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Old 03-15-2011, 09:25 AM   #1
Peevy
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Default How good in general is Reaper + Mac ??

I'm finally fed up with Windows & I'm seriously considering moving to Mac.

I use Windows only for Music making/production & Linux for everything else. I'm just fed up with Windows sluggishness & general tendency to treat all users as dumb ass " I'm a PC" "To the Cloud" I'm not a PC I'm a bloody human being & F**k the cloud. When I run Linux its just so much snappier & quick to respond & there's no worries about virus, at least nowhere near as possible as with windows. As with Mac, Linux viruses are very rare.

As most of us know when it comes to Music Production Linux isn't great. Believe me I've tried it all Ardour, Rosegarden, LMMS & even running Reaper with very mixed results. Besides I've a good few Payed for VSTs that I'd still like to be able to use & thankfully most of these have Mac versions.

I'm in need of a Laptop so I was maybe gonna go for a Macbook Pro for now & if that goes well I'll eventually go all Mac/Linux & be totally done with Windows.

So the question is how good is Reaper OSX at this stage? And how is OSX as an OS in general? Does it feel as snappy & responsive as Linux, well compared to Windows anyway?

Any & all input wil be much appreciated
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Old 03-15-2011, 09:38 AM   #2
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Hey, man:

I kicked the Windows habit for good 2 years ago and never looked back. I haven't used Windows since XP Pro, and don't miss it a bit. Mind you, I'm not young and hip like the Apple commercials like to portray their user base. I'm more old and senile, but I like the hardware, expensive though it might be, and Mac OS is pretty stable for me and easy to navigate.

I'm quite new to REAPER, but have found that in general it has worked quite well in Mac OS. I get the idea on these forums that Mac is sort of a secondary concern for the coders — not a judgement, only an observation — but recording and editing both MIDI and audio has gone quite smoothly for me.

One thing I've noticed (and I'm going to start another thread about it, because I'd be curious to hear others' opinions) is that as far as plugins go, REAPER seems to like VST better than it does AU. I have lots and lots of plugs, and some of them will immediately crash REAPER if I instantiate the AU version, while the VST version will work perfectly well.

Hope this helps.
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Old 03-15-2011, 10:13 AM   #3
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I've had a mac for about a year now, I find it to be way more intuitive for creative stuff than a PC.
On a PC I seemed to spend at least 50% of my time tweaking the OS so that Reaper would run smoothly, closing down processes etc, you don't get that on a Mac, you just run what you want to run and it works.

As far as being treated like a dumb ass, well I'm afraid that's something that's even worse in Mac world!! Macs are predominantly marketed at dumb asses with lots of money, most things are so completely locked down that you either use it their way or don't use it at all (iMovie, iTunes, Garageband, iWeb, safari etc), but once you get passed all that crap you'll be fine.

75% of people will hate you (irritating)......other Mac users treat you like a close relative (even more irritating).

Of course, Reaper IS Reaper, so no real change there - i've not had any problems so far.

I use mine in the studio, for live performance and recording, disco's and I've just used it to capture a camera feed on a video shoot, its never had the slightest problem.
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Old 03-15-2011, 10:21 AM   #4
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Originally Posted by gtomassetti View Post
Hey, man:

I kicked the Windows habit for good 2 years ago and never looked back. I haven't used Windows since XP Pro, and don't miss it a bit. Mind you, I'm not young and hip like the Apple commercials like to portray their user base. I'm more old and senile, but I like the hardware, expensive though it might be, and Mac OS is pretty stable for me and easy to navigate.

I'm quite new to REAPER, but have found that in general it has worked quite well in Mac OS. I get the idea on these forums that Mac is sort of a secondary concern for the coders — not a judgement, only an observation — but recording and editing both MIDI and audio has gone quite smoothly for me.

One thing I've noticed (and I'm going to start another thread about it, because I'd be curious to hear others' opinions) is that as far as plugins go, REAPER seems to like VST better than it does AU. I have lots and lots of plugs, and some of them will immediately crash REAPER if I instantiate the AU version, while the VST version will work perfectly well.

Hope this helps.

