Mac OSX

  • Thread starter Thread starter bdemenil
  • Start date Start date
B

bdemenil

New member
I was just doing some mixing in a studio running protools with OSX. The machine crashed and had to be rebooted numerous times. It was definitely less stable than my setup - WinXP with NTRACK!

So don't let the Mac advocates fool you with stories about the incredible stability of OSX. It's much better than OS9, but isn't more stable than XP.
 
Now there's no credibility behind that at all. That's just one bad experience. Someone probably doesn't know how to keep up with their computer.

Edit: I won't say OS X is better. I mean, if you take a Mac or PC straight out the box... they're both fine for recording. It's all about how you take care of it.
 
Yup, BS...

I ran a Mac-based graphics studio. I have also run many many PCs in Windows-based IT shops.

ANY computer can crash. Especially if it is not set up or maintained right.

Don't slam a system just to be snotty or due to your lack of experience with it. EITHER system will do a great job.
 
Those kind of posts just get arguments going so will you do us all a favour and think before you post untrue pointless crap?
 
The ol Macs are crap and my PC rocks statement. Cute :rolleyes:
I don't know much about OSX. But I will from monday as my new toy arrives.
I'm currently have PC. It has never crashed on me in Cubase yet, but I very often need to restart the whole PC, especially when things gets too complicated and the sound starts popping and cracking.
 
What I said is that OSX isn't 'MORE' stable than XP. Of course XP can crash too. My post is intended to refute those who claim that OSX is much more stable and reliable.

That was the actual wording of my post. If in my tone I betrayed the contempt I feel for Mac - yes I'm sorry, but I can't help it.
 
In defense to one of the most stable platforms in computing today (Unix), I've had to reboot my G5 one time due to a locked up system since I purchased it 8 months ago.
It makes me want to throw the PC that I use at work running Windows 2000 down the stairwell on certain days.
 
bdemenil said:
It was definitely less stable than my setup - WinXP with NTRACK!
Click to expand...

bdemenil said:
isn't more stable than XP.
Click to expand...

bdemenil said:
What I said is that OSX isn't 'MORE' stable than XP. Of course XP can crash too. My post is intended to refute those who claim that OSX is much more stable and reliable.
Click to expand...

So what you mean is that because you cant use OSX and youve had one bad experience, that suddenly means that ALL macs out there running OSX run the same as you stated? Youve got to remember that its how you use it. Alot of the problems is down to the user, in this case, you! If you think OSX is 'less stable than XP' then keep it to yourself please instead of posting about it.
 
From what I can tell, my experience is much more typical. The last Mac OS X crash I had (other than a hung g5 last Monday that I think was caused by a power blink over the weekend) was caused by me doing something very atypical---using a disk image with several standard HFS images. That was about two years ago.

The point is that generally speaking, it doesn't crash, period. If you are experiencing numerous crashes, you almost certainly have bad RAM. There's a narrow chance it's a bad CPU or main logic board, but bad RAM is almost always the root cause. Do yourself a favor and buy or borrow a new stick of RAM, yank all your current RAM, and put the new one in. You'll be amazed.
 
OK OK OK - let me state it plainly then... what I intended to say, and I apologize if it came out antagonistically, is that from my admittedly limited experience with OSX, I've found that it isn't impervious to crashes, even when used with protools - which is supposedly the best and most stable software out there.

I am not saying that WinXP is better. I AM saying that OSX is not MORE stable than XP. Another way of saying that is "WinXP is at least as stable as OSX". Again, I am not saying "WinXP is MORE stable than OSX". Before making a statement like that, I'd have to gather much more information.

I can say that WinXP is in most situations a very stable OS. I reboot my XP web server maybe twice a year, and it has crashed maybe twice in the last five years. I do get occasional crashes running XP with DAW applications.

It's worth mentioning that bad hardware or drivers can seriously impair a WinXP setup. There's allot of gear out there, and some if it is no good. Cheap doesn't necessarily mean bad either - I've seen $300 workstations which are extremely stable. This is less of an issue with the Mac platform, which has a limited and tightly controlled selection of compatible hardware. Generally speaking, if you stick to certain brands of PC hardware (ASUS and TYAN for instance), you're not going to run into problems. Also, most hardware issues are only a bother during the initial setup - once the system is stable it stays that way.

