So my brother Tom calls me one night frustrated as heck because he can’t make a copy of a DVD. A simple thing, pop a DVD into the computer and click “Copy”. It’s of his performance at a show, and he wants to make copies for himself and the rest of the members of the band. He’s been trying Windows machines and utilizing Nero. I think he had purchased a copy of Nero, but it wasn’t cooperating. He then tried using a trial version from their web site that would be fully functional, just slow (write @ 1X or something). It may be that he purchased Nero, and that was on his old PC which was in storage and he thought he might go get that to get the job done. Regardless, no matter how far he got, the copy was not happening.
I told him to stop over, and I would make the copy no problem. I have a Macbook Pro and a Windows PC where I was, so no matter what, we’d make a copy. I ended up using a trial version of Toast I got with Cubase 5. But even so, I would have tried the FREE Mac software Burn if Toast hadn’t stepped up. It was a click, “Copy” and it asked how many copies you wanted.
While we waited for the process to complete, Tom reiterated his DVD copying experience and frustrations. He was to the point where he was going to go out and buy a new computer to make this work! He thought maybe his PC was too old for such a task as copying a DVD. I said, “If you’re going to buy a new computer, you should buy a Mac.” I think that was Monday, August 17th. I saw Tom a week later, Monday, August 24th and he told me he bought an iMac. He was going back to the store to have a one on one session with someone who knows Logic. I told him Cubase 5 or Digital Performer 6 were good choices as well … and you can always play with GarageBand.
I hardly ever touch a Microsoft Windows machine anymore unless I have to. All my servers are FreeBSD and the Mac software (OS X) is FreeBSD based. The interface is so much more intuitive and I venture to say “cleaner” … It’s much more of a pleasure to develop web sites and programs on and mix music as well … Come on Windows people, once you go Mac, you never go back! Or so they say … but who are “they” actually? Probably a bunch of satisfied Mac users! =)