Thanks gtomassetti

I'm just a bit sick of using windows & hear so many good things about Mac.
Good thing to know about the VST vs AU plugin situation.

Just to clarify here before anyone mentions the fact that the gap between PC hardware quality vs Mac Hardware is pretty much non existent now, I know. The PC hardware isn't the problem its the Windows OS I really don't like. I actually enjoy building my own PCs so there's no problem there.

I'm definitely gonna get me a Macbook Pro when I can. the new ones look pretty decently spec'd & seem to offer a significant improvement in power over last years models.
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Old 03-15-2011, 10:35 AM   #5
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Originally Posted by dazzathedrummer View Post
I've had a mac for about a year now, I find it to be way more intuitive for creative stuff than a PC.
On a PC I seemed to spend at least 50% of my time tweaking the OS so that Reaper would run smoothly, closing down processes etc, you don't get that on a Mac, you just run what you want to run and it works.
This behaviour seems to be comparable to Linux, not that I'm expecting OSX to be anything like Linux. All I want from a Mac is for it to be better & more productive than Windows.

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Originally Posted by dazzathedrummer View Post
As far as being treated like a dumb ass, well I'm afraid that's something that's even worse in Mac world!! Macs are predominantly marketed at dumb asses with lots of money, most things are so completely locked down that you either use it their way or don't use it at all (iMovie, iTunes, Garageband, iWeb, safari etc), but once you get passed all that crap you'll be fine.

75% of people will hate you (irritating)......other Mac users treat you like a close relative (even more irritating).

I suppose I can live with this side of things as its mainly Windows as an OS that's really bugging me.

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Originally Posted by dazzathedrummer View Post
Of course, Reaper IS Reaper, so no real change there - i've not had any problems so far.

I use mine in the studio, for live performance and recording, disco's and I've just used it to capture a camera feed on a video shoot, its never had the slightest problem.
All good to know thanks for your input dazzathedrummer
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Old 03-15-2011, 10:38 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by gtomassetti View Post
I get the idea on these forums that Mac is sort of a secondary concern for the coders — not a judgement, only an observation
Not very strange when you look at this:
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=74591
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Old 03-15-2011, 10:41 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by Peevy View Post
Just to clarify here before anyone mentions the fact that the gap between PC hardware quality vs Mac Hardware is pretty much non existent now, I know. The PC hardware isn't the problem its the Windows OS I really don't like. I actually enjoy building my own PCs so there's no problem there.
I moved over to Mac about 5 years ago and I'm very happy. I've only used Reaper on the Mac, and it's great for me. I'll second the VST vs AU issue mentioned above. Sticking to VSTs also makes it easier to share projects with PC users.

I think OS X is fast, intuitive, and gets out of my way when I'm being creative.

While I love Mac and it's a good choice for me - if you like to tweak things and upgrade hardware, you may find Macs frustrating. It's designed to be a closed system. You can be sure you are getting high quality, and everything is built to work together in joyous harmony - but if you want to upgrade RAM or the hard drive in the Macbook Pro is probably a challenge and might void the warranty. And I'm not sure anyone who isn't a serious techie could upgrade the processor - if it's possible at all.

I don't say this to dissuade you -- I'm a Mac lover. But I've put my hardware fiddling days behind me. To get the best (or worst) of both worlds, some people recommend the Hackintosh.
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Old 03-15-2011, 10:42 AM   #8
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When I run Linux its just so much snappier & quick to respond
Vista is snappier than Ubuntu on my computer:
http://user.tninet.se/~jad615g/benchmarks/
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Old 03-15-2011, 11:14 AM   #9
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Default The best perfomance till now...

Reaper can run in linux, Windows and Mac, testings?...Reaper born for PCs so good, so bad? the best perfomance...Windows 7 64 bits OS, I´m still testing for Laps.

Saludos.
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Old 03-15-2011, 11:33 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by Peevy View Post
Good thing to know about the VST vs AU plugin situation.
To further muddy the waters, though, here's what happens when I use IK Multimedia's Total Workstation 2:

When I instantiate an IK instrument as an AU, the GUIs are mostly whited out and thus unusable. But if I minimize and then restore the IK window, it looks (and functions) as it should. A minor annoyance at worst. But if I instantiate these as VSTs, they crash REAPER immediately.

