The state of computers rant

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Computers operating systems have got worse and worse over the last 10 years, Windows 10 pro is an absolute joke of an OS, except I’m not laughing, at all.

Full of crappy bloatware, and worse the bloatware is not removable by default, you have to use a power shell script to get rid of it. Worse still is that next time the OS updates it puts all that shit back on. There should be a law against it, seriously.

Then there is the general fisher price look and feel, it seems like it is designed for young children, hidden scroll bars, big stupid tiles, lots of config options removed or hidden away, crappy microsoft built in apps like xbox, cortana, maps and other useless shit.

Windows 7 wasn’t perfect but it was by far better than 8 or 10, but because Windows 7 is no longer supported or sold I had to “upgrade” to windows 10 when getting a new PC, and I hate it.

I only upgraded to use Overbridge and I wish I had not bothered, OB only works on windows 10 though. (Aside from mac OS but I won’t even go there)

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#2

Yes, capitalism always provides the most and best options /s.

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#3

Not helped by third parties, producing or upgrading software that requires the latest OS to run, boxing you in and forcing you to upgrade. I have a whole list of things that would be nice, after i upgrade.

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#4

Yes, it sucks, i upgraded too - mainly to have a better CPU for Omnisphere, but all that moving files, installing all plugins, creating new backups was very tedious to setup. I had to try two different thunderbolt audio interfaces until the 2nd one worked. (UAD didnt, Presonous does.)
There is that windows shut up program, which needs to be re run after each software upgrade.
I had to manually alter the power plan via cli, because it kept resetting itself. (And i am not the only one with this “feature” )

https://www.oo-software.com/de/shutup10

I had an anti virus subscription, but they got so annoying with “buy this security” addon - buy this performance boost crap that i thought the virus is the antivirus company. Windows Defender is a ressource hog though. All that power wasted on their enforced crappy updates, which does not bring any benefit. Win XP or Win7 was a lot snappier than 10.

The alternative is OSX which runs now a similar course, breaking stuff with each upgrade, and charging too much for their hw, which is also not modifiable.
I hope that they do Abelton Live for Linux at some point.

The performance boost for Omnisphere is quiet substantial though. I could run 8 - 16 instances, which have several layers. Some of their libary patches are so good - the Sub37 hw libary waveformes are really convincing (ok, the filter isn’t at the same creaminess level.) but for having a quiet similar sound, its very very cool. - if you haven’t tried Omnsiphere you should.

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#6

Only solution I can see is a dedicated offline Mac/PC that never connects to the internet at all - with a view to keeping it running that way until kingdom come. Tricky tho’

Certainly kiboshes any fantasies about SAS or other subscription nonsense…

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#7

Is it possible to ditch the computer entirely ? I’'m not going to do it but it sure would be tempting.

#8

i’m running a mac pro from 2009 with a GPU from 2015 and it’s fine, runs dozens or reaper tracks with VST’s all over the place. No complaints. I do kind of dread the day this thing shits on me and I have to buy a new computer tho.

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#9

Yeah I can use my old win7 laptop still with no issues, unless I want to run modern software, which does not support w7 any more.

I did for a few years, but for certain tasks I find it useful still, mainly batch processing, naming, organising, editing, etc. I don’t use a DAW though.

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#10

Miserable git.

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#11

Got a 2012 macbook pro that I use daily with no issues. 9 years old and still going strong

No other bit of tech has came close to giving me my moneys worth

Apart from maybe my casio watch I’ve owned for over 20 years. Best £25 I’ve ever spent :slight_smile: :grinning:

8 Likes
#12

I’m almost there.
I use my laptop about twice a year, for firmware updates and moving samples to/from samplers.

It’s great living without windows in my life, but it does mean that I have to block out a whole day if I want to turn my laptop on and do anything other than deal with 4000 updates.

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#13

I do hate windows though. The updates are infuriating

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#14

In concept an OS that could stay evergreen, like (in concept only) Chrome would be perfect. Of course that in reality has it’s own list of lproblems.

#16

There are a few options that I might look into, although not sure if they are viable yet.

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#17

I;ve been using windows since about windows 98. It’s never been as stable as windows 10 is currently.

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#18

And the decline in quality tracks the introduction of invasive requirements: phone#, credit card, etc. Hey, whose fucking computer is this anyways?

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#19

@hostbody @plastic_pizza @muzka
If it has a hard-disk in, that’s probably about to die. Make a backup, and replace it with an SSD.

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#20

This is exactly why I stopped using a computer to make music. Windows 7 was fine. My machine died, could only get a windows 10 machine. You know the rest.

Computers these days suck.

They used to be useful.

My synths samplers and drum machines always work, all the time, just they way they are supposed to. That is what a computer is supposed to do !

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#21

I can’t agree enough. As a programmer by profession, for 20 years now, software quality has declined over that period, AND IT CAN’t ALL BE ME.

No One Cares About Software Quality is a decent post about part of the problem. But yeah, software sucks. But hardware is software these days. My M:C has had loads of comedy glitches this last week (mainly timing based, embedded realtime is hard). I guess the mother of all software issues in recent history is the 737?

I used to try and do audio programming on linux, with SuperCollider, and it was just tears. I tried audio on Windows, and it failed. But my old MacPro from 2009 can run ableton live faultlessly.

I would council anyone making music on computers to use Macs. It’s kind of sad.

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#22

I agree with pretty much every word, but I have given up this rant about 10 years ago. Back then I was bitching about how ugly and bloated OS X was compared to MacOS 9. Of course I wasn’t hailing OS 9 every morning when I was using it…

I decided long ago that I will pay the Apple-Tax and that it is a better compromise than saving on the machine and dealing with Windows daily. For us music/audio people computers over-promise and under-deliver constantly, but even after massively under-delivering the value for money is incredible and getting better all the time. Try to recreate fucking Garage band in hardware in you are up in the 5 digit price point. How much would 16 instances of Omnisphere cost to make in hardware? Think several times the cost of a Waldorf Iridium? 4 instances of your favorite reverb would cost like 4 Eventide Spaces? It’s a pact with the devil that we need to resist or learn to live with.

For the vast majority of computer users who mostly use Microsoft Office and a browser these updates are lovely. People who buy a PC for Overbridge do not register as a blip on the radar for Microsoft or Apple.

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