"New" Win XP box

Yeah the whole activation string was the part that failed. I got the phone link and instructions but unlike activating Win7 the string never came up. Nothing to input - no activation code! Oh well. I may try again later but if this works I'll just stick with it. I do have the added benefit of double the RAM - not much for new stuff but good enough for this. If I also switch the drives out to SSD it should handle anything I'm gonna throw at it.

I was surprised at your Linux comments. I thought it was supposed to be easier and not such a system hog.
 
Oh, it didn't give you the challenge code? That's interesting.
Ah well, sounds like 7 is going to do the job.

The Linux thing is tricky. I'm always reluctant to recommend that route to anyone unless they have some experience and confidence.
It depends what distro is used and what hardware/software you hope to use, of course.
It can be straight forward and super simple but when it's not it can go downhill fast. 😂

Could be something fun to check out on the side, though, since you have all those spare hard drives.
Have your win 7 setup sitting pretty then maybe investigate Ubuntu Studio or something on the side?
 
Steenamaroo said:
Could be something fun to check out on the side, though, since you have all those spare hard drives.
Have your win 7 setup sitting pretty then maybe investigate Ubuntu Studio or something on the side?
Click to expand...
Yeah that's kinda what I was thinking. The box I was going to try to bring everything into Win10 world is basically doing nothing. It's newer, faster, packing larger SSDs - the whole nine. Good candidate.
 
With ref to Linux, if anyone is interested there is a guy called "Folderol" on SoS forum who is the dog's danglers with it and a very nice, helpful chap to boot. Not all interfaces work on Linux of course but one that surely does (he has one) is the Native Instruments KA6.

I have MORE than enough trouble with 7 and 10 so I have never delved! I just stick to me valves.

Dave.
 
I have played around with Linux Mint. It's pretty straightforward. The only thing I really didn't get working right is accessing the network drive on my router. I'm sure I have something configured wrong. Updates are automatic, just like with Windows. A window pops up saying you have updates for X or Y. Click on them and go.

For audio production, there are distributions that are targeted at that, including Ubuntu Studio. It comes with Ardour DAW, but I wasn't as comfortable with is as Reaper, which available for Linux. There's also AVLinux. Both have Jack which is sort of their low latency answer to ASIO.

If you have spare computers laying around, it's a fun thing to load up and play with.
 
I had to come back to this thread with an update.

Last week, a friend gave me a Mac IBook G4. It appeared that everything was working, but because of the password protection, I couldn't log in. I spent last night searching around and found that the machine had OS-X Server 10.4 on it. Apple posted disc images on Archive.org, so I pulled the installation discs down. Today, while watching the college bowl games, I piddled around, found how to update the settings and passwords and PRESTO, I'm logged in and browsing around.

The Airpod networking logged into my router. The machine is kind of slow, considering its a 1.2GHz Power PC G4 with a 60GB hard drive. Then comes the fun part.... the OS doesn't support any current browsers, and that means you can't access HTTPS sites since the machine triggers a security violation. I managed to get a copy of TenFourFox v32 for G3 to run and it sort of works for about 50 of the websites. Don't bother trying to use Youtube!

The thing that strikes me is that I remember people telling me how wonderful a Mac would be for music way back in the day. This thing would be a pig to work with. I don't know if a Windows machine would be a lot better, but my Yamaha AW16G would have been MASSIVELY better to record with back in 2004. I did do a bit of audio work with my P4 system under Win2000 but not much. I had an early version of Cubase SE to play with but I didn't have the hardware interfacing to do it at the time. I had to export tracks from the Yamaha via CD which was slow, so I didn't bother.

It just showed me again how much progress has been made with computer technology and music recording in general. This IBook was an $1400 purchase in 2004. 256MB of memory, Firewire 400, USB. DVD drive, 32MB Radeon video in a 6 lb "laptop". The OS tops out at Leopard 10.5 if you upgrade the memory to 512MB, but that's it. Talk about a dead end purchase. By 2007 you were done with updates. The last file I found on it was dated 2010 so it lasted 6 years. I imagine it's been sitting for 13 years.

Consider that my Dell PhenomX6 based desktop that I bought in 2010 is still running with Win 10 22H2, 8GB, has all the updates, current browsers, does the current tax software, email, DVD software, runs Reaper and plays DVD and MPeg4 movies just fine, I guess I can't complain about it being close to the end of life (2 years to go). If I remember correctly, I paid about $6-700 for it, and I've added an extra drive and a SSD boot disc.
 
TalismanRich said:
It just showed me again how much progress has been made with computer technology and music recording in general. This IBook was an $1400 purchase in 2004. 256MB of memory, Firewire 400, USB. DVD drive, 32MB Radeon video in a 6 lb "laptop". The OS tops out at Leopard 10.5 if you upgrade the memory to 512MB, but that's it. Talk about a dead end purchase. By 2007 you were done with updates. The last file I found on it was dated 2010 so it lasted 6 years. I imagine it's been sitting for 13 years.
Click to expand...

Interesting that my cheap as chips Acer laptop from 2004 is still working and running a recent version of Reaper. It was doing 24 track location recordings up until a couple of years ago when the Firewire interface stopped working.
 
I pulled down Reaper v4.75 for PPC, and it runs. That was the last version that supported PPC. My license worked fine, came up registered perfectly. I might try plugging in my Tascam interface just for grins. 60GB isn't enough to do much, but what the heck....
Reaper475 on G4.jpg
 
... and of course, the Tascam mixer software is only good for OS-X 10.5 and up. This has 10.4. Maybe it's class compliant and I won't need any mixer software.
 
I had some time to kill yesterday so I took the old laptop down to the basement, fired it up and plugged in the interface. I pulled up the sound devices, and the 16x08 was there. I clicked on it and it started spinning a little wheel. The mouse froze. Then the wheel went away, the mouse moved, and the wheel appeared again. This went on for a couple of minutes, so I unplugged it. Things came back. I tried a couple more times. So much for Core Audio being seamless.

I guess that wraps up my Mac adventure. Next trip to the electronic recycling center, they'll get a nice PowerPC laptop.

Maybe the next stop will be to try the Tascam with the Linux box I put together. I wasn't impressed with Ardour, but Reaper has a Linux version.

Oh yeah, I just picked up a replacement for the 13yr old Dell Phenom. A Lenovo with an I5-12400, 8GB and 500GB SSD. $508 with tax. I ordered another 16GB of DDR4 RAM for $34 so that I can try running Davinci Resolve, and I'll transfer the 1TB data drive from the old computer. My Email, Quicken and Tax software will get transferred and I should be rolling. It's a good project for a winter day. That should get me by until I turn 80 or so!
 
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