Industry Standard? Why Mac?

Hehe... whatever you do, make your client approvals and tests mac friendly...
chances are they are on a mac. If you do a promotional website, make sure
it works in 'stock' safari on the mac...

On set last week, there were at least 30 laptops quietly humming away offscreen...
agency, client, production staff, assistants, crew, post reps, vfx... there was
one guy with a dell... one of the engineering fabricators :)

Use whatever the heck you want, but the higher up the ladder you go, the
more macs you'll find in the hands of the clients, producers and investors.
 
so, anyway, did miniman13 post the specs to run mac os on pc perfectly?
couldn´t find it on the thread.
like the idea of having shake and final cut running on my pc...
any links?
thanks
 
Just posting specs doesn't get you anywhere. A few weeks of research is required. I'm on my final week and about to start building. I will post the specs and trials up in the DIY section, along with whatever info I can give.

But it's really not something you just setup and run.
 
Is this thread still going? Seriously. Use whatever gets your work done and move along. Sweet jeezo.
 
I actually got yelled at by some other member for talking about it, but that was in the FCP section, i wasnt sure if it was allowed or not, the specs dont have everything to do with it, but not all hardware is supported.
 
To a point, you literally have to build a PC version of an Intel Mac, remaining within OS X drivers. You still end up cheaper this way with a system that's potentially more powerful. Can we say OVERCLOCK?
 
StudioScout said:
This guys a film editor and he owns a sound and DVD company: been in the business 25+ years.



... any comment?
Click to expand...
Macs tend to dominate in art departments (mostly because they are cool to look at, and their users can afford to shell out the extra $$$ for "looks cool;" every app they use runs faster for cheaper on a PC). Although personally, I'll keep using my Boxx machine for Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightwave, Maya, Vectorworks, AutoCad, Solidworks and Rhino, thank yoo veruh much...

PCs are the standard in VFX departments, everywhere I've been (although the receptionists are usually given Macs, presumably for ease-and-comfort-of-use reasons). Bang-for-the-buck is the overriding consideration; if your shot looks cool, no one gives a good gods-damn whether or not the machine on which it was set up does. And, networking a house-full of PCs seems to be easer and more trouble-free, when you keep Macs out of the mix.

Also - maybe - it has something to do with the fact that animators are often tech-wonks, and the opportunities for chopping-channeling-overclocking-customizing techno-wonkery are immeasurably greater with PCs, than Macs. A highly-tricked-out PC is a badge of technical virtuosity. A highly-tricked-out Mac merely advertises a willingness to empty one's wallet.

I've only encountered one person who made an issue of Mac-vs-PC on a show, and his big, unassuageable worry was that as mainly a PC-operator, I would somehow be unable to figure out how to use Lightwave, running on a Mac. And, this guy is a well-known fussbudget, anyway.
 
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Greggl said:
Use whatever the heck you want, but the higher up the ladder you go, the
more macs you'll find in the hands of the clients, producers and investors.
Click to expand...

Yep.

Most of the pros I know have Macs. They're SO much better than PCs for that stuff.

What stuff?

Well, all the pros I know are writers, so they use Word. On their Macs.
 
hei kholi,
i´m on it just for the fun.
after 20 years as a photographer, i´m still like to take pictures from a shoe box.if you can post the specs and your experience i will thank you very much.
cheers
 
I think the main diff between Mac and PC is that Macs appeal to people who "just want things to work" while PCs appeal to people who want to understand how they work as well. the reason I'm saying this is that most (gross generalization) Mac users don't understand computing in general and are used to pointing and clicking. so when something goes wrong they are screwed.

Another important point in this discussion is that Macs are primarily single-unit systems. there are few if any good mac server applications - even in massive production houses the backup, system and rendering servers are always either Microsoft or some form of Linux/Unix system.

Mac does have an appealing user interface but Microsoft is getting damn close with Vista. and claims that Mac somehow "inspires creativity" more than PCs is just pure nonsense. that's like saying that blue paint brushes inspire creativity in a painter more than red ones. creativity lives in the mind of the artist, not in the tools she uses. I continue being amazed at how mac addicts swallow such mac propaganda whole and spew it out whenever they get a chance without thinking about how redicuous it really is.

the industry standard btw is not mac but Avid.

