Linux?

[Nikolas]

Ok I'm rather ignorant! But after all this Vista stuff, I'm wondering if jumping to a new platform will do the trick and save me. As far as I can see it there are 3 possibilities:

i. Stay with Windows XP, but for how long? I mena pretty soon new software will come that won't play in XP. Then what?
ii. Switch to a Mac. I can't say that I enjoy this thought much, mainly because of price issues, but...well... lots of musicians use Macs so why not? News of Leopard???
iii. Change to Linux. And this is where I know nothing! I know that it's (or was rather) an alternative to unix, which I know a little (and know a lot about dos), but other than that no idea. Will I be able to run my programs in Linux? Cubase, EastWest stuff etc...? Memory issues? I did check linux.org but found little information (without spending tons of time though... ok?)

Any ideas, help, info?

To be honest I don't really mind Vista, except if it's playing tricks with MY own stuff, and other peoples stuff (for example an mp3 from ManicMatt, or a pic from Lemmy or Binky, and whatever else, which are totally legal stuff). I do know that drivers WILL be updated rather quickly (see a year or so), so I'm not worried that something won't run, or be bricked... Then again DRM scares the shit out of me! And since I don't care about HD or anything atm, it's the only thing that bothers me. Of course if I move to video music or simmilar, I may need HD stuff, which will be a problem I guess... :-/

[scotch]

Linux isn't an option for you if you need to run many commercial software products.

What are you scared of with Vista? No, of course it won't do anything to your legal mp3s... or even illegal ones. DRM is only a bother to you if you buy stuff that requires the DRM, for now.

[Akatosh]

Vista = evil. Full stop.

No, really, it's crap. They claim it to be...

* "Safer" than previous Windows versions. They always claim that, and has any Windows actually been safe?
* "Easier to use and more user friendly". Or, translated into plain english, nearly unusable for experienced users and with many cpu-consuming SPECIAL EFFECTS!!!11one. Geez, it wouldn't have been too surprising if they added lens flare. Also, you can't revert the controls to what they were like in Win 2000.
* "Prettier". Means it looks even more like the K Desktop Environment, which is one of the main reasons I didn't switch to Linux yet. I hate that look.

Also, Win XP is quite aged now, meaning it had lots and lots of opportunities to crash, be hacked, crash again, freeze and destroy all your data, resulting in various patches. Win Vista didn't have time to crash, be hacked, etc. yet - look forward to another two years of ubiquotious Blue Screens Of Death.

[scotch]

Safer? Yes, generally windows has become safer, XP has a much better security system than 9x, Vista's security architecture is certainly a leap ahead of XP. Encouraging people not to run with full privs is a good step. Will there still be viruses and stuff? Sure.

Easier? Maybe, certainly not harder, Windows still works pretty much as it always has.

Prettier? Of course that's a matter of opinion, but you can disable whatever you want if you don't like it. Moving GUI rendering to the graphics hardware is a good step, in my opinion, and will reduce the burden on your CPU.

Would I pay for it right now? No, but it's not evil. It's just another Windows release.
It'll be several years before we're forced to upgrade because software stops working on 2k/XP, no need to panic.
I do plan to move to a free operating system when it suits me. Maybe that'll be before I upgrade to Vista, maybe it'll be after.

The most annoying thing I can think of when it comes to Vista is the DX10 exclusivity. That will push high end gamers to it over the next few years, even if they don't particularly want to go.

[woodz]

Linux is great... if you haven't been spoilt by Windows software!
if you run a general office system, then Linux is fantastic, The Gimp is a powerful art tool and Blender is great for 3D work, but its all a brand new learning curve, instructions are often long winded and sometimes it requires a lot of thought installing new software
we have Fedora Core 6 on another partition, it runs a lot faster than XP but I like my MS toys and none of them will emulate through the Wine system

[InCreator]

But what is that incompatibility thing with linux I've heard of? 

