Do not expect a fractal ad

Just imagine the following situation between Justin Long and John Hodgman, the Mac and PC men (respectively) in the most recent Apple campaign against Microsoft.

Mac: Hello, I'm a Mac.
PC: And I'm a PC.

(The PC guy, dressed in his usual “boring” suit, is holding an LCD screen showing some odd pictures. Of course, everything else is pure white).

PC: Hum, hum. Good.
Mac: What are you looking at, PC? [asks Mac too intrigued since there shouldn't be anything interesting on the PC side of things].
PC: Oh, I'm looking at my most recent fractal creation. Do you want to see it?
Mac: Sure. [Mac, in his cool sneakers and angelic blue outfit, sees the picture, and then says with a broad smile] I can do fractal pictures too.
PC: Can you?
Mac: Sure, let me show you.

[Mac, always on the “right” side (from our viewers' perspective), makes a smooth move to the right side of the QuickTime player window, and from that edge enters a gorgeous and sexy looking lady from some exotic place bringing Mac a spectacular 30-inch flat panel. Mac takes a look at his screen, and with eyes as wide as the full moon decides it's time to show no emotion at all. Instead, he wispers to the exotic lady]

Mac: What is this?
Exotic lady: Tiz iz yore flak-tar pick-sore [her eyes sparkle with a synthetic flirting glance].

[Mac went pale and mute].

PC: Can I see it?

And just when Mac was ready to turn the flat monitor our way, QuickTime quits unexpectedly.

PCs excels in fractal art, no doubt about it. It is because there is no Mac software that can compete side by side with any of the most popular PC fractal generators. Of course, there are a few, but those that are good enough are shareware, and as such restrict what the tester can do with them, or the kind or size of picture that can be saved. I'm not even sure what their authors' terms are regarding the distribution or showing of pictures done with their unregistered software. In order to use them to their fullest potential, users must pay for a licence code. Yes, that's the norm, but the point is that while there are free options for the PC, Mac users have practically no other choice but to pay the price of being part of an advertisement-born elite. Things are changing now that Macs have dropped prices considerably and are targeting prospective new buyers (alas with the never changing “be welcome to the —same old— elite” motto). Would there be a change towards us, fractal zealots, as well?

If Mac programmers want to get the attention of fractal enthusiasts —and to bring them forever to the Mac OS side— they will need to create the right conditions, the right atmosphere for a growing, genuine, lasting interest in fractal art. I'm not an expert (that's for sure), but my guess is that it might/should work like this: first give the potential user something completely free and powerful enough (without giving away everything) to play with in order to generate the necessary demand for a commercial product. Otherwise, how would they be inclined to buy a fractal generator if they haven't developed the “psychological need” to get something better in the first place? How would programmers expect them to jump into the “Get me/Buy me” flow if they haven't felt the need or the urge to go beyond?

The freeware fractal generators for the Mac I have tried so far are somewhat superficial or too plain: they resemble those simple PC fractal generators of “old age”. Maybe it's because I haven't searched enough, but the only decent and truly free application among them is Mandelbrot on Cocoa. While it is fun to use, it lacks parameter controls and other algorithms found on PC programs such as Fractal Explorer, Tiera-Zon, or ChaosPro, to name just a few; those are so good that many people will keep working with them forever (just as I do). PC users looking for more will get Ultra Fractal, which right now is the top of the line, in a class of its own.


Macs have always been the standard for graphic designers, digital artists, and all other kinds of graphics intensive tasks. Fractal art fits perfectly in that domain, so why isn't the Mac fractal friendly? Why aren't Mac programmers interested in fractals? Is it easier to code for Windows? Is it because Mac hardware hasn't been accessible to the masses (even though Apple has always advertised its software as the easiest in the world)? Now that Apple is trying so hard to attract the public's attention, are we to expect more and better Mac fractal generators in the near future?