The only reason why OS-X doesn't run on PCs is because Mr. Jobbs has hardcoded the OS to a chip that can only be found in Macs. it's a smart (and dictatorial) way of making sure that people buy his computers and not others. the funny part is that when Microsoft tried to do the same with Paladium (later known as Longhorn and now Vista) the government struck them down saying it forced people to use proprietory hardware and that it was contrary to open competition. guess Jobbs has a free pass on monopolization. Interestingly this is also why Mac can claim that they never have driver issues - since they have complete control over the systems they sell they can issue a very limited set of drivers they know work while Microsoft has to supply drivers for millions of 3rd party components. And the claim about drivers isn't actually true either: when the station I used to work for purchased new G5 systems and tried to install the BlackMagic HD cards they ran into impossible driver issues because the drivers supplied by mac were not functioning properly. they ended up having to get someone from mac to come to the building and set it up for them - it took two whole days.


mor10
 
morten said:
I think the main diff between Mac and PC is that Macs appeal to people who "just want things to work" while PCs appeal to people who want to understand how they work as well. the reason I'm saying this is that most (gross generalization) Mac users don't understand computing in general and are used to pointing and clicking. so when something goes wrong they are screwed.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
Sad Max said:
Also - maybe - it has something to do with the fact that animators are often tech-wonks, and the opportunities for chopping-channeling-overclocking-customizing techno-wonkery are immeasurably greater with PCs, than Macs. A highly-tricked-out PC is a badge of technical virtuosity. A highly-tricked-out Mac merely advertises a willingness to empty one's wallet.
Click to expand...

Actually, the whole PC-VFX thing is a VERY recent occurance. The field was dominated by silicon graphics unix boxes and in the past three years, the shift is to linux based pcs. Apple has made huge inroads with shake and stopping developement on the other platforms.

The department I run is mostly PC based, but our compositing is mac based. I also do my on-set visualization with a mac.
 
Maya is the big player. Seeing more nuke and that will really increase with
Foundry's control. All the vfx studios are now linux based. Its only in the
small shops where you'll see a lot of machines running windows.
 
morten said:
I think the main diff between Mac and PC is that Macs appeal to people who "just want things to work" while PCs appeal to people who want to understand how they work as well. the reason I'm saying this is that most (gross generalization) Mac users don't understand computing in general and are used to pointing and clicking. so when something goes wrong they are screwed.
Click to expand...

Gross generalization indeed. I'd say most people who use ANY kind of computer don't know how it works and are screwed when pointing and clicking fails to work. Holy cow, do you honestly think the millions of PC users out know what's going on under hood or bought a PC because they like tinkering with their machines? Do you think I've used Macs for the past 13 years because I don't have a clue and don't want one? Come on. People use what that use because they either like it better, want it for specific software, or need a specific platform for their job.

Mystery solved.
 
morten said:
The only reason why OS-X doesn't run on PCs is because Mr. Jobbs has hardcoded the OS to a chip that can only be found in Macs. it's a smart (and dictatorial) way of making sure that people buy his computers and not others.

mor10
Click to expand...


Not sure about that. I've seen people run OS X on an AMD processor and Intel Processor.
 
Agreed, I did it with an AMD 64 3400+. Granted I currently use a Macbook Pro, it's very doable on a PC. I'm debating getting a Mac Pro later on this year or building another computer strictly to run OS X on. Still undecided.

-Kegan
 
Kholi said:
Not sure about that. I've seen people run OS X on an AMD processor and Intel Processor.
Click to expand...

not legaly. from OSx86project.org:
The "Trusted Platform Module," or TPM, is a computer chip embedded inside Intel-based Macs to prevent the Intel-based version of Mac OS X from running on non-Apple hardware. (during installation of Mac OS X, Mac OS X interfaces with the TPM. If Mac OS X finds that the TPM doesn't exist, Mac OS X refuses to install or run.)
Click to expand...
you can't go out and buy OS X and install it on anything but a mac. you can if you use some patch programs and do a LOT of work - osx86project.org has been working on this for years. but the fact is that unlike windows which runs on any mac either by itself or through bootcamp OS X cannot and will not run on anything but a mac unless you crack something or other in the code. and by doing so you are defacto breaking the licence. selling such a solution is tantamount to piracy and you will be prosecuted by the very expensive lawyers from Mac.

for more info you can also read this article at uneasysilence.

mor10
*doesn't have anything against macs but doesn't like religious devotion to operating systems, blind belief in advertising or companies that create monopolies*
 
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