Heartland

Any one out there an opinion on these? Ta.
Also, is it worth having more than 3GB of RAM presently? etc.

Oh, and I'd be interested to hear about hassles
with ext. hard drives & other storage ...
(the price of these seems to have stagnated recently,
or does anyone know differently)?

Ditto JPEG vs JPEG2000
& CS3 vs older versions of Adobe Photoshop etc.

I have my own experiences and thoughts naturally,
but these would doubtless be 'blown into the weeds' by a wiser authority ...

Some of you lot will be lucky enough to use optically connected broadband too but some of us rely on wireless (or even BT if we're really unlucky) - This is of interest to me as I know many Scandinavian countries are already vastly superior to the UK here, unless one happens to live in Ebbsfleet for example, eh?!

Sometimes there is no "best solution". The answer depends on questions you should ask yourself, like "what are you up to do" or "how many money would you like to spend"... it's like buying a car^^

In the past - MAC was prefered for audio and video editing - today you'll found very good software solutions for both os and the hardware platforms has become almost similar (indeed with a little cheating, MacOSX runs on a common personal computer). Conclusion: You should choose your os based on the os support of your favourite applications.

DocSommer wrote:Sometimes there is no "best solution". The answer depends on questions you should ask yourself, like "what are you up to do" or "how many money would you like to spend"... it's like buying a car^^

In the past - MAC was prefered for audio and video editing - today you'll found very good software solutions for both os and the hardware platforms has become almost similar (indeed with a little cheating, MacOSX runs on a common personal computer). Conclusion: You should choose your os based on the os support of your favourite applications.

& Thanks - Yeah, I probably have too many Windows applications now to 'cross-over', but my concern too is that many of them won't run under Vista yet - A stripped-down PC with XP runs much faster surely (for now)?

I need to use all my image applications (with some audio too), so Vista seems pointless? I want big fast hard drives with wide buffers and a PC with lots of RAM and a top Graphics card - the usual wish list I suppose, and my present m/c is tolerably swift for now ... Probably better to spend £££/$$$ (or Euros etc) on Flash Memory and USB powered external hard drives perhaps? ...

On Northrhine-Westphalian local TV (That's Krautland, realm of evil for you) there's a very old and by now nearly legendary program called Computer Club. The folks who make it really know what they talk about. In the latest edition they demonstrated the speech control gimmick of Vista-And how it entirely failed to work. One of the moderators then told about how proud he was that he finally had managed to install some software under Vista. Microsoft apparetly will have to shed a lot more sweat until they have that system really running smoothly.
@reactiv8: To evaluate, try the life system discs:
Ubuntu Linux
Knoppix
FreeBSD (The download for the iso is somewhere in there Yes, I am a lazy dirtbag! )
(Edit: Not just as lazy.671MB of FreeBSD's 2.01 edition.)
For the usage, if unknown: Burn the downloaded system on CD. Restart. Start the BIOS of your 'pooter, set the first boot device to cdrom, 2nd HDD. put the CD into the CD drive, restart. Then the cunning wee life system will start. Life CDs work without touching the hard disc, so there is absolutely no danger for the system you have installed. (If you start installing from the life system, that of course changes! ) I had a major disc crash in August and was without harddisc on my computer for over a month. Knoppix worked great with no disc at all! The advantage of Knoppix is that it usually has all three Linux desktop (KDE, Gnome and X-Window Makers (Subdivided into fluxbox, XFCE, IceWM etc. Lots of names, I know. They all are explained in Wikipedia.) versions included and you can switch them inmidst the running system. Of course loading from CD is slower than loading from HD, but that's just slower starting programs as result.
Still the greatest shortcoming of Linux for me is that there is quite some stuff to learn if you want to really operate the system. You get a much more powerfull system than the windows user. The few tricks I can do on my system are quite neat already, and I didn't yet really care for getting into the matter.
Get ahead and try it!

As Graphics software the Gimp is the default one in the Unix/Linux/BSD-word. I made all graphics in the official thread of the year using the Gimp, and me, I'm an anti-geek in all matters of graphics, design, good taste and artistry. So the Gimp seems to be rather a handy tool once you got yourself accustomed.
This one here merely was a dramatic picture of a cookie in the oven:

Looks rather nice now, aye? (Except the text under the pic is not really centered. Heavy chating with modgodesses can distract you from details such as this when editing pictures. )
Did anyone see that gorgeous wasp's face in the centre of the picture?

