Mac, Windows, Linux?

I’m wondering how the different (desktop) computer OSes stack up among Elektron users,
so here’s a quick informal poll:

which OS do you use on your (studio) computer?
If multiple, please choose the one which you use most regularly or prefer to use.

please don’t cheat etc etc :joy:

Done. Mac for me, but I used to be a PC guy, so I still own a few PC laptops (and am thinking of cobbling together an older PC desktop to make use of the three SBLive cards I own).

After using a mac at work for so long I just had to switch, there’s so much less bullshit to deal with in order to get low-latency audio working.

heh Mac for recording/mixing. Linux (Raspberry Pi) for live-coding MIDI to Monomachine

Windows, its just so much cheaper to get good hardware. For the money of a good mac laptop i can build a dual xeon tower.

PC for gaming, mac for music, Linux for real work.

Mac for everything, PC for when I need to poke around in vvvv and TD

Linux… never touched it

RIGHT? I mean it’s nuts. Mac people: a genuine question, because I’d go Mac if so convinced…but I just don’t see how one reconciles the price. Also and correct me if I’m wrong, but you can’t later remove/add hardware right?

^ yea the lack of upgradeability is a bit shit.
I’m on a 2011 low-tier Macbook Air, and it’s fine as far as the CPU goes, but I can’t upgrade the 64GB SSD or the 2GB of RAM which would expand this thing’s usefulness significantly.
(the Air is a sort of special case though, they just soldered the RAM & SSD to the mainboard to keep it thin & light… the Macbook Pros have upgradeable RAM, not sure about harddrive)

otherwise, their hardware is just pretty damn nice, if you look beyond raw spec numbers.
good trackpads, screens, case, power management etc…
there are Windows PCs of similar quality, but then you pay comparable prices also.

but it’s mostly OSX I guess for most… just less trouble keeping it running smoothly

2011 macbook pro here - still runs great. Its the model where u could still upgrade things.

So thats 5 years one laptop. Can you say the same about a PC laptop without bits and pieces breaking off over time?

In any case - to me - the point about expense has always been a bit moot. Sure - there’s outlay - but its an investment.

If I sold this Macbook Pro on eBay tomorrow I’d get 800 or 900 dollars for it (AUD).

The resale value on Macs is extremely high.

I always find it funny how people compare Mac laptops to PC desktops.

But if u compare a Mac laptop to similarly specced Windows laptop, the prices aren’t too different.

Mac notebook for music. Windows for work so sometimes I’ll do the odd sample chop/edit on my windows PC. I’ve uploaded samples to RYTM from both Windows/Mac and used Overbridge on both. I don’t notice any real difference except the latency is tighter on the mac.

Mac Pro and Macbook Pro for music.

Windows and Linux for the day-job.

I used Windows on self-built PCs for years, but class compliant drivers on Mac are the real advantage for me now. For example, my Nord G2 doesn’t need driver updates on Mac.

Late '11 MBP.
@mattleaf : since I have a SSD drive it’s a whole different beast.
I put out the DVD player and replaced it with the HD so I have space.

MBP never fails in my case.
Plus it’s powerful.
For instance I can mix a 25 tracks project on Ableton Live 9 in the train without power chord for 2 hours.

I have the huge luck to have it from work. I mean, I work on it.
Access to the Linux side of it is so easy, and it’s handy when you can get the job done with a little python or unix instead of using expensive apps :wink:

With Applescript, you can drive most of the applications, and create quickly some applications that exchange data between different apps.

I just cannot go back to Dows. Feels like going backwards.

Windows.

I’m a long-time multiboot user. My windows lives on a separate partition, not having any access to the internet. It’s only job is to host ableton live. No games, no browser, no word processing, no cd burning, nothing but Ableton Live.

For everything else I use debian since potato was released.

Regarding hardware i like buying cheap used PCs or Laptops. My most up-to-date machine is a Thinkpad from 2008, on which these lines were typed.

mac. i switched several year ago, when windows 8 came out. it was a relief. yes you can get much more powerfull windows machines for the same price, but update and standby management, lack of anti virus software, virtual soundcards, thunderbolt etc makes a mac a very comfortable choice for musicians. though i wish i could get faster processors from apple.

Cheers,
Goat

Macbook Pro:
-Recording my band “Det Skandaløse Orkester” with a 16 track audio interface.
-Mixing the audio.
-Video editing of the concerts afterwards.

PC:
-Internet.
-Home studio for electronic music production.
-Softsynth!!! Simply because of all the fun VSTs for PC.

I like PC the most, because of its hack and crack ability

Been a Windows user since 3.1 so 25 years or so. During that period I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been left pulling my hair out and getting seriously fed up with something or other not working properly from trackpad drivers, to GPU overheating, to poor audio drivers, etc etc. Despite that, I kept telling myself “but you get so much more for your money”. That is, until recently.

I’m very close to pulling the trigger on a MBP. I’ll probably hold off until the next iteration arrives for Thunderbolt 3 but, as a laptop user, I am fed up with shitty build quality Windows machines and by the time you get something that I find suitable it’s in the same price bracket as a mac anyway.

From my limited OSX experience, things just work. I know that isn’t always the case but my Win10 experience isn’t exactly glowing and I think it’s time for something new and hassle free.

Amiga.

Had a sudden flashback earlier to my old OctaMED experiences earlier today (OctaMED being an old Amiga tracker). Did some amazing things with the Amiga 500 and it back in the early 90’s. It wasn’t until the end of the 90’s with Supercollider and Max/MSP that the Mac got interesting as a musical tool for me and caught up / eclipsed the Amiga of a decade earlier.

I must be on a ‘computers of my youth’ kick as the SID emulation was one of the reasons I got the Monomachine.

It’s been all Mac for me since '94. Although for music, all I do on it these days is record (do everything live into basic but awesome Amadeus Pro) and then assemble / mix audio in Logic. But most performances are done live. Computer is basically for editing / post processing.

I program the damn things all day. Don’t want to be doing music on them any more.

Dr. T’s KCS!
Now we’re talking! :slight_smile:

https://www.apple.com/mac-pro/specs/

If i compare that - to the machine i can build from parts …

For 4000$,

I can get a lot of milage:
Intel Xeon E5-2620v3 6 core (Hexa Core) CPU with 2.40 GHz
2x, a good asus mainboard, and reuse old DDR3 or DDR4 RAM. And still i am below 1k, because i can do an inline upgrade. (Ok, some new watercooling would be needed - but thats it.) I have very few hassels with windows.

I would like to have a mac notebook for traveling though.

yeah… who is even buying the Mac Pros? Never even seen one of these, they seem severely overpriced…
If I ever were to get a desktop machine, would totally build up from PC parts & make sure to pick stuff which is Hackintosh-compatible & dualboot.