So there's one case where the AU work (albeit with a little glitch) and the VSTs don't.

Go figure…

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Originally Posted by Boray View Post
Not very strange when you look at this:
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=74591
Well, there you go… Reminds me a bit of Finale, the only software in which I really am an expert. It began in the late 80s as an Apple app, but eventually was ported over to Windows. Over the years a lot of users on the Mac side of the aisle have come to feel that MakeMusic cares more about the PC version than the Mac version. (Not necessarily true; I've used it on both, and I have had infinitely fewer issues on Mac than I ever did on PC.)
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Old 03-15-2011, 02:21 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by dazzathedrummer View Post
As far as being treated like a dumb ass, well I'm afraid that's something that's even worse in Mac world!!
I know what you mean, but I don't take it as being treated like a dumb ass. The issues I now have every time I visit XP or W7 make me feel terribly underrated and overlooked. It is true that basic functions are easier on a Mac, but extended functionality might not necessarily exist. But if you don't want to tweak the view of the OS etc, you should be fine. In general, I've lost interest in irrelevant things like that, thanks to OSX.

The list of available freeware is quite a bit shorter on OSX, so some tools might not be available.

Four years ago my Windows XP had a custom GUI, an extensive list of registry tweaks, a bunch of process mods and self-built batch commands to control them. Then I bought a Mac. I now use ZERO time tweaking/modding/optimizing the OS.

Reaper on OSX behaves pretty well. Some (3rd party) plugins might crash Reaper, so I took on a habit of saving the project before I add any plugin.

Ps. For a Windows user, trying out iMovie can be the uttermost fun! I was astonished, I actually got things done. Beautiful things even, and how easily!
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Old 03-15-2011, 02:29 PM   #12
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Originally Posted by Totoro75 View Post
While I love Mac and it's a good choice for me - if you like to tweak things and upgrade hardware, you may find Macs frustrating. It's designed to be a closed system. You can be sure you are getting high quality, and everything is built to work together in joyous harmony - but if you want to upgrade RAM or the hard drive in the Macbook Pro is probably a challenge and might void the warranty. And I'm not sure anyone who isn't a serious techie could upgrade the processor - if it's possible at all.

I don't say this to dissuade you -- I'm a Mac lover. But I've put my hardware fiddling days behind me. To get the best (or worst) of both worlds, some people recommend the Hackintosh.
The inability to tweak wouldn't really bother me, I'd still have a few PCs sitting about the house to work at if I need to.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boray View Post
Vista is snappier than Ubuntu on my computer:
http://user.tninet.se/~jad615g/benchmarks/
This is totally the opposite experience I've had with Windows Vs Ubuntu/Linux. I've always found Linux to be much faster & much more responsive than Windows, I've no benchmark charts to prove it though.
Recently my daughters Netbook was unable to boot so I wiped the hd & installed the netbook version of Ubuntu & even she thought it was a lot faster than Windows XP that was on it previously.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JOE SA SA View Post
Reaper can run in linux, Windows and Mac, testings?...Reaper born for PCs so good, so bad? the best perfomance...Windows 7 64 bits OS, I´m still testing for Laps.

Saludos.
I've tried it on Linux & some days it would work great, others it would totally freeze & this was on a Ubuntu PC optimized for audio with a Real Time Kernel. Reaper does work great on Windows 7 64 bit, but I'm just not digging the OS at all. I'd love to be able to have Reaper running stable on Ubuntu but even if It did, I have a lot of VSTs that just don't work properly with Linux/Wine plus I also use Ableton Live & I'm pretty sure that doesn't run properly on Linux with Wine.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gtomassetti View Post
When I instantiate an IK instrument as an AU, the GUIs are mostly whited out and thus unusable. But if I minimize and then restore the IK window, it looks (and functions) as it should. A minor annoyance at worst. But if I instantiate these as VSTs, they crash REAPER immediately.

So there's one case where the AU work (albeit with a little glitch) and the VSTs don't.