Final note: In the latest edition of that Computer Club, they talked about a mobile computer from 1983/84. It had a power consumption of 0,8 to 1,1 Watt. The Quadcore-twin-GeForce computer a girfriend bought which cost her more than I ever paid for a car requires a power supply of 800 Watt. Tomorrow's state of the art computer.
Wait! Wasn't there something about holes in the stratosphere, CO2-emission being a bad idea etc.? So why the frog does it take a minimum of 2GHz and vast RAMs and power consumption of small cooking plates to bloody watch some bloody youtube videos, write some bloody letters and surf? If you take the sum of the computers running and estimate the amount of CO2 that gets spit out for that, you can probably fly a 747 a couple of times around the world to get the equivalent polution. This is development going wrong, if you ask me.

macbook pro all the way...

i used vista for about 6 months and tbh i found it a lot nicer to use than xp, but it moves the more advanced settings around so if you are an experienced windows user you will get a bit cheesed off at first trying to hunt down all those things that have been hidden from the average joe

also, vista is a resource hog so you will need a beast of a machine to get the most from it.

i have had an intel-based 15" mackbook pro ("MBP") - 2.33ghz core 2 duo processor, 3gb of ram running OS X 10.5 ("leopard") for about a year now - its one of the fastest things i've ever seen

ironically, because its an intel-based laptop it can run all versions of windows natively (ie: on a different partition) - it even comes with apple's "bootcamp" partitioning software & boot manager

i had vista installed on my MBP on a separate partition for a few months and it absolutely flew. using vista's inbuilt 'user experience rating' it gave my laptop 4.5 out of 5

i work with a few guys that have brand new pc laptops of varying makes & models and the best rating any of those ever got from vista was 3

there's nothing you can do on an xp or vista machine that you cant do on a mac. and if you DO manage to find something, you can run all versions of windows (or linux for that matter) in a virtual machine using vmware or parallels and install your pc apps in there

alternatively, if you need a bit more speed than a VM-based installation can provide, you can 'bootcamp' it and run windows xp or vista natively, and just reboot into windows when you need to (*shudder*)

seriously, macs are a bit more expensive than pcs. but given that they can be macs AND pcs combined, and that they are stunning machines, they are well worth it

i'd prefer ms-dos 3.3 to xp.

i prefer xp to vista.

i prefer vista to mac.

i prefer mac to...err, nothing.

in all seriousness.

alternatively, if you need a bit more speed than a VM-based installation can provide, you can 'bootcamp' it and run windows xp or vista natively, and just reboot into windows when you need to (*shudder*)

Probably the best solution if you need both systems for hardware eating applications.

seriously, macs are a bit more expensive than pcs. but given that they can be macs AND pcs combined, and that they are stunning machines, they are well worth it Wink

a bit too much expensive and not everybody likes that trendy toy design - remember that this is what you are paying more money for^^

I want big fast hard drives with wide buffers

A raid 0 system should do it - I'm using raid and it's a pleasure to deal with big files. But on the other hand it's more risky, because if one HDD or the controller gets broken, it would be very complex to restore the corrupted content.

I'm using an additional removable hard drive (S-ATA connected) for backup purposes.

USB harddrives are good for backupping, storage or moving data but the speed isn't as good as an internal connected harddisk.

eotunun wrote: Still the greatest shortcoming of Linux for me is that there is quite some stuff to learn if you want to really operate the system.

Linux (and the BSDs) are free Unix systems. It is not some kind of "free Windows". If you do not know what Unix is, or why you would want it, buy a Mac, or suffer endless agony with Windoze. However, don't (try to) install Linux and then complain to everyone that it doesn't work anything like Windows.

Linux is for people who want to know how their computer works.

Mac OS is for people who don't want to know how their computer works.

FreeBSD is for people who want to know why their computer doesn't work.

Windows is for people who don't want to know why their computer doesn't work.

nowayjose wrote:

eotunun wrote: Still the greatest shortcoming of Linux for me is that there is quite some stuff to learn if you want to really operate the system.

Linux (and the BSDs) are free Unix systems. It is not some kind of "free Windows". If you do not know what Unix is, or why you would want it, buy a Mac, or suffer endless agony with Windoze. However, don't (try to) install Linux and then complain to everyone that it doesn't work anything like Windows.

