New iBooks vs. existing PowerBooks?????

Henrik · Post by **Henrik** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 9:45 pm

Does anyone know more about the hack to make ibooks work with higher resolutions on vga-connected monitors? Was it a software-fix only? Will it make dual-screen mode accessible or just allow higher resolutions than 1024x768?

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 9:58 pm

It enables dual-screen mode, not sure about resolutions etc.

http://www.google.com/search?q=ibook+vi ... 8&oe=UTF-8

-Paws

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:01 pm

Adam Jay - I thought the Kernel was what took care of speaking to the hardware?

Either way, point taken. You seem to know more about this than me; I was always just led to believe that the supposed instability of windows-system was due to hardware conflicts and badly written drivers more than anything else - but then this may be a hting of the past, just like I've been told the stability issues are. My own experiences with forum member Machinate's laptop does make me question this though - although he claims it's my bad karma

-Paws

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 10:18 pm

noisetonepause wrote: I was always just led to believe that the supposed instability of windows-system was due to hardware conflicts and badly written drivers more than anything else - but then this may be a hting of the past, just like I've been told the stability issues are. My own experiences with forum member Machinate's laptop does make me question this though - although he claims it's my bad karma

-Paws

Dude, you couldn't be more right! My own investigative troubleshooting has led me to believe it is specifically the very buggy 828mk1 drivers that are to blame.... My fw410 is back from the shop, luckily

rajcoont · Post by **rajcoont** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:17 pm

Henrik wrote:Does anyone know more about the hack to make ibooks work with higher resolutions on vga-connected monitors? Was it a software-fix only? Will it make dual-screen mode accessible or just allow higher resolutions than 1024x768?

http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html

check there forums for more info. i ran an ibook and a external crt 17" monitor at greater then 1024 no problems till i sold the ibook

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 12:30 am

noisetonepause wrote:Adam Jay - I thought the Kernel was what took care of speaking to the hardware?

Either way, point taken. You seem to know more about this than me; I was always just led to believe that the supposed instability of windows-system was due to hardware conflicts and badly written drivers more than anything else - but then this may be a hting of the past, just like I've been told the stability issues are. My own experiences with forum member Machinate's laptop does make me question this though - although he claims it's my bad karma

-Paws

Well the kernel is important.
it is the part of an OS that contains the most primitive functions that other, more sophisticated functions depend on. Hardware components do indeed rely on the kernel, but at a low level. On Unix the kernel does contain drivers. On PCs (win32 and win64), the BIOS contains all the code required to control the keyboard, display screen, disk drives, serial communications, and a number of other functions. Some low-level drivers are in bios, others are in the kernel. I'll agree that Unix is a very stable operating solution and its added stability does have to do with the Kernel, but Macs aren't stable because they are proprietary (which is what your post led me to beleive you were saying), its because they are running Unix. Which is why i'd love OSX coded for x86.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 12:48 am

noisetonepause wrote:I was always just led to believe that the supposed instability of windows-system was due to hardware conflicts and badly written drivers more than anything else - but then this may be a hting of the past, just like I've been told the stability issues are.

Yea, some folks have issues with ESI drivers on OSX but they're fine on XP. Macs get kernel panics with some low latency brand-name ram. Final Scratch worked fine under jaguar but crap under panther, some folks with panther got it to work, others didn't. (same goes for linux/xp) Does this make Macintosh as a platform less stable? certainly not.
A buddy of mine can't get his Firewire410 to do 192khz output on the stereo outs on his Dual G4 1ghz but it works fine on his 1ghz Pentium3. I personally had issues with the Presonus Firestation under Win2k and XP, but it worked fine under OSX Jaguar and Panther. Does this make Windows as a platform less stable? Once again, certainly not.

what i'm trying to say is what ever platform you chose, if you have an instability issue, or a hardware conflict... there is a singular culprit, and once you remove the culprit with a compatible alternative. The platforms themselves are not to blame. (This coming from a guy who has a "fuck the system" mentality about society)

forge · Post by **forge** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 7:45 am

