What is your preferred OS you use for Music Creation? ( Poll)

[jassy]

Obviously its much more accurate.

[mooncaine]

Sure, but an accurate measure of something different.

It's a measure of OSes used by folks who downloaded the program. Not users of the program, nor a measure of how many installed it.

Some users update often; others, never.

There are so many reasons a download might be recorded, that I don't think you can infer much about which OS is more widely used by musicians who use this site (that's what this poll asks).

If you have 3 macs, you might download it 3 times as often as a 1-mac owner. If you go through more PCs in the same time that I keep an old mac going, you'll add more to the download count than I. If you're troubleshooting, you'll download older versions.... see what I mean?

I'm not saying I know what the download count represents, but I can see that it's a different kind of data, measuring a different activity. The poll is a voluntary question that only some will answer, problematic because it only offers a single choice. Download count can include multiple platforms. I've downloaded it for PCs and mac over the years.

[kenact]

These polls and download statistics aren't a scientific representation of anything. It's a gauge of what people are using for various purposes. And yes, they are a representation of two different things. One represents the platform musicians use to make music, ie: recording/editing, the other represents the platform used to edit patches on the GR-55. There is crossover, but not all GR-55 users will record/edit music on a computer, and not all of those in the other category will use the GR-55.

Some will look at the polls to justify their use of a particular platform, some will look with an idea of finding a better platform, non-computer savvy GR-55 users might use it to see what is the easiest or cheapest platform to run the floorboard. There are also those who are thinking about switching platforms, who may use it to find out if the platform they're considering, will support everything they're doing.

All in all, they are both just general guides, while the replies in this thread is far more useful for those looking to improve their platform, or solve a particular problem they've run into.

Personally, I have nearly 50 years of computer industry experience, and as I stated in my earlier reply in this thread, I'm comfortable on just about any of the platforms, though most of what I do is still Windows based. I use computers for sound recording & editing, to edit patches on the GR-55, GR-33, GT-3, but I also use them to run lights, sound & video for theatrical productions, video editing as well as database design and providing remote assistance to friends and family.

I mostly use Windows 10, both Home & Professional, but I also use a MacBook from time to time. Typically it's only used if I have to work with someone else who's using QLab, which doesn't run on Windows. I do also have XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 98 laptops, but they haven't seen any use in years.

One thing I do on all of my laptops is upgrade to the fastest processor available and bring the RAM up to the maximum, which is why I can still use several 14 year old Dell D630 laptops for most of my theatrical productions.

[guitji]

I'm using different operating systems as well, Windows, Mac OS, IOS. Mostly I use Windows.

[Chumly]

Very well said, insightful, and to the point (well, multiple points) kenact!

[Tosh]

After 20+ years supporting Windows PC's (Dell, HP, IBM, etc - avoiding home-built) I just got burned out on the administrative requirements of maintaining a Windows system.

I never found Linux support (of external devices and their supporting software) to be up-to-date enough to go very far with it.

I want to spend my time fiddling with my synths, keyboards, and bass guitars - not my operating system. I've standardized on Mac now. I'm running versions from 10.6 through 12.2, with hardware going back to 2008 (the only Mac i ever had that died was a victim of a lighting strike).

I do keep a Windows XP system running (bootcamp on the old Macbook) so I can use my favorite wave editor of all time - Sound Forge - because the Mac version is lame.

[shannonrichards]

I think linux would be just great.