrivener with my next project, but buying into the Apple ecosystem is, at this point, still a bit more of a “commitment” than I’d like to make.
The thing is, from the forums I’m catching tidbits here and there of how the Windows version is so poor in comparison…latest thing I read was how the corkboard feature on Windows isn’t “free form” like it is on the Mac! Just stuff like this gives me pause, making me wonder what else I could be missing…
Yeah, sure, overall they’re the same, “basically”…and one woman’s as good as another if they’re identical twins, right? :mrgreen:
No, of course not – and Scrivener’s Mac and Windows versions are fraternal twins at best…of different sexes! 
Yeah, me too! Didn’t wanna get into Apple but felt like Scrivener may be worth it (hell, Literature and Latte, why don’t you just charge $500 for a 100% functionally identical Windows version so we can save on the Apple Tax!! 
)…but now I find out that a fanless 12" Retina version is credibly rumored/predicted for release second half of this year! 8)
I think I recall reading that post/thread a while back, but I didn’t take it to mean that feature parity will only be temporary. Bearing in mind that at the time it was written, “next year” was 2014, I thought KB was saying that parity would take until the end of 2014 because (in effect) the Win version was chasing a moving target, and had to catch up with more than was/is currently visible on the Mac side.
I’m hoping once the current beta cycle ends (or the feature set stabilizes) the Differences Between the Mac and Windows Versions post can be updated, maybe with a matrix display of differences, if that’s practical.
After about 5 weeks of more or less non-stop use of ScrivWin, I don’t find features that are missing so much as implementations I’d like to see tweaked – though not a lot that full keyboard, toolbar, and menu customization couldn’t overcome. With feature- and function-rich programs, especially those used in creative work – and even more so as they reach a certain level of maturity (which is not to say age, but feature-inclusiveness/completeness) – the customization system becomes one of the most important features.
This is the first time I’ve been on the “lesser” side of cross platform development. It could be worse. 
With the possible exception of finding a great deal on eBay or a similar type of hand-me-down, the Apple ecosystem would need to pay me by the word (not against royalties) before I would consider buying in. 
I take exception to the idea that the Windows version is “so poor in comparison”. I would consider myself a “power user” of Scrivener, and Scrivener for Windows has had far more functionality than I will ever need for a very long time.
Q1: Is the Mac version better than the Windows version?
Yes.
(It has a few extra features)
Q2: Is the Mac version sufficiently advanced to warrant the expense of switching platforms for?
No.
(Not by a reasonably typical person’s definition of value for money)
Q3: Is the Mac version sufficiently advanced to offset the inconveniences of using MacOS on a virtual machine?
No.
(You would need to be an exceptionally heavy user, in my opinion, of custom meta-data in order to out weigh the many issues with getting MacOS to work on a Windows box)
Q4: I’m buying a new machine anyway. Is the Mac version sufficiently enchanted to justify learning a new operating system?
No.
(But the MacOS text engine might be. Three finger tap on any word to give dictionary, thesaurus and wikipedia entries in situ.)
As for Apple Tax… my MBP is by far the best computer I have every gotten my fingers on, and is comparably priced for machines with the same specs and build quality. And it does have incredibly good build quality.
If the windows version (which is mac v1) is so terrible, how did L&L sell enough to justify a mac v2?
many many folks used the mac v1 for many many years with no issues. The complaints honest sound like whining. Be patient and wait for the v2 just like those of us with macs had to.
Actually, isn’t that going to be an iOS based MacBook Air? iOS isn’t the same as OSX, and Scrivener isn’t available yet for iOS (which means it won’t run on that Macbook). I could be wrong, and sorry if I am.
Correct me if I"m wrong, but doesn’t the v1 series for Windows have more features than v1 for OSX?
I was so desperate for Scrivener, I wrote 75,000 words in it under WINE before there was a native one that worked well enough. (And with WINE, you usually encounter every bug in the program.)
I am contemplating this same issue: I’m considering running the mac OS in a VM so that I can use Scrivener for Mac. I’m currently using the Windows version of Scrivener.
Why? It all started when I wanted to open more than 2 documents within Scrivener (I use split screen to view two documents max right now). I found that the Mac OS has a feature that allows this through floating windows.
My end goal is to have 3 x 27" monitors running at 2560x1440 each. The center will use split view and the two sides will have research and/or views of other documents within Scrivener. But I’m not sure if this is possible in VM mac setup.
Including me. It was because of Version 1 for the Mac that I moved lock-stock-and-barrel from Windows (having tried all the usual suspects). More importantly, so did a number of published novelists, who then went on to write numerous novels using Version 1.
Okbye, I would personally steer away from running MacOS as a VM. If there’s a particular feature on the Mac that for some reason you absolutely need for your way of working then perhaps it’s worth the expense of buying a mac just to have slightly earlier access to that feature (seems like a marginal cost given the amount you’re spending on your monitors?). I’d try working on your existing set-up first though.