Go figure…
I have Amplitube 3, AT Fender & Sampletank. So I'd have to run IK plugins as AU for them to work properly in Reaper?
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Old 03-15-2011, 05:33 PM   #13
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This is totally the opposite experience I've had with Windows Vs Ubuntu/Linux. I've always found Linux to be much faster & much more responsive than Windows,
Some things feels faster on Ubuntu, for example system startup, when it decides to start that is. There is some startup bug/bad support for my cpu so sometimes it doesn't start at all, sometimes it only starts one of the cpu cores.

Earlier versions of Ubuntu (older than 10) was a pain to install on my computer as the installer didn't support my monitor correctly so I only saw half of the screen. Compared to that.... Windows just works! ;-)

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Originally Posted by Peevy View Post
And how is OSX as an OS in general? Does it feel as snappy & responsive as Linux, well compared to Windows anyway?

Any & all input wil be much appreciated
Well, as you can see, different people have different experiences with different OS's. If you really don't like Windows then maybe you should give it a go, if you can live with the overprice.
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Old 03-15-2011, 05:51 PM   #14
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Not very strange when you look at this:
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=74591
Yeah, it is. I do not go to the "lounge". I am trying to learn about the program and did not think the lounge would be where that would be. So, another Mac user voted. Maybe if it was in another location you might have a bigger sampling.
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Old 03-15-2011, 06:06 PM   #15
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Yeah, it is. I do not go to the "lounge". I am trying to learn about the program and did not think the lounge would be where that would be. So, another Mac user voted. Maybe if it was in another location you might have a bigger sampling.
I don't think so. I think about 7-10% of the computers out there are macs.
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Old 03-15-2011, 06:09 PM   #16
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There are even more Vista users than Mac users according to these stats:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp
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Old 03-15-2011, 07:16 PM   #17
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I have Amplitube 3, AT Fender & Sampletank. So I'd have to run IK plugins as AU for them to work properly in Reaper?
That has been my experience. As I said, on instantiation, the IK windows don't look like what they're supposed to, but as soon as I minimize and restore them, they look and function properly.

As in all cases, though, your mileage may vary…
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Old 03-15-2011, 11:41 PM   #18
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A lot of people in music and graphics move to Mac because it is thought that it is a better multimedia platform. This is definitely true for Pro Tools but not so much true for Reaper. Reaper runs just as good on any system which is a good aspect. I run Windows 7 x64 and it runs beautifully. I can understand why you hated Windows XP, it was primative and clunky compared to what Mac had/has to offer, and Vista is/was slow and buggy. I think that Windows 7 is a step forward though, and I actually stopped using my Ubuntu Linux for it (although I still run a graphical dual boot setup).
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Old 03-16-2011, 05:40 AM   #19
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I can understand why you hated Windows XP, it was primative and clunky compared to what Mac had/has to offer, and Vista is/was slow and buggy. I think that Windows 7 is a step forward though, and I actually stopped using my Ubuntu Linux for it (although I still run a graphical dual boot setup).
But he is already using Win7, check his signature.

Win7 has been on the market for one and a half year and already have 1/3 of the market. That is quite impressive. But it probably has much to do with Vista's bad reputation making people to wait for Win7. I like Vista so there must be something wrong with me ;-)
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Old 03-16-2011, 07:03 AM   #20
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I'm finally fed up with Windows & I'm seriously considering moving to Mac.

I use Windows only for Music making/production & Linux for everything else. I'm just fed up with Windows sluggishness & general tendency to treat all users as dumb ass " I'm a PC" "To the Cloud" I'm not a PC I'm a bloody human being & F**k the cloud. When I run Linux its just so much snappier & quick to respond & there's no worries about virus, at least nowhere near as possible as with windows. As with Mac, Linux viruses are very rare.

As most of us know when it comes to Music Production Linux isn't great. Believe me I've tried it all Ardour, Rosegarden, LMMS & even running Reaper with very mixed results. Besides I've a good few Payed for VSTs that I'd still like to be able to use & thankfully most of these have Mac versions.

I'm in need of a Laptop so I was maybe gonna go for a Macbook Pro for now & if that goes well I'll eventually go all Mac/Linux & be totally done with Windows.

