MAX on windows experience
Hello to everyone, i need to upgrade to a new laptop: i'm a mac user, i love macos but new M2/3 products are too expensive for my pockets.
I was thinking about buying a windows notebook (with great hardware specs for half the price) but i was wondering about what the max user experience might be on that OS.
I'm not on windows since 10 years so i don't know if max on new windows systems could be buggy, problematic or just lacking of important features.
So, i'm here to kindly ask for suggestions and impressions, not to start a windows/macos war :),
cheers!
I am Mac user since it's earliest days.
Would not buy new one today, because of MacOS.
Otherwise clear winner is new apple's hardware (we talk about laptops).
Windows OS is as bad as MacOS, but one can get rid of all junk.
Not so with latest MacOS versions.
Windows GUI is not comparable to Mac, I can't stand it.
For everyday's use it would drive me crazy.
Max on Windows works well, if you miss MacOS
one can run it as hackintosh on suited windows hardware
even from external HD, unless you need to run arm64 native code.
Would not recommend anything higher then Catalina,
last MacOS that can be tailored for specific use, like music.
That is my personal opinion and answer to how to keep using a Mac in 2024.
you asked about
lacking of important features ?
what would that be for you?
I add my two cents. I am also a Mac user and Max user from the beginning. Now I am very happy with a Macbook pro 2021 M1 16GB (14'). If you can still find them on the market, perhaps this one is cheaper. Tested in the field with complex audio video shows with Max without any problems.
As operating system I am using Sonoma 14.6. I think you can also configure the machine with Catalina, if necessary.
just grab 200 or 300 hundred bucks, go to ebay and:
order a dell hp asus or lenovo inexpensive laptop
do the same thing for a server, and use it as a workstation
if you buy like a graphics card and an hard drive, you can even couple that to the machine, and this way, you can install both macos (using hackintosh), ubuntu debian or arch, and windows
Well explained thankyou, the everyday use is really important to me but it doesn't make the price resonable.
About the features i mean problems or missing packages compatibilies, libraries or things like the fact that on windows i have to write the ~ with ALT+123 that is really annoying (i mean, i'm scared about finding many issues like this one, i also use the ~ a lot lol). I can stand to write the tilde that way, but not if i get crazy obscene ways to make every simple task i need to do.
So with a m1 pro 16gb can i work realtime, for example, with touchdesigner, max msp and a costant stream of OSC data without maxing the cpu?
I already looked into that kind of stuff but for the moment i'm not an expert on hardware/hacking compatibilies and it cost to me too much time that i need to spend in studying and working.
"So with a m1 pro 16gb can i work realtime, for example, with touchdesigner, max msp and a costant stream of OSC data without maxing the cpu?"
Yes absolutely. I did some big show (never used touch designer) with complex video projection (using Ableton with Videosync or Jitter), multichannel audio (Max msp) and OSC without any problem.
Obviously for real time performance a good optimization of the patches is always needed
Actually even a latest macbook pro with an intel processor could support this kind of live show, but obviously you would lose all the arm64 compiled libraries
"Yes absolutely. I did some big show (never used touch designer) with complex video projection (using Ableton with Videosync or Jitter), multichannel audio (Max msp) and OSC without any problem."
You are about to convince me, what about the cooling fan? It started with a lot of noise or i stayed in reasonable limits?
I'm asking because i think i found som m1 pro 16" at 1500€ or 14" at 1200.. The thing that almost convinces me to remain in mac is the m processor