Ubuntu is even easier to use in daily life than Windows, if you ask me. You can't pull wild stunts as non-informed user, but just make sure there is one administrator and a user set up, and go ahead. Surfing, hearing music, watching videos and editing texts are no problemo at all.
No geeking around with Virus scanners and firewalls, that all comes on board.

@markfiend:

Thank y'all!
- There's a lot there for me to ponder on, so I'll get back to you ...

Vista (or XP?) running alongside OSX on a Mac seems like a very sensible option if my head can take it! Could I have Linux too? i.e. a Mac with some 'grunt' and 3 partitions? - Is this feasible or just a silly idea? I'm still worried though about my beloved Anquet Maps installing ok - and what about SilkyPix and all my Canon software? - Eek!

Still hoping that some of you might know about the availablity & price of ext. hard disks presently? I've been waiting over 6 weeks for a Western Digital from Amazon - What gives here? My trusty 320GB Toshiba has given me no problems in 18 mnths, but was expensive when new. More space he cries! Solid state memory seems to be getting larger and cheaper all the time too - Are large capacity SS Portables coming soon? Low power consumption (heat), size, rigidity etc. I'm ready!

I appreciate this feedback - Invaluable for some of us! ...
The thought of continuing this thread appeals!
- Anyone up for it?

- TA!

markfiend wrote:Linux is for people who want to know how their computer works.
Mac OS is for people who don't want to know how their computer works.
FreeBSD is for people who want to know why their computer doesn't work.
Windows is for people who don't want to know why their computer doesn't work.

No prizes for guessing your preference eh?
Seriously though, is Windows/OS/Linux in partitions on a Mac feasible/pointless/crazy/useful etc.?
- Some of us need to make the (painful) transition, but slowly please?!

My $0.02 worth...

Build your own PC using the best components you can afford. It's a piece of p!ss, shouldn't take more than about an hour to put the bits together, then probably the rest of the day to install everything else. If you're a gamer, buy a decent processor and graphics card (you'll wish you did later), put in at least 2 hard drives: one for the operating system (would recommend VinDoez EksPee) and one for everything else (applications, games). Shell out for another one to keep general files on (music, photographs, etc.).

Macs are lovely but when they go wrong you often need to have a very expensive visit to your local mac shop rather than 15 minutes tinkering round in the guts of something you built yourself with a sonic screwdriver in one hand and a martini in the other.

Why build it yourself? The same reason you cook at home instead of eating at Wendy's all the time. You know what's in it, and you can season it to taste, that's why.

I prefer to customize my computer, too

However, that decision-making what components you choose is rather more complex than screwing and plugging the stuff together (it's like playing with lego bricks^^).

Macs are lovely but when they go wrong you often need to have a very expensive visit to your local mac shop rather than 15 minutes tinkering round in the guts of something you built yourself with a sonic screwdriver in one hand and a martini in the other.

that is the only downside... but applecare could help lessen the impact

Mac OS is for people who don't want to know how their computer works

i resent that

is Windows/OS/Linux in partitions on a Mac feasible/pointless/crazy/useful

tbh i have never tried using 3 partitions, but i read somewhere that was a specific order you had to do things in - i think you need to use bootcamp create a windows partition, install windows & boot into that, then create a linux partition within your windows one... I THINK! if you really want tp know the best place to look would be either the apple support forums ( http://discussions.apple.com/ ) or the 'insanely mac' forum ( http://forum.insanelymac.com/ )

as for useful - definitely

the only gotcha to look out for is that when you're booted into mac os the windows partition is read-only

and when you're booted into windows, you will need something like macdrive ( http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/ ) to be able to access you mac filesystem

none of that is essential, but it can come in very handy when you need access to your documents from one OS while in another

i've never tried linux as a native install (i have an ubuntu 7 virtual machine and it runs find under vmware and parallels) but there is a bit of mac freeware that lets it read ext3 drives, so it could/should be possible.

and mac os isn't a toy. its free bsd-based ffs. its got a full *nix shell underneath that lovely gui.

in all honesty, since switching to a mac a year ago after years of windows use (starting with v3.1 and going through 95, 98, 2000, me, xp and vista) i have found that for the first time i don't feel like i'm trying to fight my computer. it seems like we're trying to achieve the same thing...

what you might find is that you need a subtle mind-shift when it comes to what applications you use.

apart from the obvious big programs (logic, final cut, etc) and the 'suites' of programs on a mac like iLife, iWork, adobe creative suite (photoshop, illustrator, etc), ms office (word, excel, etc), what macs do best is allow developers to write small, simple, usually freeware, applications that do a single task very very well, and with a consistent interface design.

