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More gasoline on the fire
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[Craig Seeman] “I keep hearing about Tekserve selling Windows computers from random places but there’s not even the slightest hint.”
Call Matt Cohen, head of the Pro dept. at Tekserve. He’ll give you more than a hint. He was at the Adobe NYC roadshow, Tekserve was a sponsor, and he was showing off the REd-HP workstation under the Tekserve banner.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Craig Seeman] “So the ONE place they can mention Windows as a positive attribute, they don’t. It’s as if it might scare away the customers.”
Quite true, they are worried about scaring away Apple customers. At the demo they emphasized how little you have to interact with windows and they configured the opening screen to look as much like OSX as they could get.
This is not strange because they are selling to an Apple audience, and it’s pretty well established that as a group these folks are terrified of change, so a little hand holding and soothing seems to be in order.
On the other hand, most cross platform folks don’t seem to give a sh*t and just want the most bang for the buck.
Go figure.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Walter Soyka] “Sorry for jumping on you, mate. The cheekiness whooshed over my head.”
[Walter Soyka] “32-bit — ew.”
Granted my attitude towards their “announcement” is based on direct prior experience I’ve had withe them but they do provide significant business support for OSX integration. I’ve seen no history of WIndows integration in broader workflows and their view of Windows 7 was simply as a “plugin” for ancillary functions to Macs to the point where they were even hobbling their bootcamp and virtualization support (IMHO).
When such a company announces their single PC based product and doesn’t even mention the OS and their support of it in a broader workflow, I can’t help but be suspicious. While I hold them in very high regard for their Mac support I’m skeptical of their Windows support. They don’t seem to show any history or even current desire to support WIndows only or Windows dominant facilities. My own guess is that their approach would be to sell a “RED PC” for an otherwise Mac environment. Yes just my guess but there’s nothing to indicate otherwise on their business site.
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[Craig Seeman] “Given they’re a VAR I suspect the only reason they’re doing this is that they don’t have a viable MacPro to sell to professionals. “
Yes, absolutely. That says it all. They’re in business, and as much as the would prefer to sell an OSX solution, there are none to be had for a certain market segment. So rather than pray for rain, they’re digging a well, because in the end it’s water we need, not the future idea of a more perfect hydration device.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Herb Sevush] “Yes, absolutely. That says it all. They’re in business, and as much as the would prefer to sell an OSX solution, there are none to be had for a certain market segment. So rather than pray for rain, they’re digging a well, because in the end it’s water we need, not the future idea of a more perfect hydration device.”
As someone who says that a closed system is business insanity, have a real good look at that HP Red thing.
If you aren’t shooting Red, it is way more overpriced than the more flexible MacPro you were “forced” to buy and only really helps to spend that much dough if you’re shooting and posting red only.
A quadro 6000 GPU would serve most editors much better than a proprietary red rocket and red card readers.
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[Herb Sevush] “On the other hand, most cross platform folks don’t seem to give a sh*t and just want the most bang for the buck.”
Yes, exactly. That that wasn’t their position towards Windows is where I base my sentiments about them. In 2008 when I bought my MacPro, it was a good bootcamp candidate. While not the most beastly beast on the market it certainly was a capable 8 Core Windows computer and I wasn’t going to have it hobbled by a 32 bit Windows OS.
These days I can’t say any Mac desktop is the equivalent. The iMac being early 2011 vintage and MacPro 2010. Until something gets updated, one would get more bang for the buck buying a WIndows computer in addition to buying a Mac . . . and as far as buying a Mac Desktop, my purchases are on hold until Apple shows a new Desktop update (even an iMac). This coming from someone who obviously likes FCPX yet, has no issue at all working in WIndows as there’s plenty of things happening there that don’t run as well or at all on Mac OS.
I don’t doubt that this position is part of what pushed Tekserve but I don’t see anything else beyond this one computer which shows they’ve embraced a cross platform professional environment. Your description of the show matches what I’d expect their position would be in this. This doesn’t sound like a Windows VAR.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “If you aren’t shooting Red, it is way more overpriced than the more flexible MacPro you were “forced” to buy and only really helps to spend that much dough if you’re shooting and posting red only. “
I don’t shoot Red, I have no interest specifically in that workstation. HP workstations are too highly priced for my wallet, although you are getting incredible quality.
What is significant to me is that Tekserve, the biggest all Mac VAR in NYC is now getting behind a Windows workstation, primarily because they don’t think Apple is now, or ever again, going to serve the needs of a certain market. That doesn’t mean they are dropping Macs, but for the first time ever they are acknowledging that for X% of their clients Apple does not have a proper solution.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Herb Sevush] “What is significant to me is that Tekserve, the biggest all Mac VAR in NYC is now getting behind a Windows workstation, primarily because they don’t think Apple is now, or ever again, going to serve the needs of a certain market. That doesn’t mean they are dropping Macs, but for the first time ever they are acknowledging that for X% of their clients Apple does not have a proper solution.”
It is essentially a turn key operation for the red faithful.
That’s about as far as it goes.
You could have a very similar config on a 2010 MacPro, the card readers will be external. The red rocket does most of the work here.
While it looks like a sweet machine, it is not a generic windows work station.
If you call TekServe and you want windows but don’t shoot/post Red, you’re not going to get very far.
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[Craig Seeman] “That that wasn’t their position towards Windows is where I base my sentiments about them. In 2008 when I bought my MacPro”
Quite right, you couldn’t find a more Mac-centric VAR in the world than Tekserve, they are more Apple than most Apple stores. I think a lot of their customers think they are an Apple store, with a retro look. But like for the rest of us, this last year has raised some questions in their Pro department, and the answers they are coming up with are more than a mite surprising.
[Craig Seeman] “Your description of the show matches what I’d expect their position would be in this. This doesn’t sound like a Windows VAR.”
I doubt they will ever be a Windows VAR. They will always push most of their customers to Apple products. But the fact is they are embracing the Red-HP and trying to find ways to make it accessible for their OSX clientele.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Jeremy Garchow] “As someone who says that a closed system is business insanity, have a real good look at that HP Red thing.
If you aren’t shooting Red, it is way more overpriced than the more flexible MacPro you were “forced” to buy and only really helps to spend that much dough if you’re shooting and posting red only.
A quadro 6000 GPU would serve most editors much better than a proprietary red rocket and red card readers.”
The RED z820 comes with either a Quadro 4000, Q5000 OR you can also upgrade to a 6000 when you buy (not afterwards and toss the old card out). If you don’t shoot RED there is obviously no reason to buy the RED edition, you’d simply but the regular z820 with all possible GPU etc. options you could possible want. How on earth is a MacPro more flexible with regards to IO, speed and upgradability?
If it’s the price, get a z800 with Westmare Chips and you still have more expandability, upgradability, io and GPU options.——
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