pc question from mac dude

mo sizlack · Post by **mo sizlack** » Fri Oct 18, 2002 12:10 am

while most people think of going mac im thinking of going pc...
im wondering how flexible the xp perating sytem is? can you streamline it so its just the bare bones o/s?i ask this beacuase this is one of the reasons i left pc's a few years go, i hated that so many things had to run in the background and felt the o/s was to in my face, i like the transparency of mac o/s. also wondering what are the good pc laptops out there and how do they stack up against the titanium pwerbooks like the 667 model i have now? ive heard the sonys are good. any input on the subject would be great. also if any of you are nterested ive got a copy of reason w/ free upgrade to 2.0, and a copy of cubase vst32 v5.0 i want to rid my self of, new in boxes wit manuals 250.00 for both...
wicked
mo
[email protected]

Geraldo · Post by **Geraldo** » Fri Oct 18, 2002 5:34 am

I use both Mac and PC because I hate feeling like I'm missing something. For my PC I use an OEM version of Windowws 2000 so I can customize the installation. I only load stuff I need to do music and the internet so I can update music software. XP is just a bloated version of WIN2K. I get very stable and fast performance with low latency from a 1 ghz PIII. But Reason is just more fun on my Tibook. I think Macs will catch up but this year PCs have the speed and bandwidth to do more with music software.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Oct 18, 2002 10:56 pm

Windows XP is pretty transparent, just as Windows 2000 is. Pretty much all the things you hate or don't want running can be shut down and told not to come back.

You will definitely want to change the user interface options. The default behavior is geared toward what I would call "Shiny Happy People", even in the XP Pro version.

It will take a little time (as little as 5-8 minutes if you are very proficient with Windows management, otherwise probably up to an hour) to turn them all off. You will need a very nice list (or two) of the optimizations for audio such as this one http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.htm.

There's another site that lists the services that can be shut off, and I've seen another list of UI optimizations. Maybe some one else can post a couple, I did something stupid and deleted some bookmarks.

Hexadecimal
www.freesidemusic.com

Geraldo · Post by **Geraldo** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 2:20 am

Dear Guest,
That's all fine and well but why pay more for XP when you can have Win2K without the licensing hassle? After all, when you are done shutting down all the extra crap in XP what you have left is Win2K with a stranglehold license agreement. Save some money and some time and some hassle and get Win2K. XP is for the birds.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 2:35 am

I know you use both for your work Geraldo, but a ton of people are reporting better stability and experience with xp, can you confirm any or dis afirm any of that.. I'm actually asking cause I would like to know.

btw, i'm not Hexidecimal.

Geraldo · Post by **Geraldo** » Sun Oct 20, 2002 4:40 am

I work as an IT support tech in a large Biotech company and my boss will not upgrade to XP because of stability concerns. We run WIN2K alongside some Mac and Linux boxes. I know some people report XP is more stable but I think this is attributable to subjective wishful thinking. I respect my boss' thinking and believe her many years of experience running a large enterprise network is more compelling than the single user experiences reported on musician message boards. Of course some people may really have great experiences on XP but I would not recomend the risk. WIN2k is a proven OS.
That's my reasoning behind my earlier pronouncement which is only meant as a suggestion.

bub2000 · Post by **bub2000** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 6:17 pm

im a long-time pc user (since i was 5 years old its all i ever used, i was sort of "brought up" with it). i recently bought an ibook, and i LOVE it for one reason: it lets you do what you want, with minimal interference. every version of windows would bug you to death with whatever it wanted to. while i was running live at a show it would ask me if i wanted to run windows update... this isn't good. despite what many say about macs, ive never been happier with my computer.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 6:35 pm

please don't take this the wrong way because I'm not insulting you in any manner and I respect your decision to go with an ibook, I think they are cool and i have one too, but your post gave away some pertinent information that is really at the crux of the mac/pc issue. and that is userknowledge. You've been using pc's since you were five and no doubt feel very well versed in their usage, but if you really were you would have not experienced that windows update issue at your gig. It is a simple matter to disable such a thing and you probably don't know anybody else who's had that happen. It's not about being a computer genius or anything
it is simply that user needs to know how to run their operating system be it mac or pc, especially a computer musician because besides making sure your computer is stable you can make it give you better results. Though I use both platforms this debate is very tiresome, computer musicians learn to use reaktor, reason, LIVE, logic, Sonar and all manner of programs but when it comes to the O/S they don't want to learn how to use it, that in itself is just plain rediculous.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 6:41 pm

http://www.reasonstation.net/board/view ... 60&forum=3

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 12:11 am

"Guest," there is something i don't understand about these forums... no one makes any kind of constructive criticism. i put in my input, now if you would like put in yours go ahead, but don't crush my experiences and tell me what i know and don't know, because it's rather immature, wouldn't you say? the purpose of this forum is to gather as a community, not tell each other we're right or wrong.

thanks.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 5:18 am

you are absoulutely right. (did it again) please forgive me, thats not what I
was trying to do, I guess alot of a persons intentions are lost when communicating through an internet forum and I apologize. I do not have all the answers about this and I am trying to learn too. Its a big problem with so many biases concerning this issue and musicians who make use of computers in their music deserve to know what is what. some people will tell you to stop thinking about it and just make your music and I don't think thats fair. We deserve to know as much as possible about the tools we use and our instruments and I think the two platform manufacturers make more money by maintaining the confusion like this. We just mapped
the human genome I think it is safe to say that we have the technology to tell which operating system will work for a paticular program in this day and age. Then there are those who say no its impossible because everybodys system is different and has different software on it and diff amounts of ram and diff configuration. well fine so what, get some machines with the same configurations and specs, and configure them the same and test them with the same files what ever all people really want is the best comparison possible that they can get, but you won't see recording, electronic musician, remix, keyboard, computer music, or sound on sound doing this because it's not in the intrest of capitalism.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 5:22 am

other guest I just read my post again right after i wrote the one before this one, and I sounded really fucked up, I just wanted to apologize again and thanks for pointing it out to me.