Can I play games under Linux? Like, modern games, not solitaire. Use Adobe software? Tv-game emulators? 3ds max? Winamp? Mozilla and all other usual Winuser stuff? Does directx run on Linux?

Or do I have to use emulator of some kind for all this? If yes, isn't it hardcore slowdown and CPU-torture?

[Akatosh]

One word: Cedega.

[biothlebop]

I'd recommend you stay with XP until it is more beneficial for you to change OS, eg. use the platform that is currently the most productive. Until then, I'd recommend that you stay up to date with the situation so that when the time comes, you won't need to do as much research.
In my case, I'll probably keep XP until 2009 unless something comes up.

My experiences:
Currently XP wins hands down. I am double-booting XP sp 2 and Ubuntu 6.10, also tried Kubuntu. I mainly use Ubuntu for school stuff like programming in C or learning Latex and boot XP for leisure use.
Ubuntu and Kubuntu both installed nicely, the learning process took around a week (pre and post installation).
I could probably do everything I must entirely on XP, I just chose to install and learn Linux better. One day I will be hopefully switching entirely to free & open software, but I cannot see it happening anytime soon.

Regarding Macs (I am both uninformed and biased against them, so my opinion is of little value): The hardware is slow and expensive in comparison to PC hardware, the OS is quite unfamiliar to me but it seems intuitive.

[voh]

Biothlebop, Are you really saying the Mac hardware is slow compared to PCs? They actually are just regular PCs, as in they use Intel processors and run windows semi-natively now. The only difference is that they use EFI instead of BIOS (and EFI is an intel thing, so neener neener! )

Check the specs, and then try to back up your claim that they're so expensive (these, by the way, are for the white Macbook 13", and the 1.83Ghz version is only 1099 USD, hence my claim that they're actually pretty well-priced. Not cheap, no, but well-priced).

Also, I'm mainly running XP on my macbook because I'm heavily disappointed in the amount of usable and well-working software that's available for OSX. I'm glad I can switch at any point in the future, to all major OS's, but for now I'm content running XP on it, and OSX on the side for video and audio editing.

[biothlebop]

My information is outdated (I had heard about Macs using Intel processors now, a friend of mine runs OSX on his PC), so that was more directed to the powerPC-based Macs of old.
Nevertheless, I still associate Apple and Mac for some reason with the expensive-designer-PC category, rather than the cheap/bulk kind. The laptop seems to be reasonable-priced, yes.

[Da_Elf]

ill stick with my winxp 64bit version for now. its got the power i need that windows xp 32 doesnt have and even though there are some games that dont work on it im fine since my machines are for work use

[Radiant]

Well, it's easy to try Linux if you want to give it a shot. Download a Live CD for Ubuntu, for instance, and burn it; that gives you one CD that you can use to boot the computer from, no installation necessary, and run Linux to see what it's like.

[Nikolas]

Cheers Radiant and everybody else,

Of course I'm talking about job computer, so I don't mind not being able to play games really. although I actualyl consider my job to check out the latest games... (hehehe... at least that's what I tell my wife), but this computer can always stay here for games etc...

I will give a try to the bootable CD, and see how it's like. Heck I will even try a couple of programs. Too afraid though that they won't run. As Scotch said, commercial high end software don't really run... :-/ and there is no real alternative for cubase... :'(

[Da_Elf]

they all run on winxp64 and thats got alot of power (i believe i know some studios running windows server 2003 or something like that)

EDIT
opps forgot that you can only use xp64 with a 64bit machine however they are getting more and more common in the consumer marker

[strazer]

But what is that incompatibility thing with linux I've heard of?

Linux is a completely different operating system than Windows, so of course you can't run the Windows stuff directly, you need Linux versions of the software.

Can I play games under Linux? Like, modern games, not solitaire.
(...)
Or do I have to use emulator of some kind for all this? If yes, isn't it hardcore slowdown and CPU-torture?