i find that i have a myriad of such apps installed. each one is tiny and does a single task very cleanly and very simply. for example:

adium - IM client
cleanapp - nice, simple app uninstaller
flickruploadr - batch flickr image uploader
handbrake: dvd ripper
idefrag - defrag your hard drive (not really required as the filesystem works very differently to a pc's and looks after itself... kinda)
instantshot - screengrabbing
ishowu - screen movie capture
max - mp3 ripper
onyx - system maintenance
quicksilver - no way to describe
textwrangler - great text editor
transmission - bittorrent client
vlc - multi-format media player

it takes a bit of getting used to the idea that you cant just get a handful of large (bloated ) apps that do everything - part of the battle is remembering what each one does

i loves 'em i does.

the macbook air is a bit too mental for me though

blimey. did i type all that?

Quiff Boy wrote:blimey. did i type all that?

Eek! - You sure did! - & 'twas interesting stuff!
- I am now attempting a suitable mind-shift ...
(always fun, even when just put to recreational use!)

I always knew Mac & Linux were sensible, but I'm like the millions of others Mr Gates currently has in an armlock ... I can still escape his grip, but as I mentioned previously, I think the transition will have to be gradual! Trial and error/Suck it and see etc. All in a good cause, but these things take time/motivation, oh and usually £££/$$$/Euros etc.

So, I guess that I am the only person still using Anquet Maps (Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50000) - y'all use GPS now I suppose? However, does anyone use Anquet Maps under OS or Linux? Ditto Photo software ... ? I know I could go out and buy a MacBookPro, install a partition and buy missing OS software before testing it all ... Presumably all the Linux applications are floating about in the web waiting to be downloaded and tested? Lots of fun for sure, but also a bit daunting without a visit to the bank manager or flashing my plastic around, oh and a very deep breath!

Meanwhile, I had read with interest too that the Norwegian Govt. has declared that all govt. software will be Open Access in future, so I guess that they see a future in Linux without being tied to any particular commercial software?! A bold move indeed - If it works out, they will steal an huge lead on everyone else ... Any Scandinavian Heartlanders know more about this please?

In summary, would I be right in thinking that all Mac compatible software is copyright, whilst Linux apps are free to all and can be openly shared anywhere - here on Heartland for example?! I would dearly like to try these out, without it all ending in digital chaos with much cursing and a shiny new MacBook flying out of the window ... I saw too that Asus have introduced an ultraportable Linux powered laptop for £220! - It looks a bit flimsy and slow, but would be a good introduction for luddites like me, eh?!

nah, mac has shareware and freeware just like all other platforms

http://www.macupdate.com/
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/
etc

and even for the 'paid for' stuff, http://www.mac-bb.org/ is a VERY interesting site

and fwiw, i use photoshop cs3 for image editing, which comes as part of the adobe creative suite 3. i dont know how suited to phoot work it is, buts its an industry standard for graphic design so it must be ok... and if not, there will be something. image editing has traditionally been more the domain of macs than pcs anyway, so you will possibly find more & better image manipulation tools available for a mac (maybe? blast or markfiend will be able to assist you more on that one i think)

when googling for software, just add the word 'mac' to the start of your query - its all there





you could also add the word 'torrent' to the end of the query, but obviously i cant condone that

Quiff Boy wrote:nah, mac has shareware and freeware just like all other platforms

http://www.macupdate.com/
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/
etc

and even for the 'paid for' stuff, http://www.mac-bb.org/ is a VERY interesting site

and fwiw, i use photoshop cs3 for image editing, which comes as part of the adobe creative suite 3. i dont know how suited to phoot work it is, buts its an industry standard for graphic design so it must be ok... and if not, there will be something. image editing has traditionally been more the domain of macs than pcs anyway, so you will possibly find more & better image manipulation tools available for a mac (maybe? blast or markfiend will be able to assist you more on that one i think)

when googling for software, just add the word 'mac' to the start of your query - its all there

you could also add the word 'torrent' to the end of the query, but obviously i cant condone that

Phew! & thanks again!
- Sounds like Adobe Creative Suite 3 is the laddie for me, but £££s!
- The Boss for photo-work of course
- Would be nice if it was Freeware or Shareware!

