10 thoughts on “OmniGraphSketcher functionality for Windows?”

  3. I used Inkscape a couple of times and it is very capable. It seems not as specialized as OmniGraphSketcher and it is much more involved because it is a vector graphics program but it should have the same functionality. Nice thing is that it can export files as .tex format using pstricks. It is open source and free for Windows and Linux.

  4. Get a Mac.

    Office is available on the Mac. Or you can run Windows on the Mac and keep using Office for Windows (assuming you use it). I recommend VMWare Fusion to run Windows on the Mac; it works very well.

    R is available for the Mac.

    So is LaTeX (MacTeX distribution).

    TextMate is an excellent editor with many modules for different languages, e.g., TeX/LaTeX. It may even have a module for R.

    As you've discovered, Omni makes some cool software.

    And, best of all, the Mac operating system is essentially BSD Unix. You don't have to use Unix commands, but they're available via the terminal if you want them.

    You can also get an educational discount on a Mac. It won't be a lot, but it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

    Finally, buy David Pogue's book "The Missing Manual" for Leopard if you do buy a Mac. I don't think you'll regret doing so.

  5. “learning to use a mac” amounts to a series of pleasant discoveries: any frustration at differences gives way as you realize that any gains you had achieved from habituation to windows are outweighted by the more intuitive design of the mac os.

    The centrality of user-interface design to apple products and software is a big part of why great third-party applications like omnigraphsketcher don’t exist on other platforms.

  7. OmniGraph Sketcher is pretty neat. I can't think of anything so specialized and smart on any operating system (i.e. automagically changing the axis labels, knowing how to fill areas, etc..). Mathematica and Adobe Illustrator (or Inkscape) (let alone R) make nice graphs of course, but with more work. I think that the coolness of this application reflects mainly the coolness of the Omni group and not on the coolness of the Mac.

    For interactive meetings in general, I've been impressed with Twiddla which also allows freehand drawing (not graph drawing), but also includes a LaTeX renderer.

    Since Mac users can run Windows or Linux as virtual machines, I looked into how a Windows user could run Mac OS. I couldn't find any official support for running Mac in VirtualBox (a free, multi-platform, virtual machine software) although I think there are folks out there working on making it work. I did find a site where folks are installing Mac OS on their cheap netbooks: Mac on a Netbook . I suspect one could have such a machine booting into both Windows and Mac (and Linux of course) with some investment of time.

    I myself have no time and so just have spent University money on Macs. I suspect switching to Mac, though, would require some adjustment in personal workflow of data analysis so it would involve some more time expenditure, too. [Would drawing the graphs by hand and then scanning them? [say with a fast sheet-fed scanner] save time for pretty much the same pay-off in collaborative communication?]

  9. The software made by the Omnigroup is excellent, and there is other excellent mac software out there–however, sticking with Mac just because of Omnigraphsketcher just wasn't worth it. So I've dumped mac and gone straight windows. Now I just need to figure out how to make decent graphs given the dearth of windows qualitative graphing applications. Hopefully a talented programmer sees the success that Omnigraphsketcher has enjoyed on Mac and makes something similar for Windows.

  10. Access is a database program, for those who don't know. There are numerous charting/graphing apps for windows, but I never had to use any. It is quite possible that win versions with the dazzle of OmniGraphSketch do not exist, but there is a great number of software that is much more functional, albeit less user-friendly.

    What are you, BTW, a Mac Nazi?

Comments are closed.