Digidesign/Pro Tools rant

[zombi]

It took me forever to get my G4 iBook OSX10.3 Mbox Pro Tools rig together and working back in whenever, but it did work. Recently my G4 died so, the whole shit is out the window.

Now if I buy a new Mac, they basically now come with new Intel chips and OSX 10.5, most of them shipping with 10.5 cannot even be reverted to older OS versions because of the hardware.

Meanwhile, Digidesign's "industry standard" Pro Tools only works with OSX 10.4, they are supposedly working to get it to work with 10.5 but as of yet they are not there, even though 10.5 has been out almost half a year already.

So my recording hobby is in indefinite limbo while Digidesign dicks around getting to 10.5, since I'm not about to go down the road of buying a used computer that will work with 10.4.

Unless of course I give Digi the big FU and move to something already compatible with 10.5, or revert to a 4 track cassette deck. Not great options because I have so many PT files going on, including new stuff I was still in the middle of working on when the G4 died.

I can't decide who sucks worse, Apple for their constant cramming of new non-backward-compatible OS down consumers throats every GD year, or Digi for their glacial software development pace. both are local companies so it's even more galling.

[Aegon]

Leopard has been on the horizon for years, and developers have had access to Leopard for about a year. If Pro Tools doesn't work yet, it is because the developers didn't care enough to make it work, or their project severely departed from the guidelines and SDK.

Their inability to smoothly transition is their own fault. And it doesn't look good for their future ability to keep up-to-date (much less to innovate). I'd look into new software.

If your needs can't be met by anyone else, buy a used G4.

[zombi]

the hell of it is that Pro Tools is far & away the industry standard, a monopoly almost among professionals. How that can be when Digidesign is so lame with development is pretty well beyond me.

The answer I get from the Digi kool aiders is that the pros are all still on 10.4 because it's not just PT that's fucked with 10.5, and that "only consumers" are on 10.5. But from my POV, excuse the fuck outta me for not keeping backup old pre-10.5 systems on hand like I guess all the pros do.

and you know, I just don't need the headache of buying a used computer, I want to go in and buy a new one and in that case I'm gonna get a 10.5. Digi... so lame. The kind of lameness you only see from a lazy monopoly.

[Aegon]

Too bad there aren't other options – that sounds like the root of the problem.

I imagine you could find a 10.4 install disk and get it to work on a pretty modern machine. I think the only hardware out there that needs 10.5 is the airbook.