Also, out of interest, how large can you go with RAM in your MacBookPro?
Is it possible to put a faster Graphics card in too?
Does your Mac get hot?
Do the batteries last?
Is the screen good?
Can I attach my favourite Logitech remote roller-mouse?
(a V.important consideration!)
Is it true that one's paranoia with viruses and phishing etc. is truly a thing of the past in 'Mac-land'?!?

Meanwhile, I'm collating all of this into my 'Project'
- Which may be of interest to others,
but will surely not win me many friends at Microsoft HQ!

my model of mbp can only go to 3gb (1 x 1gb and 1 x 2gb chip)

the newer ones (released about 6 months or so ago) can go to 4, i gather

i know you can change the grafx cards in the mac pros (the desktop tower) but i dont know about the laptop versions

mac gets slightly warm but then the fans kick in and cool it down. its a lot cooler than the wife's toshiba notebook

battery life averages at about 2.5-3 hours under normal use, but can vary by about an hour depending on what you're doing & how intensive it is. also, the battery capacity and ability to hold charge lessens over time (as with all lithium batteries)

the screen is fab. i have the glossy version which gives superb colour repro (although it can glare a bit if the sun shines on it).. its a trade off - i prefer glossy to standard

i gather the new mbp's have a backlit screen - havent seen one though so have no idea what that involves

i dont know about drivers for the roller mouse tbh - but i would be very surprised if you couldnt. logitech will probably do drivers for mac

virii etc - its a tricky one to answer that one. because the architecture is based on *nix, they arent susceptible to the usual windows nasties

interestingly, there is a school of thought that says as macs become more popular they will start to present a more appealing target for virus authors...

i dont use any AV software, but i do use something called 'little snitch' which is like a firewall monitoring app - it tells you what apps are trying to 'phone home' and asks if you want to let them (a bit like most pc software-based firewalls do)

the only issue around not using AV stuff is that you could, in theory, as your mail client is not AV-aware, unknowingly pass on a virus to other people (eg: windows users) - but if you have any experience with computers at all you tend to be able to spot dodgy stuff a mile off anyway

phishing is a problem regardless of the platform. the 2 main mac browsers - safari & firefox - both come measures designed to help you (firefox's solution is just a platform-independent plugin and thus is identical to how it works on a pc running firefox)

regarding general security, leopard comes with a pretty neat firewall. the interface to the firewall can be a bit tricky, but you can 3rd party apps that replace that and give you a much more fine-grained level of control over its config, putting it on a par with any decent linux firewall (try NoobProof or WaterRoof from www.hanynet.com)

i'm not trying to evangelicise about macs, but i've been using one every day for about a year for web development, graphic design, music creation & editing, general office tasks & surfing and they're beautiful.

all the fancy UI stuff that people dismiss as pointless and gimmicky isnt at all - they're actually very well thought out bits of design & animation, and are meant to increase the user's understanding about what is happening. they're not there just for the sake of them.

unless you really do want them not to be (which is where you get the joy of the *nix architecture and can tinker to your heart's content), things are just a hell of a lot simpler on a mac! i would not go back to a windows machine if you paid me

damn, done it again...

i need a hobby

Quiff Boy wrote:damn, done it again...

i need a hobby

All of this is gratefully received!


I hope to put all this knowledge into effect sometime soon! ...
- It is called the MeisterPlan of course! ...
Your experience speaks volumes
to unfortunates still living under the Windows Cloud like me ...
Those who have already taken the plunge
and other long-term Mac & Linux users can look on with pity!



Ooh, all this luvvly white Mac stuff looks v.expensive (Park Cameras website) - MacBookPro 17" 2GB/160GB & iMac 24" & 2.8GHZ - all luvvly jubbly, but I don't want to sell my bike to fund this ... Not a good time to borrow money either, presently?!

Speaking of hobbies ...

aye, however they seem to be moving away from white now and towards silver & black - like the new iMac

anything more you need, give me a shout... although i'm sure the other mac guys one here will be happy to chip in too

fwiw, mine looks like this:



give or take a bit of background wallpaper

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

Quiff Boy wrote:aye, however they seem to be moving away from white now and towards silver & black - like the new iMac

anything more you need, give me a shout... although i'm sure the other mac guys one here will be happy to chip in too

fwiw, mine looks like this:



give or take a bit of background wallpaper

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

Lucky man!

Time to sell my soul (if I still have one) ...

Now, I should let you get on with your lunch/work/life eh?! ...

Thanks anyway!

I have one of these