Hello PC, My old friend: The Journey to Mac and Back

Creative COW by Tom Daigon

So, I'm sitting here in the edit bay with my trusty 2008 Mac Pro tucked under the edit desk, staring at Adobe CS6 on the monitors. I feel like I'm at a crossroads and need to make a decision soon. I don't really want things to change, but decisions made by Apple and developments made by Adobe are pushing me in that direction. I'm sure lots of folks can relate to how I feel.

PCs and Macs have inhabited my edit bays over my career of 30 years. I didn't always get to influence the choice of which system to get. That was tasked to Engineering with input from the Senior Editor most of the time, which meant that I didn't have to stress about it… unlike today.


Flashback many years…

The CMX system I started editing with was based on the PDP-11 computer. Editing by numbers was the interface. I worked in a large expensive facility, so I never worried about computers there. Problems? Just call Engineering. They picked the system and fixed it, as well.

The beta release of Avid Media Composer was my first Mac experience. The whole system was magic to me. Editing pictures, on a beautiful, friendly computer. Again, engineering / upper management was there for any decisions and messes.

The Age of Digital was experienced in an all-digital bay from Abekas. It was amazing technology with minimal generation loss, and layering with pre-read on D2 machines. The computers were proprietary and I didn't choose the system, but I got to use it everyday and holler for help when it broke. read more...