Is running windows via bootcamp the same as directly ?

[Khazul]

@Staving Student:

Couple of obvious questions - whats up with Win 7 (other than having to pay for it?)
And whats up with Lion? (just the revrse scrolling?)

Win7/64 vs Win XP: Yes - win xp can be alot more audio driver friendly than win7/64, but in practice that only measurable difference say when using live - can puish CPU a tiny bit higher in XP than I can with win7, else performance near identical. On balance I prefer to be running win7 than winxp for audio work - mainly down to 64 bit support and that now, you are more likely to find better supported drivers for Win7 than WinXP unless you have really old gear and drivers.

Win7/64 vs Snow leopard perfornce and ability to push the CPU use slightly higher before dropouts is about the same as Win7 vs XP. I havnt re-tested with Lion, but so far Im not noticing any performance difference with audio. The only little annoyance with lion seems to be much longer to shut down, but no difference to boot time.

On Lion vs Leopard? kind of like the XP vs Win7 in terms of driver support, old gear etc.

XP is dead, unsupported by MS, support from app and plugin developers is fading, and only 32 bit (so max accessable memory 3GB if your lucky, but for most people only 2GB) - far from ideal with many current instruments in live, even though live is still onlyu 32 bit. Live 9 (we hope) will be 64 bit as well.

I agree on the macbook air - really nicely made machine, but its allways the headache with macs - often not enough I/O so you end up needing a hub and having to be careful about which hardware gets the direct connection (usually audio interface) and which gets the hub (all your controllers). Even with the MBP17 I have to deal with this to. That said, my old Lenovo T61P only has 3 USB ports (same as my MBP17) - any more and its expresscards/hubs etc.

Also - yes apple always tell you to never install an earlier version of an OS than that which ships with the machine.

I also get you on the computer thing, personally I found that to be more of an issue using a PC than a mac - maybe something silly like the PC always reminded me of my old day job whereas the mac didnt.

In your shoes, if you like the MBA - seriously - get used to lion - it aint that bad
Keep the whole bootcamp thing in case you really have to run windows for something that simply isnt available for OSX, else I wouoldnt install it at all on an MBA - too much HD space lost to it.

I also have to wonder if an MBP13 might be better for you than an MBA (assuming you mean MBA13?).

[starving student]

whats up khazul
man I'm loving the mba, I got the 11" and for someone who's still buying hardware synths and samplers It's hard to put this computer down it's like I
seem to be always on it no matter what else I'm doing, the one weird thing about it though is that the camera on it is kind of crappy, don't know the specs off the bat and it's not a big deal but the camera on my old macbook core 2 duo is noticeably better, at least regarding skype usage, maybe it's not down to the camera in that case though but it's enough to notice everytime I use skype. that and the batt life is killing me but I still love this thing while maintaining my disdain for computers

about windows 7and xp bootcamp, I just don't like all that crap in windows 7, I'm not really one for frills I tend to immediately need to tone things down and I guess I could disable allot of stuff (i hope since I'm prob gonna buy it today) but I'd just as well keep rockin xp, it's always worked for me
and I'm just comfortable with it. Like I said I got my mom a lenovo running win 7 and I spent about 10 minutes on it and was disgusted with all the cream but anyway so you think 64bit is the way to go and I suppose there's no backwards compatibility issues to be concerned about with all my 32 bit apps and drivers.... and yes the cost is buggin me

lion is not as bad it'll grow on me i guess, I'm not even sure if it's lion or just that I don't know the mac os well, I like the way on my old blackbook I could press f9 and screens would spread out clearly but on lion all I see is 'f3' and they spread out but to close together/ on top of each other, its just little stuff like that I probably just need to learn it better.

what do you like about the 13" other than the sd slot and larger screen, I like that the screen is larger but I don't like the shape of it, the 11" is perfect though

[nebulae]

Well, at least you know what you want and exactly how you want it.

[starving student]

a blessing and a curse at times

[Khazul]

about windows 7and xp bootcamp, I just don't like all that crap in windows 7, I'm not really one for frills I tend to immediately need to tone things down and I guess I could disable allot of stuff (i hope since I'm prob gonna buy it today) but I'd just as well keep rockin xp, it's always worked for me
and I'm just comfortable with it. Like I said I got my mom a lenovo running win 7 and I spent about 10 minutes on it and was disgusted with all the cream but anyway so you think 64bit is the way to go and I suppose there's no backwards compatibility issues to be concerned about with all my 32 bit apps and drivers.... and yes the cost is buggin me

Depends on your hardware - if the stuff you actually plug into your computer is supported on Win7/64 then you should be OK, else I can understand you being nervous about moving over. Would suggest testing it first before committing to it.

lion is not as bad it'll grow on me i guess, I'm not even sure if it's lion or just that I don't know the mac os well, I like the way on my old blackbook I could press f9 and screens would spread out clearly but on lion all I see is 'f3' and they spread out but to close together/ on top of each other, its just little stuff like that I probably just need to learn it better.

OK - made the move from windows to OSX earlier this year - for a sort time it felt a bit odd as I was new to OSX, but now I almost can't imagine using windows again for music related stuff.

what do you like about the 13" other than the sd slot and larger screen, I like that the screen is larger but I don't like the shape of it, the 11" is perfect though

Larger screen

In your shoes I think I wouldn't bother with any flavour of windows if possible and let the machine use all its resources for Lion- bite the bullet and get familiar with OSX. Over time your might find it a lot less hassle especially on a small resource constrained computer - again I guess it all depends on drivers.

I didnt shift off XP for audio until last year - mainly down to some of my hardware not being supported on Win7 (neither 32 nor 64 bit) so for my moving over ended up expensive due to needing a new high end audio interface (as well as having just got a new fast PC), but having made the jump to newer hardware, then move less than a year later to a mac and OSX was far less painful and has since proved to by much more reliable for running live so I don't even use my PC anymore for audio work - just the MBP.

The only real loss in the move was my old UAD PCI card, but as I missed the boat on upgrading the V2, then not really missing anything anyway.

Must admit, Im still very pissed at yamaha for not supporting win 7 at all, so I have a perfectly good digital mixer and ex-audio interface with no friggin drivers for any current OS as the only OS it runs well with is XP. Ended up replacing it with an RME UFX.