So the question is how good is Reaper OSX at this stage? And how is OSX as an OS in general? Does it feel as snappy & responsive as Linux, well compared to Windows anyway?

Any & all input wil be much appreciated
What version of Windows are you using. I am using Windows 7 64 bit and don't have the sluggishness problems.
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Old 03-16-2011, 07:17 AM   #21
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I use Reaper on a MacBook Pro. It runs fine. The only problems I have are present on Wind*ws too.

The only minor complaints are cosmetic ones - Reaper looks slightly better on Wind*ws because the OSX fonts don't fit with the styling so well. Hardly a big deal.

As an OS - doesn't matter what you think of Apple as a company (I'm not a fanboy/purist) - but OSX is simply the best OS there is.
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Old 03-16-2011, 08:15 AM   #22
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I'm finally fed up with Windows & I'm seriously considering moving to Mac.

I use Windows only for Music making/production & Linux for everything else. I'm just fed up with Windows sluggishness & general tendency to treat all users as dumb ass " I'm a PC" "To the Cloud" I'm not a PC I'm a bloody human being & F**k the cloud. When I run Linux its just so much snappier & quick to respond & there's no worries about virus, at least nowhere near as possible as with windows. As with Mac, Linux viruses are very rare.

As most of us know when it comes to Music Production Linux isn't great. Believe me I've tried it all Ardour, Rosegarden, LMMS & even running Reaper with very mixed results. Besides I've a good few Payed for VSTs that I'd still like to be able to use & thankfully most of these have Mac versions.

I'm in need of a Laptop so I was maybe gonna go for a Macbook Pro for now & if that goes well I'll eventually go all Mac/Linux & be totally done with Windows.

So the question is how good is Reaper OSX at this stage? And how is OSX as an OS in general? Does it feel as snappy & responsive as Linux, well compared to Windows anyway?

Any & all input wil be much appreciated
All i use is Mac and also have a high end PC and i prefer the Mac as i have had no problems at all!
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Old 03-16-2011, 09:50 AM   #23
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I'm not sure if I would say Mac OS is the best, but it does have the illusion of being most stable, because it's on such a tight hardware platform. When something goes wrong in OS X, it's rarely the software, but the hardware is no better than PC hardware. In fact, the "latest and greatest" for a Mac, is generally a generation behind the latest and greatest for PCs, so from a speed aspect, Mac's speed thrives on the "tried and tested" hardware with developed drivers.

That's not saying Macs are without problems, for example the MacBook Pro's which had nvidia 8xxx chips in them a couple years ago, and the slew of MagSafe problems that have occurred over the years. But that also doesn't even touch the sheer incompetence of the "Geniuses" at the Apple stores.

Story time:

I work at a small computer shop. We don't advertise that we fix Macs, but if a Mac comes in, generally I'm the one who gets to do the work on it, because I'm more familiar with it. A few weeks ago, a fellow came in with a 2010 MacBook Pro 13" model. He said he took it to Apple, when it stopped working, and they replaced the hard drive, copied all his data, and then found that it still wasn't working. After charging him $400 for not doing the job, he came to the shop I work in. He told us that after Apple didn't fix it, they said it could be the logic board. Well, when I looked at it, I determined that it simply couldn't be the logic board. The Mac booted just fine off USB with his new hard drive. So, I dig a little deeper, tear it apart, and decide to order a replacement hard drive/sleep light cable, as it's just one piece. Low and behold, 3 days later when the part arrived, I put his original hard drive back in, pushed the power button, and found that the original problem was a $35 cable. Not an $800 logic board, and not the hard drive, which they charged $400 for.

I sure hope he went and got his money back from Apple, because that kind of service has absolutely no excuses.

So, moral of the story is, if you're that set on going with Apple, you better be really good with computers, or made of money. I always suggest people buy used Macs, because it's still a Mac, just not as overpriced.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/hom...mco=OTY2ODY3Nw

They put that link all the way at the bottom of store.apple.com, and if you look there's also a Clearance link as well. Apple doesn't like people that use this, but hey, saving money is saving money.