As Hugh (kind of) said, many a worth novel has been written without the features that people have said in threads over the years as ‘deal-breakers’.
I’m not in Hugh’s league, of course, but I’ve intensively planned and run three Novel In A Day collaborative writing events on Scrivener for Windows. I did everything for the first one on the Windows BETA!
It really is great software.
Thinking about it, whatever interest I have in using the Mac version is driven more by general enthusiasm for Scrivener than by any significant lack I experience with the Windows version.
It’s akin to being impatient for an update, largely independent of what in particular might end up being in the update. In that sense, using the Mac version would be like using an “advance” copy of a future update I’m destined to get in any case. In practical reality, it’s not something I would do unless I was prepared to migrate to the Apple ecosystem across the board.
As for the things I do find lacking or otherwise (shall we say) irritating in the Windows version, I suspect it would be no better and possibly a little worse on the Mac side, as I suspect (correctly or not) that many of those things can be traced back to differences in design practice and conventions between Windows and Mac, and are thus, at some level, well-baked into ScrivWin for having originated on the Mac. I could be wrong about that. But I do detect traces of an “Apple accent” in the way Scrivener’s UI speaks to me. It’s interesting, and that (shall we say) mitigates some of the irrrritation.
For now, I keep my nose pressed to the window, waiting for parity (and for another beta later this weekend!)
Thanks for the feedback pigfender. Here is my perspective at this point.
The whole drive for me going to the Mac version of Scrivener is for the “QuickReference Window”* feature that will allow me, should I desire, to fill all 3 x 27" monitors with content from within Scrivener. I emailed Scrivener about the Windows version of Scrivener offering the “QuickReference Window”. Apparently this feature is possible due to a function inherent to the Mac OS and, at least at that time, there was no sure way of providing this same feature in Windows. Though that may change in the future.
Scrivener is the only app I’m interested in using on the Mac OS. Everything else I do, I am happy doing in the Windows OS. I’m sure I could switch most, if not all, to Mac but I’m not convinced I want to learn a new OS.
On the other hand, for portable writing, the Macbook Air seems to be an excellent choice and one that I’ve had my eye on. So the thought I had was, just get the Macbook Air and use it for portable writing + at home I can plug it into my 3 x 27" monitors and get two birds with one stone. However, the latest edition of Macbook Air does not support 3 monitors. Maybe the next refresh will change that.
This lead me to considering using Mac in a VM. Not ideal, but seemingly addresses most my concerns. However, if it is flaky, or buggy, or whatever due to running in a VM then I’m not going to want that either.
I agree that I don’t NEED 3 monitors to write, or to write well. Writing can be accomplished with the most basic setup. For me it is mostly pursuing my personal ideal. Technology won’t make me a better quality writer, but could help me become a more efficient writer. Plus, if Scrivener didn’t exist and I was not pursuing writing, I’d still have a 3 x 27" monitors. I’ve always wanted a 2 x 30” setup, and at this point, 3 x 27” makes the most sense to me.
I’m open to suggestions to different configurations or changes to my perspective, though I cannot guarantee that all suggestions will be adopted. 
For those who don’t know what QuickReference Window is, this is Scrivener’s video on it: literatureandlatte.com/videos/Qu … ouTube.mov
There might have been a miscommunication there. It could be they were thinking you meant Quick Look, which is the Mac feature we used as inspiration for the naming of the QuickReference feature. Quick Look is just a file manager level thing that lets you easily preview a document without opening it. We do make use of Quick Look technology in Scrivener for some things, but it doesn’t have anything to do with QuickReference—that in itself is the ability to open a text editor in a separate, simplified window. Such a thing could be done on any operating system, except DOS perhaps. 
No, I take that back: Ashton-Tate’s Framework.
Rest assured this feature will be coming to Windows.
As for MacBook Air’s driving three huge monitors: I wouldn’t hold my breath for it. These things are “ultrabooks”, and by design they have rather wimpy video cards to conserve battery power. It’s a great machine for writing. You get a good ten hours out of it, with WiFi, and it has a great keyboard and trackpad for that class of computer. The 11" in particular is about the size and weight of a tablet when folded up. It’s a nice Linux machine too, Linus Torvalds uses one, after all.
I’m glad to hear. That greatly simplifies my situation.
FWIW, I’m one of the people who made the switch to Mac in part because of Scrivener, back in the Scrivener 1.x era.
The other reason why I switched was DevonThink Pro, which still has no Windows equivalent.
(This was also right about the time Apple adopted Intel microprocessors, and smack in the middle of the Windows Vista debacle. So Apple was looking much better and Windows was looking much worse, plus I was in the market for a new computer anyway.)
I could happily go back to Scrivener for Windows if I had to, but I couldn’t leave DTP behind. So that’s something for those who are considering the switch anyway to consider.
But if all you’re interested in is Scrivener? Stick with Windows. The differences between the two aren’t enough to offset the inconvenience and cost of switching platforms.
Katherine