Jumping Over to the Light Side


I’m becoming increasingly pissed off with Windows. When it works, it works, but when it doesn’t want to work you may as well go and roll into a ball and hum Lordi* to yourself.

This morning I fired up XP to try out Office 2007 beta 2 and get today’s podcast recorded. In theory that should be a relatively easy thing to do; load up the tracks in Winamp, hit record, waffle for 20 minutes and encode as an mp3; Bob is your mother’s brother. Not today, it would seem. It took me over an hour before I finally gave up and went back to Linux.

I think now is the time to really think about getting myself a Mac. I don’t play games or use any software that hasn’t got an alternative on OSX and with a slew of Summer gigs coming up, I could really do with something portable I can take along that isn’t going to flake out on me. Now all I need to decide is what sort of Mac to get; Mac Mini, iBook or Macbook.

*Lordi are the hilariously dressed Finnish rock band that won Eurovision at the weekend. I’ve heard the Angels of rock have been known to help out pissed off Windows XP users in their times of need. Might want to try that sometime.

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Comments;

  1. Martin (Green Dragon) May 25th, 2006 at 1:00 pm

    Much as I hate to admit it, I’m a confirmed Windows user, ever since the days of 3.1 and to be honest the only unstable version I’ve used was 98, now using XP Pro 64 bit and it’s working fine (*turns around, touches wood and spits on a black cat). The only problem I’ve ever encountered was from 3rd party software such as Audacity and Firefox which occassionally kill themselves. I would dearly like to know why people love mac so much, but there again I’ve never used one.

    Good luck with the hunt for your idea system.

  2. Gravatar Icon 2 Phil May 25th, 2006 at 1:17 pm

    You need to spend a day on a Mac, Martin, then you’ll know why they’re so superior for a hell of a lot of tasks. I’d rather have something that just works, instead of something that makes me want to throw the PC out of the nearest window.

  3. Gravatar Icon 3 mark – tartanpodcast.com May 29th, 2006 at 1:43 pm

    My first experience using a Mac was in Caledonian Uni earlier this year; they set up an account on one of their Mac Minis to do some podcast stuff for them. The 2nd time I used the Mini I went out and bought a Mac for myself. That was February and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise; podcasting on a Mac is a superior experience. Full Stop. Factor in video editing and managing all your digital media…….it’s just a much better platform for digital creation and managment.

  4. Gravatar Icon 4 Phil May 29th, 2006 at 2:07 pm

    Each time I’ve experienced a Mac it’s been quick, stable and a pleasure to use – unlike my XP machine. When it works it’s a mediocre way to do things.

    Looking forward to a change.

  5. Gravatar Icon 5 Spook Jun 1st, 2006 at 12:30 pm

    Yep. I know lots of musicians who would only use Macs. Mr. S. being one. You should chat to him about the wonders of a Mac and what he recommends. Am sure he’d be accommodating sharing his experiences so to speak.

    Best…

  6. Gravatar Icon 6 jason (insomnia radio) Jun 2nd, 2006 at 7:47 am

    You know, I just recently installed Office 2007 Beta 2, and it’s halted my system to a crawl. It’s definitely a resource hog. One thing that saps all my cpu power is Groove, make sure you’ve got that thing turned OFF.

    Sidenote: Groove does rock, and has some real potential for bridging the gap between “virtual” workspaces and real ones…

    But yes, I can’t wait to go Mac and not go back. IDeally, I’d still use both. But the mac will be my production machine. The PC will be the one my family can safely screw up ;-)

  7. Gravatar Icon 7 Phil Jun 2nd, 2006 at 10:24 pm

    I’ve found Office 2007 to be semi decent so far. There are a lot of good things about it, but nothing that isn’t on the Mac.

    What’s Groove?