How to switch to Linux or Mac? awayyy from Windows..

[C hristian]

I have a very week windows 98 laptop to do some basic things with. This I don't think I'll change, but


MY desktop is Windows 2000, with lots of Web Editing Software, Oracle Database, Music Production software (SoundForge, Sonar, Acid, REcycle, REason, etc. Cubase too, but I have yet to work with it. I mostly work with Sonic Foundry and Cakewalk stuff, right now.), lots of WAV files, CD Burning, internet stuff, Microsoft Office, too.

So what is the smoothest way to change your OS, either to Linux (which is probably where I want to go) or, (evenetually, when I get the money) to the MAC? Can all or any of these programs be run on either OS, or do I have to buy all new software all over again?

[AD]

C hristian, not all software is cross platform compatible. Most programs are made for a particular operating system such as the Windows OS. For instance, MS Office won't work on a Linux or a Mac system, but there are alternatives which you can get for free or really cheap. Sun Microsystems makes an alternative to MS Office called Star Office and OpenOffice.org makes another office suite that can be used on Linux, Mac, or Windows.

Linux is also another software program that can be obtained for free unless you decide to get the professional version which is still rather cheap compared to windows.

Check these links for more info on both products:

Sun Star Office
http://wwws.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.html

Open Office
http://www.openoffice.org/

Free Linux Distributions
http://linux.tucows.com/distributions_default.html

Peace,

AD

[C hristian]

i have REd Hat, just sitting, waiting for me, but I'm particularly concerned about music production software running on linux and transfering all my stuff to that.

[Ben.]

linux can be very tricky to install unless you know really specific specs of your machine...

well actually thats wrong, the linux bit is easy, its x-windows that is tough. but if you want to be able to navigate your way around other than from a command prompt. youre going to need x-windows.

[imported_Gman]

Originally posted by Ben.:
linux can be very tricky to install unless you know really specific specs of your machine...

well actually thats wrong, the linux bit is easy, its x-windows that is tough. but if you want to be able to navigate your way around other than from a command prompt. youre going to need x-windows.

I was really feeling the Mandrake distribution in terms of ease of install and auto configuration of the Window manager.

[ncho]

how much space do you have on your harddrive?....can you re-partition it so that you can run winblows on one side and linux on the other?...or better yet, you can install an additional harddrive on your machine and run both OSes separately....

also, since you are running all sort of music editing software on your winblows box, moving to Linux may not be a good idea yet -- editing apps are scarce in Linux (unless you decide to write your own app)...but if you decided to make the transition, you may want to look at the following apps:

Audacity
-- a nice basic audio editor...nothing fancy...

Audour
-- a multichannel hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation...supposed to provide the same functionality as ProTools and Cubase...haven't had time to mess with this app yet, may require a separate box all together....

hope this helps....

peace,
-g-

[ October 13, 2003, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: ncho ]

[Bold Soul]

Some thoughts on the subject...

If you're in music production, nothing beats shelling out the money for a system. There may be free GNU apps for Linux and the plethora of cracked copies of sequencing and sampler apps for Windows but, if you're serious, at some point you've gotta spend money.

Once you get a Mac infrastructure, you'll never go back. In the Lab, we all rock Powerbooks for administrative computing and some development tasks. Our post-suite is built on a Dual 1.25 G4 (mirrored door). An older model AGP 400mhz has been repurposed into a rock-solid OS X Server that provides DHCP and proxy serving via a wireless network.

Up until recently, we performed all vocal recording and surround mixing in a suite that was running Protools on 9600s - no ish.

Homebuilt Windows boxes and cracked apps and plug-ins is entry-level at best. If you're going for stability and value (and you're going to do it for a living), get with a studio that has a better infrastructure. Everyone doesn't need one - get together with other musicians and producers and create a suite for shared use. Producers sit in front of keyboards and monitors as if they're crystal balls. A central studio among two or three producers could distribute the cost of maintaining LEGAL latest and greatest technology and improve efficiency.

End of my ramble...hope that helped some.

[CG63]

Originally posted by Danny Gardner:
Some thoughts on the subject...

If you're in music production, nothing beats shelling out the money for a system. There may be free GNU apps for Linux and the plethora of cracked copies of sequencing and sampler apps for Windows but, if you're serious, at some point you've gotta spend money.

