New Mac Pro? I’m waiting patiently

[Walter Soyka]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Have any Windows users had to do disaster recovery (like a bonked OS or something similar) on Windows yet?”

I have been cloning and restoring Windows PCs that we’ve used for some specialty applications for years. It works.

[Jeremy Garchow] “How about if your desktop dies and your laptop is functioning, can you boot your desktop via your laptop?”

Target disk mode doesn’t exist on PCs like it does on a Mac, so no, you can’t just connect two computers and use one as the boot disk for the other.

[Jeremy Garchow] “How is Windows cloning, these days? From what I can gather, if you don’t have the exact right drivers, it’s a pain in the a$$ (unlike mac where you can boot almost any Mac from any other Mac)”

It’s a piece of cake, and I use essentially the same procedure on Windows that I did on Macs — one clone or image per machine. Once a machine is configured, it’s imaged or cloned for easy recovery.

I use Acronis TrueImage.

If you want to deploy a single machine across heterogeneous machines, that would require third-party deployment software to manage the drivers. Acronis offers such a feature as an add-on to TrueImage, and as a separate product built specifically for deployment.

[Jeremy Garchow] “I like MacOS. I find it easier to use (I also have Windows). I don’t need to tinker with the OS too much, but when I do, I find Linux easier.”

“I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.”

I like OS X, too. A lot. But as I bounce back and forth between platforms, I’m finding that I’m just don’t spend time tinkering with the operating system. I set it and forget it. If I need to change something and I don’t know how to do it — I Google it. Like when Lion turned scrolling upside-down.

I do spend some time in Finder on the Mac and Explorer on the PC, but that’s really most of my exposure to the operating system. I like some things in Finder better (vastly superior list view), but some things in Explorer better (vastly superior folder merging during copy).

[Jeremy Garchow] “The Bootcamp install of Windows 7 was one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever had to do. Bootcamp was great, Windows was terrible.”

I’ve installed BootCamp on 4 Macs, and I can’t recall any problems. That said, I certainly believe you ran into them. The process is pretty finicky.

Of course, this would not be an issue buying a Windows workstation from any of the big workstation vendors.

[Jeremy Garchow] “As someone who has to “maintain” 5 working edit systems, I find MacOS to be a much more pleasurable experience.”

Fair. We’ve discussed this before, and I understand why OS X is a good choice for you. I’m not trying to convince you to switch.

I’m just trying to open people’s minds about Windows a little bit. I myself was very close-minded about Windows, even though I had to use it pretty regularly for some specialty applications. It wasn’t until I actually forced myself to try my entire workflow from start to finish on a PC — really living in Windows for a little while, instead of doing the creative on Macs and the final preparation and display management on PCs — that I was able to appreciate the benefits.

It’s not unlike FCP7 and FCPX. You can’t appreciate what FCPX does right if you keep trying to use it the way you used FCP7.

You might have to relearn a few things (like how to clone a Windows system instead of how to clone a Mac OS X system), but punching error messages into Google or asking for troubleshooting help on the COW works just as well from a PC as it does from a Mac.

[Jeremy Garchow] “I know, perhaps I am a weenie, but I do not think it’s as easy as “insert DVD and install”. Where the rubber meets the road is disaster recovery. Things work great right up unit they don’t. I’d love to hear real world Windows disaster stories if anyone has them.”

I think it is pretty much as easy as insert DVD and install. On a couple of my systems that travel for use on-site at client events, it’s standard operating procedure to restore their recovery image when they come back (to restore settings and make sure all sensitive client material is removed).

Back in the bad old days of Windows XP, I restored a cloned image onto a system that had been infected with virus from a client’s USB stick while I was on-site. I turned the machine off, inserted the recovery boot CD, plugged in the USB hard drive with the saved, known-good image, booted it back up, and let it do its thing.

Recovery works.

Things working great until they don’t is true of both platforms. I think we’ve all got the scars to prove that.

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

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Walter Soyka] “Things working great until they don’t is true of both platforms. I think we’ve all got the scars to prove that.”

A colleague of mine had a disaster when trying to download and install Lion (without my permission of course, nyuk nyuk nyuk). In the middle of the install, kernel panic!!!! Shite.

