Les Mikesell wrote:
Michael A. Peters wrote:
As an OS, I'd pick OS X as the best mix of unix compatibility, user
friendliness, and supplying everything you need, including patented
technology and vendor written drivers.
Have fun with OS X when the only machine that has any expansion slots
is their considerably overpriced pro tower. And when you buy that
considerably overpriced pro tower, have fun putting your existing PCI
cards into it.
Whoops! Just like they jacked users when they dropped scsi and serial
ports, now they've jacked users by dropping normal pci slots.
Can't think of anything offhand that I wouldn't prefer to connect via
firewire, USB, or network (with the associated portability and
OS-independence of the devices).
Connecting devices via firewire that could be installed inside the
machine isn't very elegant and adds to the rats nest that starts to
accumulate around your PC. It also adds to the complexity of moving your
PC, and adds additional points of failure (FireWire cables can and do go
bad).
Also have fun with your third party sound cards when the OS updates -
due to their closed source nature, sometimes you have to wait months
before the vendor updates their drivers - even for the expensive high
end sound cards, like m-audio.
What forces you to update the OS before the drivers you need are
available? And why bring up closed source here? Is there an open
source driver for your card at all?
I bring up closed source because when you embrace an OS that embraces
closed source drivers, you are at the mercy of the drivers.
I can use my HollyWood+ DXR3 card in latest x86_64 linux. They never
released drivers for XP or Vista (or OS X for that matter) but because
open source drivers exist (though reverse engineered) I don't have to
wait for the vendors to get their act together when I want to move my OS
forward.
Of course, moving your expensive high end m-audio card into your new
Pro Tower will be kind of difficult, due to the complete lack of pci
slots. I guess with a hammer you might be able to make it fit ...
Firewire is the right answer for audio, especially if you plan to move
it around. I'm too cheap for that so the only thing I've added is a USB
sound adapter to have a software-selectable alternate output over copper
SPDF to feed a receiver. It doesn't specifically have a Mac driver but
works as a standard USB audio device anyway.
PCI cards in a PC are less likely to be stolen by someone in a busy
recording environment because you either have to take the whole PC or
open it up. FireWire audio devices can be disconnected and stuffed into
a jacket pocket.
If you move your recording equipment around, theft most certainly is a
consideration (and internal means less things to carry). If you don't
move it around, having it internal is one less wire in the rats nest.
I don't mind the pro having pci express slots, but when there are NO pci
slots - you either stick with your old slower computer or have to buy
new hardware. ISA slots were available in PCs for a long time after PCI
replaced it just for that reason - but Apple has done the same thing
they did when they ditched NuBus - no backwards compatibility at all.
Another example - when they ditched the floppy drive with the
introduction of the iMac, the shop I worked at made a killing. First the
customers would buy a USB floppy drive. Then they would come in asking
how to get those drives to read the 800k floppies (which they couldn't).
There was no serial port, so they couldn't LocalTalk with their old mac
- they either had to buy a NuBus nic from us for the old mac, sometimes
the old mac had a nic but they needed to buy and adapter, they could do
a lot of copying to get the data onto 1440k floppies, they could pay us
to replace the iMac modem with a serial port (losing their modem, but
they then got a serial port which did work with LocalTalk - the USB to
serial adapters didn't) or pay us to transfer the 800k floppies to a cdr
(usually what happened - we had a Beige G3 with a sony CD burner and an
AppleScript that pretty much automated it, except of course feeding the
floppies).
This lack of PCI slots in the pro tower isn't the first time Apple has
done something to screw the users, it's the Apple Way. osx86 project
wouldn't be so popular if Apple did things properly.
Lot of people bought FireWire iPod docks and then the new iPods came out
that can only charge by FireWire, not transfer data - so they were SOL
and had to replace their docks.
There are plenty more examples.