I do have many opinions both negative and positive about Mac hardware and OS, but I'm not getting into it here because - as many of you have observed - it's been said before. I am focusing only on stability.

I wish more Mac users would speak truly about their experiences. I think because of the Mac's mystique (and high price point), people are reluctant to complain when their Mac isn't working so well.
 
Just run over to the Mac forums as apple.com for the truth from users. It's all there.
The thing for me is that I wan't to use Logic Pro 7. No other system than Mac's can handle that. The choise was easy.
It's arriving tomorrow :rolleyes:
 
The point is that generally speaking, it doesn't crash, period
Click to expand...

It wasn't actually my first experience with OSX. I've seen it crash plenty of times.

But in this case, I do want to make an important distinction which maybe weakens my argument. The system wasn't crashing per se, but the audio was screwing up, forcing the engineer to reboot the OS. Closing and reopening protools without an OS reboot wasn't solving the problem. During the course of a day, he had to do this (reboot) maybe 8 or 10 times.

I know that this is one particular situation, and that many people don't experience this same issue. On the other hand, I suspect that many people are having more problems with OSX DAWs than what's being talked about.
 
I understand - I've heard lots good things about Logic. Good luck.
 
Aha! So it's not really crashing. Don't bash the OS if it's not really crashing. You've got hardware or configuration problems. This is not at all about stablity. Your original claim is null and void. :P

Not using Pro Tools, I can't really help, but something's screwy in the setup.
 
It is actually an OS issue because the OS needs to be rebooted every time. The OS doesn't totally freeze up, but some component of it stops working. Could be a driver, could be something else. Could be that with a fresh install the problem would go away. It could be something related to that version of protools, or maybe some plugin they're using. I'll never know because it's not my studio.

A good OS is resistant to bad programs. In this case, OSX isn't. I'm sure in other situations it performs much better. It would be unfair to draw blanket conclusions from such a limited experience, but it is fair to say OSX isn't foolproof.

By the way, it's great that OSX has incorporated many pieces of Unix (BSD) architecture. UNIX is a wonderful environment to work in - I certainly wish Windows was as efficient, well organized and transparent as a good Unix OS. However, UNIX isn't foolproof either, and these days a good Windows system is as stable as a good UNIX system (in most applications).
 
Well- from running PT LE with an mbox and a 002 for the last 2 years, I can say that my Powerbook G4 doesn't crash regularly at all. While your experience, bdemenil, goes counter to that it doesn't mean that OSX is any less stable than the *hype* would have it be.

What it means is that the engineer you saw doesn't know how to configure and maintain his system. That will wreck ANY computer regardless of OS.

Good OS is resistant to bad programs? Perhaps. Pro Tools isn't a bad program provided you run it within the specs laid out by digidesign. I ran it on a PC laptop for about a year and it was less stable than the Mac, BUT the laptop wasn't within Digi's specs. It worked, I just had to shut it down every day. And no OS or program is resistant to an ill-maintained computer, espeically for high end media apps!

In short, it looks silly holding out one example of what is obviously a computer with issues as proof that Macs can crash. To me your story speaks more to the fact that anyone can have a studio, but not everyone knows how to run one. There is a reason they were called recording ENGINEERS.

Dude. People using OSX daws have all kinds of problems. And they even talk about it. Check out the Mac forums over at the Digidesign User Conference if you have any doubt of this. Mac users don't just sit around and congratulate themselves all day about the flawless systems they own. But, being only about 3% of the computer using population, we collectively don't gripe nearly as loud as the windows users. Instead of griping about stability we gripe about price- go figure.

My experience is that mac systems tend to work better out of the box than windows systems. With proper care from that point on, they work about the same. Without proper care from that point on, they also work about the same. Mac users, per capita, tend to know how to keep their systems running better than PC users.

Take care,
Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top