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Looper's Delight
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Qua, With all due respect: I use a MacBook (non-pro, 2GHz, 2G ram) running XP for all my work, but I use Boot Camp, not Parallels. Boot Camp, not Parallels, would be the recommended configuration for anyone wishing to do music production under XP on a Mac, and I believe that the computer would be very well-suited for that mode of use. (that said, what I actually do is to boot into OSX for all my music, and keep all my work on the - sorry, PC fan-people - far less stable PC side). I understand the hassles about using Parallels in a corporate environment, with dual logins, but that's probably an unusual situation for people's music computers. I'd love to use Parallels (or the new VMWare Fusion) on the Mac for my Windows development work, but I need to develop under VMware Workstation because of the essential snapshot feature, and that only works under Boot Camp. When VMware release Workstation for OSX, I'll be one of the first customers. Running XP with Boot Camp is almost exactly like running XP on any computer built for XP (I've used quite a few of those). XP isn't running under an emulator in this configuration; instead, the computer just boots natively into the XP partition. The *only* difference that I've found so far, after 6 months of intensive use, is that XP backup software can't back up the whole disk partition as it can do on a non-partitioned disk - instead I have to run an "all files" backup, which is not quite as good. As far as cost goes: this is probably no longer true, but when I priced out Acer and Dell laptops vs. MacBooks back in January, I was surprised to see that the prices were quite comparable for comparable configurations. And, when you get a MacBook, you get a computer (at least on the OSX side) where all the hardware and software is integrated from the ground up, and there are no nasty surprises with the way the Firewire or USB functions, as there were on my last Dell Inspiron, making the "multimedia computer" completely unsuitable for multitrack recording (for which I will never forgive Dell), nor the overheating and spontaneous system shutdown that the piece-of-shit Dell was subject to when you filled the memory out to capacity. And with the Macbook, you get various bonuses that are just part of the way Apple engineers hardware. I've dropped it onto asphalt from 3 feet with only a scratch. The power cord easily just pulls out from the computer if you trip over it (OK, so I'm a klutz). You can use two fingers on the trackpad to scroll any window - in either OSX or XP - instead using the scroll bars onscreen. It also goes into Standby and Hibernate well, something that is frequently a problem with Windows computers. I am *so* glad I got this computer - I can do my work, and my music system is insulated from the vagaries of Windows, which (sorry again, Windows fan-people) seems to trash my audio setup and various other things at random intervals for no discernable reason. Plus, if you get a new Windows computer today, you're likely to be stuck with Vista, which, like every new Microsoft OS, seems designed to soak up more and more CPU power with features I don't give a crap about. Plus, the MacBook is really light and doesn't seem to need it's fan very much, so it's pretty quiet. BTW, I've been making my living from programming under Windows since Windows 3.1 in 1993, but that doesn't mean I don't notice its flaws (au contraire, I am subjected to them constantly). I don't think the Mac OS is inherently superior in features or even UI, and most of the newer features in either OS strike me as marketing fluff that only serves to waste computer power and drive corporate profits. The early hype that Macs don't crash was nonsense (though it's more true now), and most of the stuff in those Mac-vs-PC commercials is distortion, if not outright lies. Nonetheless, I find Macs (on the OSX side) to be significantly superior and more stable for music, presumably because of the tight control of the hw platform by Apple and the less-frequent OS security updates. Didn't Jobs recently quote Alan Kay as saying "if you want to make great sw, you have to control the hw," or something like that? Sorry, I usually hate PC-vs-Mac flame stuff, but I had to cast my vote in this discussion in support of MacBooks. Mine is the best Windows computer I've ever had. Warren -----Original Message----- From: Qua Veda [mailto:qua@oregon.com] Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 10:13 AM To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com Subject: RE: choosing the right laptop for live looping , real time DSP processing and running Video Hi Rick, et al At work, the corp issued laptop is a Thinkpad (Lenovo, PC, WindowsXP). As Kris said, these are excellent computers. I recently participated in a MacBookPro pilot, where I was issued a MacBookPro with WindowsXP running in Parallels. With think configuration, I had to boot each OS, logon to the network twice, shut down both OS's - this was a pain. Also Windows , running in Parallels on the Mac OS , does not allow Windows to take advantage of all the MacBookPro ram or video ram. At least twice in 5 weeks, Parallel's crashed - simply disappeared without any notice or messages - resulting in lost work. This week, I turned in the MacBookPro to get my old Thinkpad back. Based on my experience, I would NOT recommend running Windows XP in Parallels on the MacBookPro. The Mac has about 3% market share of the laptops, so that's partly why they cost more. But they are beautiful, and I especially liked the display and the keybd backlighting and the keypads which are large and easy to type on. For the price of the MacBookPro, there are companies that will custom configure a PC laptop, optimized for audio applications, with multiple SATA hard drives (separating programs and audio files on different drives can speed performance), and excellent support. The PC laptops are more likely to get the latest/greatest processors before the Macs. If I was buying a laptop for music/video today, I'd have to give these WindowsXP laptops serious consideration. -Qua