Saying that, yes, I own a MacBook Pro, and I do have plans to buy the latest model, as soon as I can find the configuration I want from a 3rd party vendor. 1 year of Apple Care is good enough for me, because I'd fix it myself if I had to.

Deep down, an Apple is just a computer, running a modified BSD kernel, with a very big price tag. There are much better deals around than Macs.

If you want other Mac horror stories, I have plenty of them.
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Old 03-16-2011, 11:49 AM   #24
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Some things feels faster on Ubuntu, for example system startup, when it decides to start that is. There is some startup bug/bad support for my cpu so sometimes it doesn't start at all, sometimes it only starts one of the cpu cores.

Earlier versions of Ubuntu (older than 10) was a pain to install on my computer as the installer didn't support my monitor correctly so I only saw half of the screen. Compared to that.... Windows just works! ;-)
I have Ubuntu on 3 PCs & a Netbook all working perfectly fine. I dual boot on this studio PC, a bedroom PC which is an old one with a Pentium 4 CPU & a HTPC in the living room with an overclocked E5200 CPU. I've never had a problem installing Ubuntu, in fact the latest Ubuntu installer is so user friendly a child could use it. For me its most things that are faster on Linux.

I did have system freezing problems a few versions back but this was fixed in an update not long after the problem occurred.

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Well, as you can see, different people have different experiences with different OS's. If you really don't like Windows then maybe you should give it a go, if you can live with the overprice.
I just get a bit p**sed of with windows sometimes, I'll probably end up sticking with a PC as my main DAW machine though, Mac computers are maybe a bit too expensive for now. But I'm more than likely gonna get a Macbook Pro because I do need a Laptop.

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Originally Posted by JGrabowMST View Post
I'm not sure if I would say Mac OS is the best, but it does have the illusion of being most stable, because it's on such a tight hardware platform. When something goes wrong in OS X, it's rarely the software, but the hardware is no better than PC hardware. In fact, the "latest and greatest" for a Mac, is generally a generation behind the latest and greatest for PCs, so from a speed aspect, Mac's speed thrives on the "tried and tested" hardware with developed drivers.

That's not saying Macs are without problems, for example the MacBook Pro's which had nvidia 8xxx chips in them a couple years ago, and the slew of MagSafe problems that have occurred over the years. But that also doesn't even touch the sheer incompetence of the "Geniuses" at the Apple stores.

Story time:

I work at a small computer shop. We don't advertise that we fix Macs, but if a Mac comes in, generally I'm the one who gets to do the work on it, because I'm more familiar with it. A few weeks ago, a fellow came in with a 2010 MacBook Pro 13" model. He said he took it to Apple, when it stopped working, and they replaced the hard drive, copied all his data, and then found that it still wasn't working. After charging him $400 for not doing the job, he came to the shop I work in. He told us that after Apple didn't fix it, they said it could be the logic board. Well, when I looked at it, I determined that it simply couldn't be the logic board. The Mac booted just fine off USB with his new hard drive. So, I dig a little deeper, tear it apart, and decide to order a replacement hard drive/sleep light cable, as it's just one piece. Low and behold, 3 days later when the part arrived, I put his original hard drive back in, pushed the power button, and found that the original problem was a $35 cable. Not an $800 logic board, and not the hard drive, which they charged $400 for.

I sure hope he went and got his money back from Apple, because that kind of service has absolutely no excuses.

So, moral of the story is, if you're that set on going with Apple, you better be really good with computers, or made of money. I always suggest people buy used Macs, because it's still a Mac, just not as overpriced.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/hom...mco=OTY2ODY3Nw

They put that link all the way at the bottom of store.apple.com, and if you look there's also a Clearance link as well. Apple doesn't like people that use this, but hey, saving money is saving money.

Saying that, yes, I own a MacBook Pro, and I do have plans to buy the latest model, as soon as I can find the configuration I want from a 3rd party vendor. 1 year of Apple Care is good enough for me, because I'd fix it myself if I had to.

Deep down, an Apple is just a computer, running a modified BSD kernel, with a very big price tag. There are much better deals around than Macs.

