your favorite OS

[Anyone]

I was just about to upgrade my laptop to win 2000
and as I was wondering if all my VJ gear
would be working properly,
a question came to mind:

What are all the VJs out there using
in terms of operating system?

Without going into the old PC/mac
dichotony and endless debate,
which version of these do you use?

were you disapointed by new upgrades?

Do you miss Mac OS 7
or are you still using MS-DOS
to prompt your VJ apps?

Or are you a Linux / BeOs warrior?

Please let your voice be heard!

[MoRpH]

OK well they all have there pros and cons....

Personally BeOS is the only one I have actually found to be a pleasure to run and use. TO bad it didn't get the support it needed (thanks to M$ bullying and Apple ignorance).

As for VJ requirements there are a couple of BeOS VJ apps but nothing really worth having the dual boot for.

I can't speack specifically for mac OS but I still haven't seen a mac VJ (or should that be a McVJ :p) using OS X so it would seem there all sticking to MacOS 9 (or what ever the last one was).

As for Windows based VJing personally I find a good clean install of win98se with the latest Direct X is good, I found a lack of decent hardware drivers for 2000 crippled that OS a bit and I personally haven't bothered with the shining up of it which is XP.

[Awax]

I don't really think your poll is accurate for M$ OS :

- Win95, 98 and Me are based on the same kernel, itself derivated from DOS.

- WinNT, 2k and XP are based ont he professional kernel from Microsoft.

The NT familly is really stable : it is a (rather) protected OS. Should a process crash, it won't affect the others : just kill it and start it again. The only prblem is the "driver problem" : should a driver crash, it WILL crash the system (M$ is rather stupid with such a BIG stability hole).

As you're using a Laptop, the choice betwen MacOS&Win isn't an issue : only BeOS and Linux could apply to both.

Anyway, my next point is evolution. PC is based on a open system : the only commun ground is IBM standard. That way, you can easily upgrade/add specific items to your system. A lot of PCI cards are available : video compression, in/out ports, ... Some of them are available on Max, Linux and maybe BeOS, but only the drivers are an issue : only a few of them are available on every platforms.

Then, you have the software problem. A specific binary can run on only 1 type of OS (except trhu emulation). Some soft exists on different OSes but it is rather rare. If you writing you own soft, it should be an issue, especially if you're using standards like OpenGL.

Finally, I'll talk about future. BeOS is dead : it is no more supported by BeInc. Apple and M$ are major player so won't be wiped out tomorrow. Linux is the third man, proised to a brilliant future in professional and soon private market.

So as a conclusion, my current best OS is :
- for using already made soft available on Mac : MacOS. Easy to use and VERY stable. For VJ, it has a promising future cos Apple truly likes artisit and video.
- for all others softs : Win2k or WinXP (same, just a few impovement in XP, not really worth the money and the memory it needs). Very good to to devellop your own soft : DirectX is the BEST multimedia API around.
- for the professional : Linux. With OpenGL and more graphist/multimedia standards to come, pro will use stable and tweakable OS : you can build your own softs and run them on a lot different boxes (PC compatible or Apple).

[elbows]

I cant vote becuase Win2K does not belong in the same option as WinME.

I use Win2000 SP2 and its rock solid :)

[eXhale]

Hehe why is MS-DOS listed? :p

Oh yeah, ctugha (?) worked on MS-DOS...


*eXhale feels this topic is going to turn to an OS war*

[MoRpH]

Awax I'm not trying to start a platform flame war but I disagree with your assessment of MacOS as "easy to use and VERY stable" I have had more usablity problems with Macs than I ever have on a M$ OS (mainly due to the bullshit manual configuration of RAM, why apple are so retard as to not fix this I'll never know)...... As for stablisty it all depends like M$ on what you install on it... personally I have seen some Mac OS machines that crash WAY more often than windows boxes... but like I said on either platform thats mainly due to the ignorance of the user. Also I have seen far more whole system lockups (where you can do nothing but a hard reboot) on Macs than on M$ (even on 95/98 which all the NT/2000 always bitch is unstable). MacOS really is a bit of a stinker when compared with other modern OSes...

BTW this is all for MacOS pre OS X....

[eXhale]

Agreed, except for Linux, the stability depends on the amount of softwares installed. I always have the minimum of softwares installed and consequently I have very few crash and I haven't had to format my Win98 system in almost 3 years. :)

[MoRpH]

Yep same with my 2.5 yo performance laptop... has basically the OS, DX8, SVi, Meimi, premiere, photoshop, IE and OE for when I'm on the road.

Was interesting when I came to buy a new laptop recently as they were trying to force ME or XP systems on me but I refused and demanded a win98 preinstalled machine as I had a gig that night and didn't have time to stuff around and I wanted to be able to actually use the rescue CD without haveing to install a totally different OS over the top.

[murph]

please, for the love of god, seperate ME and 2000.

I usually downgrade machines from ME to 98se if they come with ME. Right now I prefer 2000 or XP

[eXhale]

OK I edited the poll, don't think Anyone could do it :) From what I understood, the two people who voted for Windows ME / 2000 were indeed voting for Windows 2000.

BTW if I had to choose the best OS, I'd no doubt choose Linux. :) My server is running on this system and I've never had to reboot it for over one year! Unfortunately there isn't a lot of VJ apps on Linux :(

[warpTV]

I'll defend my mac os in any flame war BUT I dont even bother taking it out much anymore - so as a VJ tool its really a glorified VHS deck - I hate to say it but as a live tool the PC has alot more options...

However I guess this will change with developements in os x (10.2) , the imminent G5 and Final cuts realtime fx software engine. That aside firewire 2 is this year also along with the a new version of quicktime.

:D

[MoRpH]

Yeah I had the same problem... I think BeOS is the best OS, but I use win98 for VJing...

Sounds great warp.... I might have to get me a sexy Ti powerbook later this year after all... when somone brings some good (affordable) VJ software out for it :)

[Anyone]

Please excuse my ignorance about the differences between windows 2000 and ME.

but the poll had a limit of 10 choices so I had to squeeze a couple of options together. I really though that ME ment "Millenium Edition" therefore sinonymous to 2000 :D

But to save face I would say that if OSes were cars,
I'd be a hell of a driver but not much of a mechanics.
mind you the important thing was that i WAS on the road:p

If you dont mind telling me the differences between these, I would go to bed a smarter VJ...

Thanks,
VJ NE1

[eXhale]

Windows ME is supposed to be a slightly improved version of Windows 98, but it's in reality a lot more unstable and slower, while Windows 2K is basically Windows NT5, it's not based on MS-DOS and it's more stables. So both OS are quite opposite.

By the way the millenium started on 2001 ;) :D :p

[Awax]

and XP is NT 5.1