PC OR MAC

[vsr600]

oh wait i'm wrong:
http://www.presonus.com/pdf/multiFPhowtoXP.pdf

[knobtwirler]

Bottom line: If you're too cheap to get a nicer computer, PC is the way to go. However, if you will ONLY be using the computer for audio, a Mac is wasted because it does so much more so well. One perspective though is that all rental companies set up their Pro Tools rigs with new Macs, not PCs, and there is a good reason.

[Bear]

I don't like Macs. I've tried, but I just don't like the interface, I prefer the programs on PC (the only exception might be video), and I can build an equivalent PC for a third, sometimes a fourth, of the price. And my PCs are always more stable than my friends Macs. Everyone I know who has a mac has had to send it in for reapirs, or has to switch between multiple OSs, or something annoying along those lines. Plus, when it gets outdated, they've had to buy entirely new computers. I've been using the same PC for the past four years. A couple hundred bucks a year keeps me from ever having to buy a new one. Just replace whatever's dragging and go.

And I hear people say that PCs are difficult, but I haven't had an issue in years. But I build mine, so maybe that's the difference. I haven't bought something from a company like Dell before, so that may be a different story.

And I don't know if this is just the way I work, but Macs always feel like they have a lot of extra, unnecessary steps. Everything asking me "Are you sure you want to do this?" drives me up the wall.

That being said, I don't own a mac. I've done entire records on them, but was always happy to go back to my PC when they were done with.

[trashy]

bear can't see anything, so don't believe him. His "pc" is actually a fish tank. and the fish are dead.


I work with both pcs and macs. I do tech work for a school. We buy macs because they give us a discount and PCs because they are naturally cheap. PCs bought from a store (not built like benbear was talking about) are always pieces of shit. We have to replace stuff out of those all of the time. I just bought four dells - one has a cd drive that doesn't work, and two have USB issues. (I -of course - would never buy a dell for personal use. but you taxpayers all want us to buy the cheapest shit we can...) Apple uses nice parts that work well. I have a seven year old Mac at my studio that I still use as my main audio computer - I've never replaced anything in it.

that said, you can build a nice pc that will run just fine. you can even make a cute apple-style box for it - or make something even cooler. Windows XP is not a bad operating system, at all.

Here's the deal: most apps run exactly the same on both operating systems. And I see more and more browser-based apps - which (of course) run the same regardless of OS. So, you're buying based on price, mostly. PCs are cheap in the short run. Macs are cheap in the long run. Macs are cuter and more fun... but you sometimes have to pay for that fun. PCs are a gamer's computer. And hacker's love them. So there's tons of games and cracked software floating around out there.


Gah! I dunno. Just buy something. It'll work.






























buy a mac.

[stratology]

Here's what I do when I want to show off OS X to PC users:

- insert a DVD, start playing in a window
- launch iTunes, play a song
- open 3 movies in Quicktime, have them playing at the same time, audio set up so you hear it from all 3 movies
- then start launching lots of apps from the dock, click, click, click, not waiting for one to launch before launching the next one, of course
- use Expose to show all windows, 4 movies playing, audio from 5 sources, not a frame dropped

- bonus: launch Terminal with a window that is partly transparent, start top, move Terminal window quickly over one of the movie windows, to show consistent graphics
- bonus 2: open a few Finder windows on top of everything, use Expose to reveal the desktop, grab a file from the desktop, while dragging it Expose again to reveal a Finder window, in the window start digging using spring loading folders, drop the file in the destination folder

I'm polite enough not to ask XP users to repeat this on their boxes.

[knobtwirler]

Here's what I do when I want to show off OS X to PC users:

- insert a DVD, start playing in a window
- launch iTunes, play a song
- open 3 movies in Quicktime, have them playing at the same time, audio set up so you hear it from all 3 movies
- then start launching lots of apps from the dock, click, click, click, not waiting for one to launch before launching the next one, of course
- use Expose to show all windows, 4 movies playing, audio from 5 sources, not a frame dropped

- bonus: launch Terminal with a window that is partly transparent, start top, move Terminal window quickly over one of the movie windows, to show consistent graphics
- bonus 2: open a few Finder windows on top of everything, use Expose to reveal the desktop, grab a file from the desktop, while dragging it Expose again to reveal a Finder window, in the window start digging using spring loading folders, drop the file in the destination folder

I'm polite enough not to ask XP users to repeat this on their boxes.

Yes, it's always personal preference. Some people don't mind flourescent lighting, just like some people see nothing wrong with using Windows.

[chemical fire]

I grew up with windows machines and being a stuburn ass
I was reluctant to use a mac, but after seeing about 50 macs
in various multi-million dollar studios- many of them hooked
up to high speed inter-net with bands surfing god-knows what
kind of horrible shit. I started to notice that these damn macs
would never f*ck up, even with 100's of tracks running hundreds
of plug ins. needless to say I bought a mac and never looked back,
macs allow you to work on the music not anti-virus crap!!!!
I do still use pc's for design work but not music.
buy a mac, if you dont like it, sell it to me- they hold their value!!!
C

[Cyan421]

Kudos for flaming the guy who posted links to topics you asked about, supposedly searched for, but were too lazy to look at.

