Mac, PC or Linux?

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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby JayB » 23 Aug 2013 11:39

I don't know about the iMacs or MacPros but on my MacBooks I can change all parts I can change on any other laptop, too (RAM, HDD, optical drive, on my old MacBook even the WiFi card).
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Alycs » 23 Aug 2013 14:10

All my computers have been Windows computers, but I've worked on both Macs and Linuxes (Linuii, Linugeris?) and I have to say that they all seem to focus at a different user groups.

PC's are aimed at the general audience. Even though they have their software bugs and lower-level precision of Macs (and Linuxes) they are generally easy to use once you are used to them. Almost anything runs on them, and its so standard that nearly any problem you have can be fixed.

Macs are the easy computer. They are simple to learn, and even though they don't offer the range of functions of Windows, what they do do, they do very well. (They aren't the computer of the gods though, seriously, they are overhyped to hell and back) They are great for audio, visual, and general casual use by the majority of users, but they aren't really great for heavy work like Windows.

Linux... linux can do whatever the hell you want it to given that you know how the hell to write the code for it. If anything, a Linux would probably be the computer of the gods given that everyone on Olympus is a computer programmer; all the mortals are in for a hard and frustrating time.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Fimbulin » 23 Aug 2013 14:22

Here's something to consider. I got my PC from ASUS brand new almost two years ago. Cost me $1k and I got 8GB RAM, 750GB HDD, 2GB NVidia 555M, 15" 1920x1080, ICEpower audio, 2.2 GHz i7, and USB3.0. The thing runs silent while gaming and never gets uncomfortably hot, and the sound processing (which is what I got it for) is GOOD and FAST at rendering and playback. For getting this system two years ago that's a smokin'hot deal, and it still outperforms most of my friends gaming rigs.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby CaptainFluffatun » 23 Aug 2013 18:17

I hate the Mac interface. I can't navigate it at all, but that's only because I'm a PC user, so I guess that's really more of a personal problem. PCs are also much more flexible in my experience.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Acsii » 23 Aug 2013 18:33

Personally I prefer the mac interface and how it handles closing programs and stuff. But I use all 3 but I primarily use OS X
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Ocular » 27 Sep 2013 12:16

Honestly you can't really compare them all that much. Each is good in its own way. I personally have a preference for Linux but I like windows and macs about equally.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby HMage » 27 Sep 2013 17:23

at work I use linux
at home I use OSX
for games I use windows
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby CitricAcid » 27 Sep 2013 17:48

I use Windows for pretty much everything. Plus I already know Windows, and it's not worth it to me to learn a new OS, even if Macs do have advantages. My old laptop is running Linux, but it's got a single-core 1-point-something GHz processor and 768MB of RAM. Hardly a music making machine. I use it for running internet and email while I compose, so I don't feel completely isolated from the world while working.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Facade » 27 Sep 2013 20:26

im probably gonna start using linux after i get a laptop that doesnt sound like a fucking space ship launch

though im still gonna have windows on my desktop for vidya

i personally have no reason to use a mac (and ive touched one only once) so i cant give an opinion on it other then it looks user friendly
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Conchetupony » 27 Sep 2013 20:29

tl;dr Linux is very tinker-friendly, but it needs serious setup and great knowledge for any kind of serious use. There's some good software.

Pros:
-You can change pretty much any aspect of the OS to your liking, due to Unix's (and hence, the Linux kernel, though most GNU/Linux software also follows this philosophy) extreme modularity, the open-source philosophy which allows you "to study, change and improve the software", and GNU/Linux soft being generally geared toward tinkerers - lots of config files and stuff.
-It's not as obscure as most people think, most problems can be solved after a quick Google and there's distros geared for music production such as Ubuntu Studio and AVLinux (outdated).
-Most programs are as easy to get (and uninstall) as using a package manager like apt-get/dpkg (terminal), Synaptic (GUI) or the Ubuntu Soft. Center (slow as crap). It's all handled in a much better way than Windows and maybe Mac OS, idk. You may add additional repositories (program sources), such as KXStudio for the latest versions of audio tools.
-Fast and efficient when set up properly in a decent PC.
-Infinite virtual desktops ("workspaces") in most distros/window managers. Tidies up your workflow wonderfully.
-You can install it in just about any PC, even alongside another OS. You can run it from CDs and flash drives too (as a "live CD"), to try it without installing or if you need to carry it with you.
-Lots of great soft such as Ardour (v3 is pretty good, but requires a subscription for $1/month or above), Mixxx (I'm no DJ, but I've played a bit with it and it's nice) and good ol' LMMS (the GUI is a big PITA to use and it's missing essential features such as MIDI export, and recording and editing audio files, I don't know why people like it.)
-You can still run most VSTs and DAWs.

