As I was sitting in the audience last week at the Mac OS X conference watching David Mash create beautiful music with his talent and a TiBook running Mac OS X applications, it seemed like a good time to dispel one of the lingering myths for this platform: Mac OS X is just for Unix geeks. That’s not true! In fact, it’s amazing for musicians, photographers, and digital movie makers.
If you take a minute to sign up on David Mash’s site (free, no hassle), you can read one of his articles (titled Mac OS X for Musicians) that explains all the current pro music software available for the modern Mac. When you combine these programs with the low latency and robustness of the platform, you have a perfectly wonderful tool for sophisticated music making. (And if you ever have a chance to watch David play, don’t miss it!)
Next, take digital photography. I have an all day workshop coming up in San Francisco this November where I’ll demonstrate the power of Mac OS X for imaging. With just a basic consumer digital camera, and using iPhoto, QuickTime, Photoshop, PixelNhance, or Graphic Converter, you can create truly professional-looking pictures. (Plus, Mac OS X is great for all-day demos because it doesn’t crash :)
Lastly, digital movies … We’re publishing an article this Friday from a recent Switcher who chose Mac OS X specifically for movie making. He’s using iMovie to create the short pieces that he’s always dreamed of, but never really had the equipment to make it happen. The best part, the article covers in detail all the tricks he’s learned along the way.
And that’s not even getting into Final Cut Pro, Maya, and a host of other cool tools for the film maker.
It’s true, Mac OS X is great for geeks. Guilty as charged. But as a photographer, amateur movie maker, and former (bad) musician, I can also tell you that this is a great platform for creativity.
Keep an eye on the Mac DevCenter for lots of practical hands-on tools that can help you set your creativity free. After all, there’s more to computing than work.
Well, I’m actually on vacation for two weeks (off taking pictures of fall color!), so I won’t be able to chime in on your comments. So you’ll have to talk amongst yourselves.
Mac 'Good For Creative Tasks'
Who'd have thunk it? ;)
Mac 'Good For Creative Tasks' -- Actually, a Real Issue
Read the headline: "Mac OS X." Just in case you haven't heard, lots of traditional Mac users have been concerned that Mac OS X ditches many of their creative tools in favor of geek Unix.
I know you think you're clever, but this is actually a real issue within the Mac community ...
OS X = rock solid
More than a dozen times when illustrator crash trying to print a large poster, i have to turn Mr Jeckyll and go figure out what's going on. But with OS X i can be only Mr Hyde and concentrate on my work. I know that many of us have waited 1 year or so but OS X can be the best OS for all people who want a rock solid OS. Who do you think are developing the next great killer design, music, video application? Designers? Musicians? Moviemakers? Developers, Scientists, Unix geeks...etc.These guys too have a wonderful creative mind.