You can use software like Wine or Cedega to run Windows programs in Linux. However, while these are constantly in development, they won't work 100% of the time and you'll probably have problems with the latest demanding games.
Wine/Cedega don't emulate a whole Windows system, they translate the Windows function calls to Linux so there should be very little slowdown.

Just like in Windows, you can of course run a complete virtual machine as well, but these are even less useful for games as they tend to be quite slow.

Use Adobe software? Tv-game emulators? 3ds max? Winamp? Mozilla and all other usual Winuser stuff? Does directx run on Linux?

No, unless there's a Linux version of the program, it won't run natively.
But of course there are Linux programs that do the exact same thing. There are lots of media players, browsers (including Firefox) and everything else you can think of. Almost everything is free software and as such may not always provide the whole functionality of a several-hundred-dollar commercial product, but I've found most programs to be of excellent quality.

And DirectX is Windows-only, Linux uses OpenGL.

Here's an incomplete list of games you can run natively on Linux:

- Descent 2
- Doom, Final Doom, Doom 2 etc.
- Doom 3 + Resurrection Of Evil
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Freespace
- Freespace 2
- Heretic
- Hexen
- Hexen 2
- Kingpin
- (Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault)
- Neverwinter Nights
- Quake 3 + Team Arena
- Return To Castle Wolfenstein
- Rise Of The Triad
- Serious Sam
- Serious Sam: Second Encounter
- Serious Sam 2
- Shadow Warrior
- Unreal
- Unreal Tournament
- Unreal Tournament 2004

And that's just the games I own. Also:

- ScummVM and thus all games supported by it
- DOSBox and all games supported by it
- Many, many emulators, including PlayStation
- and of course all AGS games that don't use plugins.

Finally, http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com/ is porting and selling games.

[InCreator]

Hm... no games, then.

Sounds like we die together, Windows XP and I.
Or wait for entirely new OS 

[Tartalo]

I have used seriously Macs, Windows and Linux.

In your case I would go for Mac without any doubt, it's the best platform for audio and video creation and it just works.

Linux would be a choice if you are ready to learn a lot about computers, there are tools for serious audio and video creation and you can get a very powerful system, but in my opinion it doesn't pay the effort unless you want to go for really professional and are ready to build your own starship. There's no middle point.

Windows is good if you like viruses, random crashes, and being Microsoft's idiot. Ah, and it has games too.

[Radiant]

Well, here's the thing: you can try Linux now, or at any time, for free and with no strings attached. What's stopping you? If you don't like it, stop using it.

However, in your case, what I'd really recommend is a Mac. Multimedia people have been using Macs for decades. They're smooth, user-friendly, beautifully designed both in hardware and software, and they don't crash or come with daily virus alerts.

[Nikolas]

How did this come up again???

Anyways.

For now I'm sticking with XP. I am a PC guy and always been. Of course viruses are much of a problem with PCs, and much more than a Mac, but I am a PC guy. I have come to terms with it. Cubase is awful in Mac, intel macs are not exactly great atm, the prices are substantialy higher than a PC, and there are much fewer options in Macs.

For the record I rarely have crashes really. Not even on a weekly bases. Virus alerts, again I have Norton on the back (fuck*** heavy, but it's doing it's job), and well...

I've used Mac for more than a year and done music on it. I could never find anything THAT better with a Mac.

don't think that Linux is for me... I did consider it as an alternative but just doesn't feel right.

[Tartalo]

How did this come up again???

My fault, I was too bored yesterday and replied to old posts I found interesting.

For now I'm sticking with XP. I am a PC guy and always been.

I am happy to hear Windows is treating you better than the average user, but if you are serious about Music creation start saving for a Mac, you won't regret it.

Linux does have powerful tools but setting the system for music and video creation in Linux is nowadays so complicated it doesn't pay (The first thing you need to do is a Kernel recompilation. Ugh!). Maybe in a couple of years... projects like "Ubuntu Studio" are making this situation change.