I took the machine, plugged in the USB stick of Lion that I had made, rebooted and it continued installing right where it left off before the panic. Once installed, everything has been just fine. No data loss, no reformat, and everything has been running.

I know people have clowned Lion, I do not. Yes, there’s some weird consumerist things going on like the reverse scroll to match an iDevice, but it seems there’s also a lot going on behind the scenes.

It is this level of OS that I enjoy.

I am not saying that Windows doesn’t have similar features, maybe it does. Of course, you will probably say that downloading an OS is stupid to begin with and you’d have a point.

[Walter Soyka]

[Jeremy Garchow] “A colleague of mine had a disaster when trying to download and install Lion (without my permission of course, nyuk nyuk nyuk). In the middle of the install, kernel panic!!!! Shite. I took the machine, plugged in the USB stick of Lion that I had made, rebooted and it continued installing right where it left off before the panic. Once installed, everything has been just fine. No data loss, no reformat, and everything has been running.”

That’s cool.

[Jeremy Garchow] “I am not saying that Windows doesn’t have similar features, maybe it does. Of course, you will probably say that downloading an OS is stupid to begin with and you’d have a point.”

I have no idea what would happen if Windows BSODed during an OS install, but Windows does have a feature for repairing a system from the OS install disk. I’d think that the install could be recovered, but I don’t know for sure.

I actually don’t have a problem with downloading an OS. It’s just software — why shouldn’t you be able to download it to install?

It’s fortunate for your colleague that you had the foresight to make that boot disk for Lion. Someone with only one machine and no Jeremy G. around to help would have been hosed without physical install media.

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

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Walter Soyka] “It’s fortunate for your colleague that you had the foresight to make that boot disk for Lion. Someone with only one machine and no Jeremy G. around to help would have been hosed without physical install media.”

Well, we all do what we can to make sure when disaster strikes (and you never know when) that we are covered as much as we can possibly be, right?

In actuality, I made the Lion installer because I knew that it was going to be boring waiting for that thing to download every time we needed to install Lion. There’s instructions out there to make your own USB stick, but you have to do it BEFORE you actually install Lion (but right after you download it).

It’s really easy. 😉

Jeremy

[Andrew Richards]

[Walter Soyka] “However, most of us here don’t need UNIX. We need things like stability, performance, and security. For a long time, UNIX had them and Windows didn’t, but I’m arguing that’s no longer true.

My main point is this: Creatives can do their work on the Windows platform.

If you think you need to work on a Mac because you’re a creative, or if you think you can’t work on a PC because you’re not a Microsoft IT nerd, you might have an outdated view of the Windows platform.”

Yep. But you gotta admit, this has really only been true since Win7 came out 2.5 years ago. Prior to that, XP was really creaking and Vista was… Vista. It isn’t like Windows didn’t earn that bad reputation it has been recently shaking off.

Best,
Andy

[Walter Soyka]

[Andrew Richards] “Yep. But you gotta admit, this has really only been true since Win7 came out 2.5 years ago. Prior to that, XP was really creaking and Vista was… Vista. It isn’t like Windows didn’t earn that bad reputation it has been recently shaking off.”

Wholeheartedly agree.

I suffered with machines on Windows XP, but that was only a small part of my long-standing distaste for Windows. For context, I ran OS/2 (!) on my IBM desktop in the 1990s because it could run Windows apps but offered a well-designed UI and preemptive multitasking. I also fiddled with Amiga, BeOS, and Coherent.

Acceptance of Windows is very, very new to me.

I’m just encouraging people to evaluate Windows today with an open mind, the same as others here encourage them to evaluate FCPX with an open mind. It’s not the same as what came before.

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

[Thomas Frank]

I have been jumping from Windows to Irix to Linux to Windows and then to Mac.
You are right it is the tool that gets your job done, but the tools work much better on Mac then Windows and faster… not meaning Render time and etc… faster working on the platforms.

If you take OSX away (why would they?) give me Irix back! 😛

[Otto Preminger]

Would you be so kind and help me regarding hardware choice for PFClean 2013?
At this moment I can see some improvements with GPU enabled-ATI HD 5770. Is the Nvida better choice thanks to CUDA?
Also what will be difference between Intel Xeon Quad Core X3230 2.66GHz 8MB 1066MHz and i7 920?
Thank you in advance.