Once you get a Mac infrastructure, you'll never go back. In the Lab, we all rock Powerbooks for administrative computing and some development tasks. Our post-suite is built on a Dual 1.25 G4 (mirrored door). An older model AGP 400mhz has been repurposed into a rock-solid OS X Server that provides DHCP and proxy serving via a wireless network.

Up until recently, we performed all vocal recording and surround mixing in a suite that was running Protools on 9600s - no ish.

Homebuilt Windows boxes and cracked apps and plug-ins is entry-level at best. If you're going for stability and value (and you're going to do it for a living), get with a studio that has a better infrastructure. Everyone doesn't need one - get together with other musicians and producers and create a suite for shared use. Producers sit in front of keyboards and monitors as if they're crystal balls. A central studio among two or three producers could distribute the cost of maintaining LEGAL latest and greatest technology and improve efficiency.

End of my ramble...hope that helped some.

[img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[roki]

I'd agree that if you're serious about music production, and you're likely to get into big (demanding) tunes then Mac is the way to go.

I'd add, though, that it's never a good idea to try and do everything on one setup... especially if you're into a variety of different (but demanding) disciplines.

For example, a good Windows PC, dedicated to music could be fine for most people. Try and get it to handle graphics and web design tools and begin to ask it to do too many things, it'll start to struggle.

Mac is the shit for music and graphics, no doubt.

Windows PC is the best platform for web development. 90% of users are surfing on PCs with Internet Explorer, so you gotta preview your sites on that. Macs tend to display things quite differently (probably Bill Gates' underdevelopment of IE for the Mac to blame here).

LINUX, with KDE (my preferred desktop) is the shit for programming and general, fast, reliable use. Main attraction being that it's free (and free from the trouble of using cracked/hacked copies).

I'm soon to start testing LINUX as an audio (small scale) and web development platform. There's a good Web editor called Bluefish, a MIDI Sequencer called Rosegarden, and the above mentioned recording packages.

Main thing I'd say is don't try and do everything on one machine as you'll compromise performance over all your apps.

Good luck

Roki

[Bold Soul]

Originally posted by roki:
I'd agree that if you're serious about music production, and you're likely to get into big (demanding) tunes then Mac is the way to go.

I'd add, though, that it's never a good idea to try and do everything on one setup... especially if you're into a variety of different (but demanding) disciplines.

For example, a good Windows PC, dedicated to music could be fine for most people. Try and get it to handle graphics and web design tools and begin to ask it to do too many things, it'll start to struggle.

Mac is the shit for music and graphics, no doubt.

Windows PC is the best platform for web development. 90% of users are surfing on PCs with Internet Explorer, so you gotta preview your sites on that. Macs tend to display things quite differently (probably Bill Gates' underdevelopment of IE for the Mac to blame here).

LINUX, with KDE (my preferred desktop) is the shit for programming and general, fast, reliable use. Main attraction being that it's free (and free from the trouble of using cracked/hacked copies).

I'm soon to start testing LINUX as an audio (small scale) and web development platform. There's a good Web editor called Bluefish, a MIDI Sequencer called Rosegarden, and the above mentioned recording packages.

Main thing I'd say is don't try and do everything on one machine as you'll compromise performance over all your apps.

Good luck

Roki

Solid advice, Roki.

Don't sleep on the BSD architecture in Mac OS X - the best GUI for Unix I've ever dealt with. It makes a great web application dev environment (something I've been impressed with for the last few days). Of course, testing on all platforms is critical (Virtual PC makes this a snap, btw.)

[roki]

Originally posted by Danny Gardner:
Solid advice, Roki.

Don't sleep on the BSD architecture in Mac OS X - the best GUI for Unix I've ever dealt with. It makes a great web application dev environment (something I've been impressed with for the last few days). Of course, testing on all platforms is critical (Virtual PC makes this a snap, btw.)

Hey [img]smile.gif[/img]

I aint sleeping ;) I've got two FreeBSD Pentium I machines running my firewall and server. There's a few key packages available for LINUX that haven't ported over to BSD yet, so I took the LINUX option for my desktop.