If you want other Mac horror stories, I have plenty of them.
Well I probably won't be buying a Mac Pro anytime soon because they're way out of my price range.......for now. I probably will end up getting a Macbook Pro. I've built a few PCs & have sorted out most problems with my PCs myself so do you think maybe with a some online guides I could probably do a bit of tinkering myself if I have to repair a macbook?
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Old 03-16-2011, 11:51 AM   #25
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if you're that set on going with Apple, you better be really good with computers, or made of money.
I'm not sure if that is any different than it is with any PC. Or a car. In my experience warranty issues have been quite a bit easier with Apple than with Acer or other PC brands.

About your story, Apple store workers and repairsmen are people as any of us, so I wouldn't expect them to make notably less mistakes than a PC shop. The difference seems to be when the mistakes are addressed. While Apple tries to keep the customer satisfied, a PC shop might put up a fight.

Sadly, Apple is a commercial company, and they are doing good business. Since consumers consider their products worth the price, Apple has no reason dropping the prices. For me the OS alone is easily worth the extra cost, so saying "there are better deals than a Mac" is only a generalisation drawn from your own opinion.

A used Mac can be a great deal, and will run Reaper nicely.

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Originally Posted by Peevy View Post
I've built a few PCs & have sorted out most problems with my PCs myself so do you think maybe with a some online guides I could probably do a bit of tinkering myself if I have to repair a macbook?
Absolutely. My friend replaced the display on his MacBook, following only guidelines from the internet. And I tore down my iPhone to pieces to clean up the stuffed speaker grille. The guides are out there.
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Old 03-16-2011, 01:16 PM   #26
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I'm not sure if I would say Mac OS is the best, but it does have the illusion of being most stable, because it's on such a tight hardware platform.
end result: it is more stable :-)

Sure, the technology lags behind PCs, but it's just a trade-off - stability vs power.

Apple products have plenty of issues and I'm no fan of Apple's hyper-corporate closed-platform, autocratic philosophy (I'll admit that using Reaper on OSX sometimes feels pretty incongruous!). Ideologically speaking, I tend towards a more progressive community-based approach.

But at the end of the day, OSX allows me to get the job done quickly and efficiently with minimum fuss. And being a bit of a *nix nerd, the OSX Terminal gives me *most* of the "power-user" gratification I crave.

I'd love it if I could get the functionality and results I need from an open-source platform, but unfortunately that just isn't possible at the moment.

Last edited by catfish; 03-16-2011 at 01:34 PM.
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Old 03-16-2011, 08:58 PM   #27
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Having done lots of work in Mac, PC and Unix, I honestly have no favorite. I have a Toshiba Tecra M11 running Ubuntu 10.10 x64 perfectly, I have my older MacBook Pro, and I have my desktop running Win 7 x64. I use all of them equally, depending on which one I really need in front of me.

Repairing a Mac is no different than repairing a PC to be honest, the only difference is that the parts are a lot more expensive. A motherboard for an Acer, HP or Dell might run for 100-200, while a "logic board" for any Mac starts around $350 and can get all the way to $800, even Powerbook G4's are expensive to maintain, and given how widespread Snow Leopard is, the Powerbooks aren't even supported anymore.

I find that as long as a computer can do the job that I need done, it's good enough, whether it's Windows, Mac or Unix. I do tend to grab my MacBook Pro over my Toshiba a lot, and at home unless I really need to use the Desktop, it stays off because I just don't need to use that kind of power on a daily basis.

I enjoy the fact that my Mac feels very snappy, despite being the slowest computer I use based on specs alone, don't get me wrong, but my biggest point here is just that buying a used/refurbished Mac is definitely the way to go over a brand new one.

I just don't find Apple store "geniuses" to have much knowledge beyond the software, and very basic hardware problems, so I don't like the idea of depending on their service to fix the products they sell. I'm not perfect, and there are plenty of computers I've had to work on that I've thrown in the towel on, and fixed through means of replacing hardware or reinstalling the OS rather than "truly fixing" what was wrong, but with such a small amount of hardware inside a Mac, targeting two of the three potential problems (hard drive and logic board, but not cables) seems like a huge downfall of a technician, regardless of where they work.
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