Cons:
-The tinkering capabilities can be pretty damn overwhelming at times; stuff gets complicated and sometimes things outright don't work. This is why I use Ubuntu Studio and not Debian or Arch or something qq
-Lots of soft that is a PITA to use, usually due to unresponsive, unintuitive or outright ugly GUIs or lack of features.
-Do-it-all programs aren't exactly the Linux environment's forte - due to it's modular philosophy - and the whole point of using it is having absolute control and the ability to tinker, so it's not very straightforward. Took me some months to get used to the workflow; I'm still figuring it out and automating stuff with scripts.
Last edited by Conchetupony on 27 Sep 2013 20:42, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Facade » 27 Sep 2013 20:41

actually im downloading ubuntu now to try it out though im not even gonna have enough time to install it tonight sadly :P
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Seedling » 28 Sep 2013 21:54

I've been raised on Windows, we had our first Windows 95 machine when I was about 4 or 5 I'm pretty sure. Started using Macs around 11 at school, so I'm pretty comfortable with both, and while Macs can do a number of things very nicely, and I do like Logic as a program, it does have quite a few relatively minor irritations like it's obsession with hidden and temp folders. The OS itself, however, is pretty god damn stable. I don't think I've had a major issue with it in my two years of owning my Macbook. The tab key's fallen off, but it still works, and there was an issue with it freezing when I tried to connect to the wireless at a certain house, but that's it.

Macs are still ridiculously overpriced though, and I think stability in PCs mainly depends on how you build and use it. My brother's mate built the PC I have now about 7 or 8 years ago, and something in it is slowly dying, but it still runs (it just has trouble booting). Considering its age, it does pretty freaking well. Out of every program I've used on it, it's only suffered performance issues when it's left running fairly demanding processes for hours on end.

Linux just looks confusing and I'm sure it'd be cool to learn but ahhhh

tl;dr I'd suggest going for PC, but like everyone else said, it mainly depends on your software preference. That being said, dual boot is always an option, I'm probably going to try and set that up some time in the near future.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby the4thImpulse » 28 Sep 2013 22:12

I hate the new IOS 7 update for my ipad... its slowed it down, looks butt ugly and has brought back the wifi/adhoc problems that plagued the early IOS6. And of course apple wont let me downgrade back to 6, once Lemur is released on windows or android I am selling the ipad.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Acsii » 29 Sep 2013 04:04

the4thImpulse wrote:I hate the new IOS 7 update for my ipad... its slowed it down, looks butt ugly and has brought back the wifi/adhoc problems that plagued the early IOS6. And of course apple wont let me downgrade back to 6, once Lemur is released on windows or android I am selling the ipad.

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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby HMage » 29 Sep 2013 05:12

Acsii wrote:
the4thImpulse wrote:I hate the new IOS 7 update for my ipad... its slowed it down, looks butt ugly and has brought back the wifi/adhoc problems that plagued the early IOS6. And of course apple wont let me downgrade back to 6, once Lemur is released on windows or android I am selling the ipad.

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Won't work after a while. Every firmware flash/reflash/restore goes through Apple and if apple doesn't confirm and cryptographically sign the firmware to be recognized by _your_ ios device it won't be accepted by device.

Just checked, yep, apple stopped signing 6.1.3 and 6.1.4 and below.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Facade » 29 Sep 2013 06:03

using ubuntu right now its pretty awesome
https://facadeofages.bandcamp.com/album ... o-the-dark
Spoiler Quotes:
DerpyGrooves wrote:The secret to a good song has everything to do with the relationship of the verse and the chorus to one another


ONEHOODASSPONY wrote:Image
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Paianni » 29 Sep 2013 12:40

I use a Mac for music production but honestly, I wish (and will be at the first opportunity) I was on Linux because everything is so modular. You've got you're sequencer, synths and effects, processors and stuff, and all of it is connected up using JACK. With Logic Pro, everything is a massive lump and if one component fails, all the rest of your work goes down the toilet.

There are two reasons I'm not on Linux: there is a bug in the kernel which means my hardware will not work with more than one USB Audio device and 2) My school uses a Mac in the studio so it helps to be able to transfer stuff back and forth.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Seedling » 29 Sep 2013 20:07

HMage wrote:Just checked, yep, apple stopped signing 6.1.3 and 6.1.4 and below.

