I posted this over at the electro-music.com forum, where it landed with
an anechoic thud.
I remember there was a thread on this list about machine
recommendations, but that was for netbooks. I'm starting to research
heavier-duty laptops to use as a home-studio machine (which can also be
taken out for gigs).
An addendum to the forum post is that I read somewhere that Toshiba
laptops score high on reliability.
Thanks!
James
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Thinking ahead (not making an immediate move)...
My trusty MacBook Pro is getting a bit on in years (four years old now)
-- no hardware problems to speak of yet, but this is approaching the
mean time to fail for laptop hard drives. At the same time, I've been
using puredyne Linux on a netbook and enjoying it a lot. (I'd also
consider ubuntu studio but don't need the recent flashy gnome stuff -
puredyne uses xfce4 which, while antiquated vis-à-vis UI features, is
FAST.)
So I'm thinking... rather than wait for my MBP to die and then making a
rush decision, better to research viable Linux audio machines now. (Also
good to get a new machine and have plenty of time to configure it while
the Mac is still up and running.)
I'm looking for:
- a laptop, to take out for live performances;
- fast CPU -- I intend this as my main production machine;
- it does not have to be especially lightweight -- I have a netbook for
traveling;
- HD speed is valuable but not critical -- I mostly use supercollider
and I'm not playing back multiple sound files at the same time (as is
typical in DAWs);
- FireWire connector (or card slot for a FW adapter) is a must (my MOTU
UltraLite still works perfectly and is old enough to be reportedly
supported by FFADO).
I'm wondering what machines people recommend for reliability and
performance. I heard on the sc-users list that ThinkPads were the most
common machine at the last Linux audio conference, but I don't need to
follow the crowd if there's something better.
---
--
James Harkins /// dewdrop world
[email protected]
http://www.dewdrop-world.net
"Come said the Muse,
Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted,
Sing me the universal." -- Whitman
blog: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/words
audio clips: http://www.dewdrop-world.net/audio
more audio: http://soundcloud.com/dewdrop_world/tracks
---
[email protected]
http://identi.ca/group/puredyne
irc://irc.goto10.org/puredyne
