I am not strictly biased toward one system or another, much as I have far more experience of Windows based systems. There are arguments for and against each, but most of them are very general and based on a users individual experiences, knowledge and recommendations of friends, colleagues and peers.
There is nothing new in this. People often by cars on the same basis. Generalizations like "Ford are good cars" are no more useful than comments like "Windows Sucks" or "Macs are the best computers" or "Linux is faster". They are all just un-qualified judgements.
There are however some easily qualified facts:
The Unix/Linux operating system has many strengths. It is
quite possible to build a Linux based AV Work-station. Many people are
running them daily in both professional and domestic situations. With
applications such as Jack, Wineasio and ALSA it is even possible to run
Windows audio programs on a Linux system. In my opinion however, Linux
is not for the faint hearted user. There is no "one stop shop" to find
all the information you are likely to need. There are a number of
communities within the Linux world who are developing Linux based
systems for common use, but the technology is constantly evolving and
by the nature of its development, relatively de-centralized.
I applaud the efforts of the Linux communities. I hope that one day we
will see an open source Linux distribution which will work for every PC
and MAC user, but at the moment at least, this seems to be some
distance away.
My reason for choosing to focus on PCs rather than MAC computers is very simple. At one time the MAC was very reliable because its components were a known quantity. It is naturally easier to create an operating system for a machine that will always contain the same components. The most common gripes with computers running the Windows operating system usually come from people who have found certain peripheral components do not function as expected. So users say " Windows is no good" or "PCs don't work properly". This is simply not true. It has been the case that for many years users who have bought a sound card, a graphics card or other peripherals for a PC have found problems with installing their new add-on, but as Windows XP has matured, the number of devices it can handle without stability problems has diminished considerably. It is very important to consider that a PC consists of many third party devices all of which are expected to work together. This involves many manufacturers and developers creating software and hardware to work together. The phrase "too many cooks spoil the broth" comes to mind, but this issue has now largely been addressed, amongst other things by the development of very good motherboards.
Some years ago a motherboard had some devices integrated in to it, but not many. It was necessary to install a separate sound card, networking device, graphics driver, USB interface, Etc. These peripherals would all be designed and manufactured by different companies with an interest in their own device working properly, but perhaps less interest in the other devices functioning as well. This would obviously lead to conflicts under some circumstances.
Over the life of Windows XP there have been many changes. Etiquettes and protocols have now matured to a large degree. Manufacturers can now implement the design of hardware and software applying far stricter rules than ever before. This has largely been driven by the market for PCs, where a consumer would expect any combination of peripherals from any manufacturer to work seamlessly together, but it has naturally also benefited the development of the MAC.
When you buy a PC today, It is easy to select a motherboard with all the functions for immediate use of your computer already on-board. The advantage that a MAC had over its competitors has certainly diminished to a great degree, some would say entirely. One thing is for sure. PCs are now easier to build than ever before. They work with far greater stability, they are easier to configure. Best of all, in the "performance versus cost" arena they win hands-down against a MAC.
When I decided to start writing this web site my aim was to help as many people as possible get the best advantage from both their software and hardware. There are far more PC users around the globe than there are MAC users. So, this site reaches more users if I focus on the technology more people can use. The same applies to my deliberate choice of Windows XP. It is now the maturest and most commonly used operating system. Most of the problems that caused people lack og confidence in its use have now been solved. It is the choice of Windows operating system for music at the moment. This may not continue to be the case forever, but for now and the immediate future it is likely to be. Most manifacturers write drivers for their hardware to support WinXP and MAC, but the supply of drivers, plugins and music software are still sparse for WinXP 64bit and Vista 64bit.
If you use another system you will still find a lot of useful information here. Many computer issues still apply across all platforms, besides, this site is not dedicated toward computing. It is dedicated to sound and recording.
*I*
This website is in a state of on-going development. More pages will be written over the coming days. Thank you for visiting inthepipeline.net. See you again soon.