AdamJay wrote:
noisetonepause wrote:I was always just led to believe that the supposed instability of windows-system was due to hardware conflicts and badly written drivers more than anything else - but then this may be a hting of the past, just like I've been told the stability issues are.
Yea, some folks have issues with ESI drivers on OSX but they're fine on XP. Macs get kernel panics with some low latency brand-name ram. Final Scratch worked fine under jaguar but crap under panther, some folks with panther got it to work, others didn't. (same goes for linux/xp) Does this make Macintosh as a platform less stable? certainly not.
A buddy of mine can't get his Firewire410 to do 192khz output on the stereo outs on his Dual G4 1ghz but it works fine on his 1ghz Pentium3. I personally had issues with the Presonus Firestation under Win2k and XP, but it worked fine under OSX Jaguar and Panther. Does this make Windows as a platform less stable? Once again, certainly not.

what i'm trying to say is what ever platform you chose, if you have an instability issue, or a hardware conflict... there is a singular culprit, and once you remove the culprit with a compatible alternative. The platforms themselves are not to blame. (This coming from a guy who has a "fuck the system" mentality about society)

well there you have it!

- Adam knows a bit more about this by the sounds and neither of us are 'mac bashing' - I didn't mean to hijack this thread with an PC-mac debate - I just personally think at this time if anyone has the funds available to buy a new ibook or powerbook, personally I would seriously think twice unless you are an avid Logic user - Apples cunning PC freeze out of Logic is about the only reason I would consider a mac at the moment, (except maybe Metasynth, but I can use my girlfriednd's machine for that) but for me personally I'm doing just fine with Live 4, Waves 5 Gold, NI Komplete and occasionally reason - I might consider Logic if I was doing straight multitracking, but other than that the workflow in Live is so much better I wouldn't write with anything else - so if the programs are cross platform it seems as if having the money and missing out on the incredible speeds the technology has got to would be a real shame!

just my $.02

Henrik · Post by **Henrik** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:05 am

I have been a PC-user since my first computer back in the days (a Mac Performa something =) and have lots of experience from using them as DAWs. But even though they have been working quite nice the last years, I still long for a Mac. This is mainly caused by the feeling (my feeling) that Windows is as far from a serious and well-built professional systems you can get. I don't claim that OSX is not an "all in one for family and pros"-system either, but it certanly feels better to me. (And I admit I'm a fan of good design too...)

So if everything comes into place, I'm buying a new Ibook with extended ram and external HD. But at the same time I must admit that the centrino-based PC-laps impress me performance-wise. But when comparing PC:s in the same price-range as the Ibook, the Mac seems to be the choice even when comparing just performance.

Summary? Well, it might have been good to have the DVI-out on the Powerbooks, but in their price-range, the PC:s are much more competetive at the time. But if I'm able to unlock the dual-screen function on the Ibook, it appears to be a real killer in it's segment - at least to me - both preformance- and design-wise. For example the smallest Sony Vaio is really expensive, at least here in Sweden.

By the way, why isn't there an OS for professional audio-tasks only??? I remember Beos was some sort of try in that direction? But if someone developed a special version of Unix for audio and say Avid and M-audio decided to support it, I would buy a custom PC right away. Then Propellerheads and Ableton etc. would have to release versions for that OS and everyone would have been happy, or?

andreX · Post by **andreX** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 9:48 am

>all the bigname PC laptop makers like HP, Dell, Toshiba, Sony and so >on all have their drivers etc well integrated into windows and work >remarkably well these days - .[/quote]

a friend of mine uses a Sony Vaio and recently had a funny experience: he was suggested to upgrade the firmware/driver of his DVD-Burner because of compatability issues and after the upgrade he was unable to play any DVD he has burned before the upgrade.

He was not amused.

Andre

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:30 am

Henrik - there are Linux distros that are made for audio and of course you can always tweak 'em as much as you wish - but before people move to Linux, the apps aren't going to be available, and untill the apps are available, the users aren't going to move... but I think my next computer will be a Linux box, and I'll definetely try some of the audio apps out there.

-Paws

drush · Post by **drush** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:31 pm

noisetonepause wrote:there are Linux distros that are made for audio

what are they.. what are they called?

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:53 pm

Check out http://linuxaudio.org for starters.

-Paws

drush · Post by **drush** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 5:28 pm

yeah, thanks. should have never posted the question in the first place

of course the answers were really easy to find...

freshdrumma · Post by **freshdrumma** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 5:38 pm

my keyboard player has a 1ghz ibook with fully loaded ram

i have a powerbook 1,25ghz with 1 giga ram and i notice tremendus performance difference

he can`t play most of the song that i give him, when my performance bar is at 40% he is reaching 86% and some audio drop out

should be the bus 133mhz against 333mhz.

i will buy powerbook again!

New iBooks vs. existing PowerBooks?????

different