Regarding the OS(UNI)X platform. I'm really pleased about the developments here (not least because it's a big slap-in-the-face for Gates). I've been praying for a while now that big apps like Photoshop and Logic will get ported over to UNIX soon. The software houses involved have now broken the back of the re-programming in creating OS-X versions, and I've been hoping that they'll soon take the small step and make UNIX versions available.

Got a feeling though, that Microsoft have probably threatened them with something to stop this.

Peace, Roki

[Bold Soul]

Originally posted by roki:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Danny Gardner:
Solid advice, Roki.

Don't sleep on the BSD architecture in Mac OS X - the best GUI for Unix I've ever dealt with. It makes a great web application dev environment (something I've been impressed with for the last few days). Of course, testing on all platforms is critical (Virtual PC makes this a snap, btw.)

Hey [img]smile.gif[/img]

I aint sleeping ;) I've got two FreeBSD Pentium I machines running my firewall and server. There's a few key packages available for LINUX that haven't ported over to BSD yet, so I took the LINUX option for my desktop.

Regarding the OS(UNI)X platform. I'm really pleased about the developments here (not least because it's a big slap-in-the-face for Gates). I've been praying for a while now that big apps like Photoshop and Logic will get ported over to UNIX soon. The software houses involved have now broken the back of the re-programming in creating OS-X versions, and I've been hoping that they'll soon take the small step and make UNIX versions available.

Got a feeling though, that Microsoft have probably threatened them with something to stop this.

Peace, Roki </font>[/QUOTE]That's some heavy lifing, man. What do you do with a lab like that?

[SuzanneT]

WOW! Men talking all technical and thangs! (sigh)

[Brian]

Originally posted by Danny Gardner:
Some thoughts on the subject...

If you're in music production, nothing beats shelling out the money for a system. There may be free GNU apps for Linux and the plethora of cracked copies of sequencing and sampler apps for Windows but, if you're serious, at some point you've gotta spend money.

Once you get a Mac infrastructure, you'll never go back. In the Lab, we all rock Powerbooks for administrative computing and some development tasks. Our post-suite is built on a Dual 1.25 G4 (mirrored door). An older model AGP 400mhz has been repurposed into a rock-solid OS X Server that provides DHCP and proxy serving via a wireless network.

Up until recently, we performed all vocal recording and surround mixing in a suite that was running Protools on 9600s - no ish.

Homebuilt Windows boxes and cracked apps and plug-ins is entry-level at best. If you're going for stability and value (and you're going to do it for a living), get with a studio that has a better infrastructure. Everyone doesn't need one - get together with other musicians and producers and create a suite for shared use. Producers sit in front of keyboards and monitors as if they're crystal balls. A central studio among two or three producers could distribute the cost of maintaining LEGAL latest and greatest technology and improve efficiency.

End of my ramble...hope that helped some.

On the flipside, I switched from a Mac based studio to a Windows one, and have had zero issues with stability.

Christian I'm running Windows XP and I use all the software you mentioned and have never had a crash.

Here's a good page for optimizing Windows XP for audio for even better performance (none of this stuff is necessary though) http://www.musicxp.net/

[roki]

Originally posted by SuzanneT:
WOW! Men talking all technical and thangs! (sigh)

ROFL!!! Sure you don't mean "(yawn)"?

roki

[roki]

Originally posted by Danny Gardner:
That's some heavy lifing, man. What do you do with a lab like that?

Mainly web development, some sound stuff. I've got the server as a development plaform for sites and for shared drive space. The firewall is a router as well, so my brother and I (and the server) can share our broadband connection.

To be honest, it's overkill, but it helps me get into stuff I might need for work one day. I gotta stay ahead of the game now there's 16 year old kids out there who compiled their first LINUX box when they were 5..

Oh, and I agree with Brian that XP is pretty damn good for music. If you can't afford a Mac it's definately the next best thing.

Roki

[Hippie]

Get The Mac. And it doesn't have to be a brand new G5. Look on ebay or Mac resellers get last years model. It will do everything you need and the best part is that it reads wav, aiff or sound design files. You could emulate PC with Virtual PC if you so please. Also if you save your Cubase songs in General Midi instead as a Cubase file you can take those same files and open them in on a Mac. And last you'll be in sync with 90% of pro recording studios which already use Mac for music. Peace, Baby