Apple's FileMaker, Inc brings back the old Claris name

2

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 41
    DAalsethDAalseth Posts: 2,783member
    I’m surprised so many people are mentioning ClarisCAD. I loved the program and did a number of projects in it. I thought I was the only one who remembered CC. I liked to use it for floor plans. Whenever we moved, I’d go into the new house and take measurements of all the rooms. Then I’d draw up a floor plan. I had an archive of all of our furniture so I’d move stuff around on the screen until it all fit. Then I’d print out labelled maps. On moving day we already knew where everything would go and how it would best fit into the room. A few hours in front of the computer, saved a day of back breaking labour on moving day. I used ClarisCAD for many years after it was officially dropped. It just kept running and I kept using it.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 22 of 41
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    cincytee said:
    Considering the amount of software Apple creates -- can't really say sell in most cases -- I've always thought the organization was rather scattershot. I hope the rebirth of Claris also marks a rebirth of focused Mac (and iOS and iPad OS and watchOS and tvOS) software. There's a market for well-designed consumer and prosumer business software, and it seems as though a single software operation ought to be able to deliver it more effectively and with more consistent look and feel. It can still be an Apple subsidiary so that the products can be offered for free to Apple product buyers, but it may be more creative as its own entity. As another ClarisWorks fan -- it had all the features I needed, organized well for users, and in a small memory footprint -- I hope this could lead to the iWork applications' return to the Claris family, too.
    I was wondering if this might mean something larger, but reading the FileMaker/Claris statements about it, I don't think this is much to get excited about unless you are already a FileMaker customer. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 23 of 41
    My memory is cloudy, but I did receive a beta copy of FileMaker that was code-named Silver Surfer. It was hand-delivered to me by a Claris employee. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 24 of 41
    Bring back Claris Organiser!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 25 of 41
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    My memory is cloudy, but I did receive a beta copy of FileMaker that was code-named Silver Surfer. It was hand-delivered to me by a Claris employee. 
    That was a very long time ago!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 26 of 41
    JanNLJanNL Posts: 327member
    Remember this one? (1 CD for w95/NT and Mac)
    Was cleaning up the basement last weekend, coincidence...


    ravnorodomSpamSandwichJWSCbloggerblogwatto_cobra
  • Reply 27 of 41
    Scott HoldawayScott Holdaway Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    Wow!  Wasn't expecting to see my name on AppleInsider today.  I miss the old ClarisWorks team from the early years.  Claris management didn't do a very good job investing in ClarisWorks.  They treated it as a cash cow and used the money for other projects that ultimately failed.  Last time I worked at Apple the iWork team was at least 10x as big.
    ravnorodomSpamSandwichJWSClolliverbloggerblogtokyojimuFileMakerFellerwatto_cobraBob Hearn
  • Reply 28 of 41
    davgregdavgreg Posts: 1,036member
    Under the FileMaker name, Bento was a flop.

    Maybe Claris should inherit Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Garage Band, Logic, Final Cut, etc.
    JWSC
  • Reply 29 of 41
    Feeling nostalgic reading this article.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 30 of 41
    Moof! I'm wondering if this has to do with Apple spinning out in house software to avoid anti-trust issues? Many of the potential (and some actual?) lawsuits around the App Store have to do with Apple both running the store asnd offering products in it. Would just taking the products external (everything from iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) to Final Cut Pro) solve the problem, or would they have to spin off the services (Apple Music) as well?

     I can't imagine the internal software has any great impact on revenue - they wouldn't mind losing Final Cut, FileMaker is already semi-external, and most of the rest are free (or bundled with the OS). iWork could even be a modest new revenue source to Claris if unbundled. They don't have to unbundle Mail or Safari, because Microsoft bundles Outlook Express and Edge, and Google bundles Chrome and a Gmail app - browsers and mail are accepted parts of the OS.

    If they managed to spin off the software to avoid challenges to the much more valuable services, it's almost certainly worth it to them...
    FileMakerFellerwatto_cobra
  • Reply 31 of 41
    deanbar said:
    sblife said:
    This article does not say one word about ClarisCAD. MacDraw and the DRAWING arm of the Mac was a big lure in the early days.
    Yes, I’m surprised there was no mention of ClarisCAD, I bought our first Macs in ‘89 for my small engineering company, complete with FM Pro and shortly after, ClarisCAD. It was years ahead of its time, so easy to use and powerful, such a crying shame that Apple stopped supporting it so soon afterwards, sadly like so many other good apps from Apple. Unfortunately it didn’t fit in with Apple’s future, and business demands to continually update software and future proof, which has never been Apple’s cup of tea.

    We were able to use ClarisCAD up until I retired in 2003. RIP ClarisCAD.

