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Mac Pro refresh at WWDC?
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[Chris Harlan] “A lot of the fear, too, comes from dealing with consumer iterations of Windows. Once upon a time, I had very pleasant relations with NT, 2000, and XP. True, you had to know how to use them, but they were very good and very stable in their time.”
Agreed! I also think a lot of the outdated misconceptions are also based on lower-end systems with poor hardware, shoddy drivers, and useless, performance-sapping shovelware manufacturer pre-loads.
Windows 7 on good hardware is not your father’s PC.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Kevin Patrick] “I was simply responding to the question about whether I had used it. I had. And as I pointed out, I could work with it, but I hope I don’t have to.”
Kevin, I’m not going to try to sell you Windows. If you used it and you don’t like it, then you don’t like, and that’s fine. You brought up some good criticisms of Windows (I think that drive letters are pretty dumb in 2012, too), but did you really approach Windows with an open mind?
We’ve seen this argument over and over on this forum. “I hate FCPX; it doesn’t have projects and sequences. I hate FCPX; it forgets my in and out points. I hate FCPX; it doesn’t have bins.” After a little real use — beyond a cursory glance — you’ll find that the event browser and projects, favorites, and keyword ranges are different ways to fill the same needs.
OS X and Windows do a lot of the same things, but they do them differently. If you try to drive a PC like it were a Mac, it’ll feel weird. If you try to drive a Mac like it were a PC, it’ll feel weird.
If you take a little time to learn them both (and it really doesn’t take that long, especially if you have at least some prior Windows experience), you can switch back and forth all day long and get your work done. Coming from a Mac, your initial position will be that Windows has a lot to learn from OS X, but after a couple weeks, you might even find (like I have) that there are a couple really productive features that Macs could pick up from PCs.
[Kevin Patrick] “Although I would like the OS to either help me be more efficient, or get out of the way. Which I didn’t encounter on my brief journey back.”
Windows can help you be more efficient, and it can get out of your way, which a longer and more open journey might have shown you.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Walter Soyka] “I also think a lot of the outdated misconceptions are also based on lower-end systems with poor hardware, shoddy drivers, and useless, performance-sapping shovelware manufacturer pre-loads.
“Yes, definitely. Windows had a freedom to it that exposed its lower end to all sorts of crap. And, early “plug-and-play” was a nightmare. Frankly, I liked the whole IRQ system, but it required that you actually understand your computer. God forbid.
And yes–the shovelware of the consumer OS, from 95 on, was awful, and often irresponsibly loaded. Fortunately, you didn’t see any of that on the Pro-OS side.
Its funny. This reminds me of the talks I used to have with Avid-only editors about how “unresponsive” FCP was. It took a while, but it finally dawned on me that most–if not all–of these guys had only tried FCP with a firewire i/o, and that they had no idea that an AJA or Decklink hookup would make editing just as responsive.
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[Chris Harlan] “Windows had a freedom to it that exposed its lower end to all sorts of crap. And, early “plug-and-play” was a nightmare.”
This is a big deal. Looking back at poor Vista, a big part of the problem is that Microsoft wanted it installed on every system, and you actually could. MSFT did a decent job of pointing out which features were and weren’t going to show up on which machines, but that was a lot to expect most people to care about. To put it charitably, not every expectation was met on the majority of machines that weren’t very new.
As frustrating as it to be to sometimes have to buy a new Mac if you want a new OS, it’s one aspect of a smoother Mac OS experience: incompatible combinations simply aren’t allowed.
See? I said something nice about Apple. 🙂 Something to be said for “we know best” when they actually do.
But as others have pointed out, the 64-bit version of W7 on a properly configured machine is easy for most openers of adult beverage cans to master fast, even if tolerating the experience might require the drinking of said adult beverages.
[Chris Harlan] “This reminds me of the talks I used to have with Avid-only editors about how “unresponsive” FCP was. It took a while, but it finally dawned on me that most–if not all–of these guys had only tried FCP with a firewire i/o, and that they had no idea that an AJA or Decklink hookup would make editing just as responsive.”
Speaking as somebody who spent a lot of time around Avid editors, some of them could be pretty inflexible, and so focused on editing that they didn’t need to be especially tech-savvy.
Once Media Composer became cross-platform just before the turn of the century, it wasn’t uncommon to take a tech support call, ask someone which computer they were working on and be told “Mitsubishi.” That was the name on the two monitors that were part of the standard configuration, editors saw the nameplate all day every day, and it was the only name that popped into their mind besides Avid.
In a little fairness, it also speaks to the extent to which, once you’re in a comfortable editing environment, the OS stuff doesn’t matter much.
Seriously, if you can learn, say, After Effects, nothing in your entire life seems hard. Changing a tire, CPR, adding a new circuit to your home electrical system: after AE, it’s all just “stuff.” Even FCP is challenging enough to make most home theater set-ups feel simple in comparison.
New OS? Please. Piece of cake. EASIER than cake because Windows 7 is gluten free. They should probably put that on the box.
Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou -
[Tim Wilson] “Speaking as somebody who spent a lot of time around Avid editors, some of them could be pretty inflexible, and so focused on editing that they didn’t need to be especially tech-savvy. “
Yeah, I was one of them. I became “tech savvy” (to the lame extent that I am) when this business became a wild west free-for-all. It was born out of necessity. Otherwise I would still be happily scratching my chin and spending a lot more of my time worrying about what I really get paid for.
Tim
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[TImothy Auld] ” It was born out of necessity. Otherwise I would still be happily scratching my chin and spending a lot more of my time worrying about what I really get paid for.”
LOL! I certainly didn’t mean this in a bad way. I’m glad you didn’t take it that way. It’s like the song says, “I wish I didn’t know NOW what I didn’t know THEN.”
Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyou -
Brilliant idea! Even better to take a bunch of foreign editors on the road trip through America with the final goal to make it big in LA.
But not sure it will end up as a comedy :-))Best Carsten
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Gary, Belkin has revised the dock to include eSATA and USB3.0:
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/05/belkin-upgrades-thunderbolt-express-dock-with-usb-3-0-and-esata-bumps-price-to-399-99/Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Gary, sorry for redundant post re Belkin. I didn’t notice you had started a new thread re Belkin as I was buried reading in this thread!
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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[Rick Lang] “Gary, sorry for redundant post re Belkin. I didn’t notice you had started a new thread re Belkin as I was buried reading in this thread!”
No, that’s cool! Yes, I’m interested in the Belkin. Kind of expensive, but it looks very nice so far. Of course, it all depends on how “Plug and Play” it turns out to be when people actually get it in their hands.
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