I guess its the week of asking for something than getting mad at someone for giving to you precisely what you asked for.....

[billiamwalker]

Kudos for flaming the guy who posted links to topics you asked about, supposedly searched for, but were too lazy to look at.

I guess its the week of asking for something than getting mad at someone for giving to you precisely what you asked for.....

you're missing the point.

i searched real quick and i couldn't find anything in that was going to answer my question.


so i posted the topic so that i could get an answer without searching for a long time BECAUSE I'M AT WORK. then i started harrassing HIM because he was harrassing ME. but that's over now... so you can stop crying.

[phalex]

Here's what I do when I want to show off OS X to PC users:

- insert a DVD, start playing in a window
- launch iTunes, play a song
- open 3 movies in Quicktime, have them playing at the same time, audio set up so you hear it from all 3 movies
- then start launching lots of apps from the dock, click, click, click, not waiting for one to launch before launching the next one, of course
- use Expose to show all windows, 4 movies playing, audio from 5 sources, not a frame dropped

- bonus: launch Terminal with a window that is partly transparent, start top, move Terminal window quickly over one of the movie windows, to show consistent graphics
- bonus 2: open a few Finder windows on top of everything, use Expose to reveal the desktop, grab a file from the desktop, while dragging it Expose again to reveal a Finder window, in the window start digging using spring loading folders, drop the file in the destination folder

I'm polite enough not to ask XP users to repeat this on their boxes.

I am doing that right now with my busted PC.

[stratology]

Here's what I do when I want to show off OS X to PC users:

- insert a DVD, start playing in a window
- launch iTunes, play a song
- open 3 movies in Quicktime, have them playing at the same time, audio set up so you hear it from all 3 movies
- then start launching lots of apps from the dock, click, click, click, not waiting for one to launch before launching the next one, of course
- use Expose to show all windows, 4 movies playing, audio from 5 sources, not a frame dropped

- bonus: launch Terminal with a window that is partly transparent, start top, move Terminal window quickly over one of the movie windows, to show consistent graphics
- bonus 2: open a few Finder windows on top of everything, use Expose to reveal the desktop, grab a file from the desktop, while dragging it Expose again to reveal a Finder window, in the window start digging using spring loading folders, drop the file in the destination folder

I'm polite enough not to ask XP users to repeat this on their boxes.

I am doing that right now with my busted PC.

Wow. Tell me, how do you do spring loading folders on a PC. Or transparent windows. Do you use XTerm to log on to a remote Unix box so you can run top?

[vsr600]

actually a long time ago when I was a pc user, I remember there being a terminal app for windows and a version of top that came with it... can't remember the name though...
But yea really transparent windows, expose', dashboard, spring loading folders... mac things.

[John Jeffers]

actually a long time ago when I was a pc user, I remember there being a terminal app for windows and a version of top that came with it... can't remember the name though...
But yea really transparent windows, expose', dashboard, spring loading folders... mac things.

The Windows equivalent of the Mac terminal is the Command Prompt (cmd.exe). If you want a more Unix-style CLI, you can always download the Cygwin stuff. If you need a good SSH client for accessing the terminal on a remote machine, PuTTY is the way to go.

On Windows, if you want to see the equivalent of Top, open Task Manager, click the Processes tab, and sort by CPU use.

[stratology]

We're getting sidetracked. The equivalent of Task Manager on the Mac side would be Activity Monitor (GUI), not top (Command Line). Of course you can install emulators on a Windows box, or ssh tools. Of course you can run DOS commands from the Command Prompt.

My point was:
When you run top in a Terminal window, you get a lot of text that constantly changes. When you have all of this in a transparent window, and move it over a running movie, it's very challenging for the graphics capabilities of the OS.
This is something that you simply cannot reproduce on an XP box.
I was also NEVER able to launch multiple apps at the same time. When you click on 5 apps on the taskbar, the first on launches, the others don't.

If you want to find meaningful criticism of the Mac OS and hardware, go to arstechnica, and look up reviews of OS X and Apple hardware. They are much better at pointing out weaknesses than Windows users who are not really familiar with Macs.

[John Jeffers]

I was also NEVER able to launch multiple apps at the same time. When you click on 5 apps on the taskbar, the first on launches, the others don't.

I'm not interested in being in a Mac vs. PC pissing match as I don't think one is superior to the other, but I have to step in and say that you can absolutely do this on a PC.

Just to prove the point, I just launched Nuendo, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Outlook, Word, Excel, Quicken, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver all at the same time, clicking the taskbar buttons as quickly as I could. They all started up just fine, and multitasking works quite well in Windows (using WinXP, SP2).