    I used Claris Cad a lot in the early 90’s, it was great and very intuitive, but they had to cease when a program called Minicad showed that a lot of Claris Cad code was based on it. We then shifted to Minicad which was just as simple to use but with 3D uses + lots more. That software changed its name to Vectorworks which I still use 8 hours a day. Some of the shortcuts I still setup and use in Vectorworks go back to those I used in Claris Cad.
    deanbarravnorodomwatto_cobra
  • Reply 32 of 41
    anomeanome Posts: 1,533member
    melotron said:
    How can you not mention Claris em@iler? Still the best email-app I have used.
    Have to agree. (Well, I don't have to, but I do agree.) Claris had one of the best interfaces and filtering abilities of any e-mail client I've used. Apple's Mail just isn't as good.
    FileMakerFellerwatto_cobra
  • Reply 33 of 41
    deanbardeanbar Posts: 113member
    rochford said:
    deanbar said:
    sblife said:
    This article does not say one word about ClarisCAD. MacDraw and the DRAWING arm of the Mac was a big lure in the early days.
    Yes, I’m surprised there was no mention of ClarisCAD, I bought our first Macs in ‘89 for my small engineering company, complete with FM Pro and shortly after, ClarisCAD. It was years ahead of its time, so easy to use and powerful, such a crying shame that Apple stopped supporting it so soon afterwards, sadly like so many other good apps from Apple. Unfortunately it didn’t fit in with Apple’s future, and business demands to continually update software and future proof, which has never been Apple’s cup of tea.

    We were able to use ClarisCAD up until I retired in 2003. RIP ClarisCAD.

    I used Claris Cad a lot in the early 90’s, it was great and very intuitive, but they had to cease when a program called Minicad showed that a lot of Claris Cad code was based on it. We then shifted to Minicad which was just as simple to use but with 3D uses + lots more. That software changed its name to Vectorworks which I still use 8 hours a day. Some of the shortcuts I still setup and use in Vectorworks go back to those I used in Claris Cad.
    Well thanks for that info, I seem to remember something about Minicad, but I probably continued with ClarisCAD because we’d invested so much time in it, and didn’t need 3D at the time. Good to know some of its origins still live on!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 34 of 41
    My wish list for Claris would include a much-revamped cross-platform ClarisImpact, with the ability to read and write MS Visio format files.   
    drooFileMakerFellerbloggerblogwatto_cobra
  • Reply 35 of 41
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,462member
    I hope they’re not planning to build solely on nostalgia but instead to have innovative plans to seriously compete with the big boys. Software is quickly becoming a commodity, free Google Docs, MySQL, Pages, Numbers, etc.  Claris and FileMaker always lived the shadows of more refined pro software, I really hope this time will be different. 
  • Reply 36 of 41
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,274member
    zeus423 said:
    I still run a PowerMac G5 tower at school, often as the world's largest iPod. So many of my documents I use to teach were created in AppleWorks, and I still use them today. Equations, seating charts, merged documents, letters of recommendation -- why reinvent the wheel. Plus, it's still easier to create things and arrange in an exact location using AppleWorks than it is in MS Word or, ughhh, Google Docs.
    But not in Pages. When I was doing graphic design for a living, I would have killed for something like what Pages is now. Blows Pagemaker out of the water for the types of low-level design jobs I spent far too much time doing back in those days.

    But more seriously, you really should convert those documents to something while (if?) you still can. That PowerMac is gonna die someday ...
    Rayz2016watto_cobra
  • Reply 37 of 41
    steveausteveau Posts: 299member
    In the early 90's as a director of a town planning department in a southern Sydney council, I "computerised" the department. To the great annoyance of the IT manager, I progressively installed a IIci for the senior draftswoman, a couple of LC 475's for the planners and a Powerbook 145 for me. Then added AppleTalk to network them up - ridiculously cheap and easy compared to the IBM XT world I was meant to be 'amazed by' - not! . I really p'd off the IT manager when I added an SNAps 5250 card to connect the IIci (or was it a Quadra by then?) to his beloved IBM AS/400 and a second monitor for the Quadra (people from other departments used to come and watch just to see the cursor arrow glide seamlessly between monitors). This increased our productivity through the roof. Awards and accolades for the team from everywhere. Of course ClarisWorks was our mainstay app, and I used it at home too. BTW, the training cost - zero. I taught them (with my hands very firmly clasped behind my back, so that I didn't touch the mouse) how to move the mouse, hover, click and double click. This took all of five minutes, then the training software on the LC did the rest. Within a day they were writing reports, creating databases, modifying images with Pagemaker (very handy for planners) and soon they graduated to ClarisCAD. Of course, as soon as I left, for a bigger role elsewhere, the IT manager swooped and sent them back to the IBM stone age.
    ravnorodomdysamoria
  • Reply 38 of 41
    droodroo Posts: 27member
    My wish list for Claris would include a much-revamped cross-platform ClarisImpact, with the ability to read and write MS Visio format files.   
    ClarisImpact was an amazing product that has not been duplicated since. Omnigraffle looked like it was headed there but went in a different direction.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 39 of 41
    frantisekfrantisek Posts: 756member
    Bring back dogcow, named Clarus as well!!!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 40 of 41
    I am really intrigued by what could happen with Claris going forward, especially after reading all the comments here. My suspicion is that Claris will remain focussed on their current goal of "enabling workplace innovation". Over the past decade especially the company has demonstrated an extreme reluctance to do anything that doesn't fit with the corporate plans or to take advice on how to achieve something - it's bitten them once or twice, but they're happy to keep pushing their view of the world and how it should work.

    I think Apple can create another subsidiary if they want to divest their current software; Claris may offer multiple products but those will all be complementary to the core FileMaker Pro software, and everything will be geared towards helping people build custom application networks (to take the phrase from Geist Interactive).


    Also, one minor quibble: FileMaker Pro is NOT pixel-exact between Mac and Windows; the font differences between the platforms are apparently too difficult to overcome. However, with appropriate design the differences can be minimised and the layout will function the same on both platforms.
    watto_cobra
Sign In or Register to comment.