Poll: what is the OS on your primary PC?

[nan0bug]

Originally posted by: Trygve

Originally posted by: nan0bug

Originally posted by: Trygve

Well, I bought XP Pro because the current version of Avid Xpress Pro (why is *everything* "pro" these days?) only supports XP Pro. ...but it's not compatible with all of Microsoft's "bug fixes," some of which will totally screw up Avid software (fortunately, Avid's technical support section has information on this).

However, installing XP disabled some rather important functions of Adobe Premiere, notably the ability to capture and output video on my system. So you have to upgrade to Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0 (there's that "pro" thing again) which fixes that problem. Adobe has no plans to release a patch for Premiere 6.5, the last "non-pro" version.

But XP SP1 screws up Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0. Fortunately, there's a fix for that. It's called "Premiere Pro 1.5"...but you have to pay for that upgrade, too. (I needed to upgrade After Effects Pro (there's that word again) anyway and some of the other Adobe software I use, so I would have gotten the upgrade regardless, but, still....)

Now, I still haven't gotten the audio working correctly on my SDI card (Osprey 2000 Pro DV--and since it's "pro" too, it ought to be supported, right?) and, though it's less of a big deal, XP keeps "losing" my MOTU 828 firewire audio interface and even when it does recognize it, I haven't been able to get all of its functions working properly yet--but I should probably upgrade it to something more modern anyway.

I didn't have nearly as much trouble going from NT 4.0 to 2K (apart from the drop in stability). The biggest annoyance I ran into there was that Win2K totally screwed up most of my fibre channel HBAs. Of the ones I was using, only the Qlogic models would work with 2K. But, then, the ones that 2K couldn't handle were still supported under Solaris, so that problem could be fixed with a little bit of hardware swapping. Unfortunately, I don't have a supply of spare video and sound hardware lying around to start swapping until I can find out what XP is comfortable with.

The fact that you use a PC for video editing is laughable.

Buy a Mac. Duh.

Where would I get ahold of copies of your completed films to check out the quality of your Mac-based editing work?

I work with a few production houses that use Mac-based editing systems and the only one that doesn't seem to be a lot more trouble than my lowly PC-based system is a really great ProTools setup they have at the Digital Media Center where I've done Dolby surround remixes and M&Es. (Most filmmakers really should do those from the start if they're planning to do any international sales, but most don't...which means I get to deal with them down the road when it's that much tougher.) I've done more tech support work on Macs in the past than I ever want to again and the work I've done on other people's Final Cut Pro systems (mostly TV commercials) has *not* inspired me to want to switch platforms.

Even at the Digital Media Center, they've switched all of their video editing systems to PC-based, though they may still have some SGI Onyx based rendering systems. Not sure, since I haven't dealt with their motion capture and 3D animation departments for two years or so. The other studios around here have mostly switched from Mac and SGI machines to PC-based systems--at least the bigger ones--even my own old SGI video machine is on indefinite loan to a friend of mine.

I havent done any video editing since the Amiga days and it was ameteurish crap. Obviously you know more about this stuff than me, but the general consensus I've gotten from people in that industry is that Macs are the way to go. Everyone that I know that does video editing does it on a Mac. Same with everyone who's serious about working with music. I've never heard of anyone having the kind of problems you're talking about on a Mac with OS X installed.

Obviously Windows 2000 works well for you and you have special circumstances that cause these problems for you. Personally I'd just get the warez versions, forced obsolesence is BS, but I'm assuming you either have some moral aversion to doing that or you don't want to have a software audit come down the line, which is understandable.

Really though, for MOST people, Windows XP is nothing more than Windows 2000 with some bug fixes and a pretty interface. Also, for most people, if Windows XP is giving them problems and Windows 2K isn't, its usually user error or laziness.

 

[CombatChuk]

Originally posted by: timswim78
I'm really surprised to see so many xp pro's!

XP HOME, Win2K, and Mandrake Linux here.

I bet it has something to do with copies that don't require activation.

 

[SinNisTeR]

xp pro on the main system

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: sniperruff
dammit i don't see my favorite OS LINDOWS

hah lindows. don'tthey charge like 5 bux a month for support these days? and all sorts of money for addons of basic features

 

[Kelemvor]

XP on most. Win2k on my BT computer and Win98 on my old oneI don't use any more.

 

[dabuddha]

If I'm not mistaken, Win 3.1 and 3.11 were not operating systems..