Fair enough. I've used it and liked it okay in the past. But always just as a user, not as an admin.
Oh yeah...I was supposed to be using this account.
So...on the same laptop running largely the same applications, Win10 is noticeably slower than Linux for day-to-day stuff. But wavelab seems to work fine except that it defaulted to using the non-ASIO drivers for some stupid reason. At least it boots in about the same amount of time.
I still haven't gotten a chance to actually test Traktor because Dropbox is taking forever...it keeps saying "2 minutes left" and then starting to download more files instead of just giving me a realistic estimate. I haven't noticed that behavior on OS X or Linux. Also, Win10 defaults to sleeping the computer after a while even on battery power, so the transfer didn't happen overnight like I planed.
I haven't bothered installing Live yet, but I'm not sure if there even are virtual sound cards for Windows that have enough channels for the effects setup I use on OS X...fortunately, I don't care that much.
I figured out how to use a password over a pin (use a local account and disable pin).
It's still a mixed bag. But, it's still not as bad as my last experience with Windows. So, there's that.
This experiment is probably going to come down to comparing what's actually available this fall when the upgrade happens...it looks like the 15" MBPs got upgraded, but there are 4K gaming laptops that have hardware at least as good....and despite the fact that I'd probably scale it to 2560x1440...that's still better than the MBP can do. And they still have real ports instead of just USB-C. So I won't have to glue a docking station to it.
Traktor, wavelab, plugins, etc. appear to all work just fine. So, there's that.
Powershell and cmd are flat out incapable of doing part of what I need to do for my day job. Doing those things in Windows as opposed to OS X or Linux literally turns a 10-second task into a 2-minute task, which gets performed 40ish times/day. So, it would make it so slow that I literally could not finish work in the time allotted. As far as what I've tried, Windows is the only OS that has these problems.
Hyper-V and Virtualbox cannot happily coexist on the same system.
Hyper-V has some major networking issues. Microsoft acknowledged them for 2008 server versions. The fixes do not work for Win10.
After disabling Hyper-V, Virtualbox still has limitations that I don't want to deal with.
...which means I'm down to VMWare Workstation....which adds $250 to the price of Windows computers...assuming I don't want their tech support. I've used it in the past, but that was with an Educational license that was free.
Or dual-booting. Which is and always will be a PITA.
And the MBPs just got upgraded to 8th gen processors, including i9s. And I initially misread it's native resolution. It's fine...a little low, but fine.
And all of the VM things I'm having problem with, I've done on an OS X host without the problems.
Right now, I'm happy I did the experiment. In the short term, this computer will end up getting wiped (again) and dual-booting archlinux and win10. In the long run, despite the problems OS X has been having, the premium they charge, and the absolutely asinine hardware design...I think that a 15" MBP with a docking station glued to the lid might actually win.
What is your future use of the computer going to be?
This computer? It'll probably be dedicated to DJ use at home until it dies. If not, it'll get recycled/donated after pulling the drive(s).
The new computer would ideally be an "everything" laptop...which involves some studio stuff (either windows or OS X works), day job (must be Linux or OS X), and what I call normal daily use (Linux). If I could get away with gaming a bit as well, that'd be cool, but it's a super-low priority. I generally prefer console gaming because I don't care that much, and I don't do it very often.
The reason is just that my Hackintosh is getting a bit long in the tooth (I think I built it in 2012 and haven't upgraded anything except the monitor). And, as a result, OS X updates can be a little weird and are taking more and more work. At this point, the upgrades I would do are almost the cost of a new one. And because video cards have changed, it's not that much less than either a MBP or a high-end PC that would just about match performance of what I could build.
My only remaining laptop is from 2011. It works fine, but it's going to die at some point. And it's time to move it to a backup or low-priority role.
Also, I got annoyed having to wait for a furniture delivery today and ended up making the x230 dual boot windows 10 and arch linux, which was easier than I remembered. Then again, the last time I did it was around 2012 on a MBP. So, it makes sense that it got easier....if you use systemd-boot, the archlinux installer (for being so 'manual') does almost all of the heavy lifting for you.
Anyway...that means I can do all the things with the laptop now and continue the testing. It also might be a way forward if the PC makes sense. Though a part of me thinks it would be funny to glue at least a USB 3 hub onto a MBP. I kind of want a wired LAN port as well, but I don't use it that often.
Last edited by mostapha; 07-22-2018 at 12:09 PM.