Hi Karen,
There's some wisdom in what you say I think. There's the classic saying if
it ain't broekn, don't fix it. I was going to write a much more elaborate
issue list here, as I'm beginning to think, as you suspected, that switching
is not my cup of tea yet. To quote from that, I was going to say something
like this:
If I'd spend my time playing around with the operating system itself, I
would switch right away. But no matter how much I like geeking and tweaking,
at the end of the day, a computer is a tool for getting my things done. In
that context, given the issues with accessibility, pricing and hardware, I
don't think the Mac manages to be significantly better in the application
areas that matter to me.
As for the present system, I've got a 5-year-old PC which does what I need
it to do a bit slowly but it gets the job done. There are soft synths that
don't run on that machine, though, as they require SSE, AND i'M also afraid
the 40 GB E-IDE drive is going to give up sooner or later. The other thing
is that the CRT needs replacing, dark colors in it are too dark even judjing
by my sight, though it should be well adjusted. I DO have backups of course
and SMART shows no issues with the HD but still.
Now it is a matter of to which OS and machine to upgrade to and as MAcs are
now getting more accessible with the addition of VoiceOVer and Braille I was
hoping they might be up to the challenge. If I just needed to use the
INternet, play some music or do something else very common then the Mac
could be a real choice at this point. incidentally many people quote
ease-of-use and lack of viruses as reasons where as niehter really matters.
I've got 10 years of WIndows experience, have never had to call tech
support, don't have spyware and have never had any virus succesfully infect
my system. Nough said.
As for hardware I spend some time looking at PC motherbord specs at a local
WEb store and seems many of the new PC motherboards don't have PCI either,
arrgh. Even a friend of mine wasn't at all surprised that PCI is slowly
fading in the background, so I guess I'm seriously out of the hardware loop,
<smile>.
For a change, my HW complaints don't seem to be Mac specific and
incidentally those 15 inch flat screens are beginning to be hard to come by,
regardless of platform. Now I'll have to decide whether to a: get a PC MoBo
with PCI in it or a Mac and some adapter like the Magma, or b. leave an old
piece of working hardware in the old machine and get a new soundcard and
some new and shiny MoBO after all. ANother piece of hardware I already mis
from the old days is a serial port, as it would be great for independently
installing LInux from another machine , oh well. I do know there are USB
adapters and they even work, though,
I've always been pretty curious about new releases and have been bitten by
the bleading edge bug more than once, most Spectacularly with WINdows ME.
GUess I should be wise this time and not upgrade as soon as I can. Though I
still wish I had a test bench for trying out new releases of OS X, Windows
and Ubuntu to see if there are new apps that I'd actually use or if they've
improved say the keybord interface of common controls. Virtualization is
often too slow for such a job and notably you cannot run OS X on PC
hardware.
Well tthanks for a refreshing bit of computer insight.
And sorry for drifting slightly OT here in describing WINdows and my
hardware.
--
With kind regards Veli-Pekka Tätilä ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Accessibility, game music, synthesizers and programming:
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~vtatila/
Karen Lewellen wrote:
I am going to speak to the macs in studio element later in the day,
but I have to ask you this.
Why do you personally feel that your present needs are not being met
by your setup?
If your needs are being met now, then why switch?
especially given the long list of items you do not want to give up for
fine reasons of course.
Presently, because of my needs, i am spending a lot of energy having
a mac custom built for me. Will it run voiceover? No, because voice
over does not work with pro tools and may not for years.
Will I get to keep my pci add ons yes, because pro tools requires
some of them.
would I tell anyone else to do this, not at all.
If your computer car gets you where you are going, keep driving. I
see no reason to run out and get a new edition of either platform
mac or windows, especially the latter if you use it, just because
bill gates got a new hair cut.
More often than not these things are still very bug ridden, and you
spend more time and more money trying to switch when your hardware is
working fine.
Just because someone says you will not be able to keep up, do not
believe them.
Like all of life, you are the only expert on your personal needs.
Hardware is still vogue until it no longer gets you where you want to
go, and often the older stuff is built better in any case.
Just my take,
Karen