Another reason why I don't like Apple. They seem to have gotten used to dominating the market. It seems like they honestly don't care much what they do, cause they know people will still buy their products unless they start having children for their Sunday roast or something.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby JSynth » 30 Sep 2013 08:20

Facade wrote:using ubuntu right now its pretty awesome


Yeah, I really like it too.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Fimbulin » 01 Oct 2013 12:15

I got Audacity to crash on a university MAC computer yesterday. Actually, it ended up crashing the whole system. What would've been an easy ctrl-shift-esc Windows issue required a hard reboot. :P

Every time I touch a MAC it's crashed on me. My faith is low.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby JayB » 03 Oct 2013 07:45

Tried Alt+Cmd+Esc instead? Another option: activity monitor. Both act as task manager.
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby cyrricky » 03 Oct 2013 21:29

Seedling wrote:Another reason why I don't like Apple. They seem to have gotten used to dominating the market.

I'm not sure what you mean. OSX's usage share as of September 2013 is only ~7% (Source: Net Applications).
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby Conchetupony » 04 Oct 2013 13:19

oops I dropped the bass

will you pick it up for me
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby MiJyn » 12 Dec 2013 12:21

I use linux. I'll go with pro's and con's:

PROs:

- Free
- No licenses or anything
- Many major distributions (most people start by using ubuntu, then move on to something a bit less spoon-feedy, unless they really like ubuntu ... I wrote a whole post about it here: http://lkubuntu.wordpress.com/2013/01/0 ... rch-linux/ and another one about why I don't like ubuntu's moves here: http://lkubuntu.wordpress.com/2013/04/1 ... ts-on-mir/ )
- Many minor distributions (basically, pre-customized versions of major distributions... for example, there is Ubuntu Studio, which is ubuntu, geared towards multimedia development... there is also KXStudio, which is probably your best bet for music development ..... there is AVLinux, which uses remastersys [I'm the guy who made relinux, a, umm... competitor to remastersys, so.... XD]) .... and you can create your own easily too (shameless self-promotion for relinux =P)
- Nearly 100% customizable
- No viruses!
- Really good and helpful communities for when you have a problem
- All problems can be fixed, provided you know the terminal well enough (it's an extremely useful tool .... a bit counter-intuitive at first, but then becomes really, really logical and intuitive)
- WINE, so you can run pretty much any windows program (including many major VSTs and DAWs)!
- Package management in most distributions ... super easy to install or remove software... also... one-click updating (or one command, if that's the case for you)

Cons:

- Takes time to learn
- Counter-intuitive at first
- Only one distribution (that I know of) is backed by a major company (that knows what it's doing), and that is RHL (Fedora is a free version of it). Ubuntu, IMO, doesn't count (read my posts, which I linked earlier lol).
- You have to expect things to break sometimes.
- WINE doesn't work for all windows applications (look at appdb.winehq.org to see if an application works or not)
- The linux kernel, IMO, is not very well designed (the codebase, that is)..... though I would say that windows is waaaay worse in that field (ok, I don't know the codebase of the windows kernel, of course, but I do know <windows.h>, which is basically the interface for user-space applications to develop under it... and that.... that just makes my eyes bleed).
- One guy is on top of it, dictating everything that goes in and out (Linus Torvalds).


Since I'm mainly a programmer, linux is the best option for me for now (though I'm trying to move to freebsd, as the codebase well designed, AND, it's a team that maintains it, not just one guy!).
AFAICS, Mac seems to be the best option for easy music creation (but I've never used it, so I'm not really in a position to tell).
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Re: Mac, PC or Linux?

Postby MiJyn » 12 Dec 2013 12:34

Conchetupony wrote:Another reason I love Linux


Hahahahaha! But that's technically incorrect... 'kill' sends a SIGTERM signal (by default), which can easily be caught and ignored. If you don't catch it, however, it'll go on to "kill" the program (which doesn't actually stop it immediately, it might even never be able to stop it at all, if it turns into a zombie process, and never gets "reaped" ... you can read on that on wikipedia =P) ... SIGKILL (which has to be explicitly passed on to 'kill'), on the other hand, is not catchable, and will proceed to "kill" the program (but the above applies here... it has to stop the process from functioning... which can be hard, depending on what the process is doing, THEN, it has to release all of the memory, which cannot happen if it's a "unreaped" zombie process).

Sorry, I'm just in the mood to give long useless rants =P
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