Advice on the following

[wizard1183]

Ok, Im a newb when it comes to Linux and some computer based material. My question is how much of the software out these days made for windows works on Linux? Such as: Music Creator4,M-Audio to record music ect. I hear Linux is not made for the novice. I wish I could use this system solely but having an iphone and updating it through itunes, Linux will not support it.

Also backing up my system, what does that entail? Lets say I have 2-4 HDD and I run them In RAID. How would I copy all the software installed on the main HD into another so as to not reinstall everything? Like when SSD gets cheaper I'd like to swap my HDD for this and transfer all my info directly to it rather than having to reinstall everything.

I'm looking to buy a computer soon and I'm undecided as to where to start. I'd like to buy a mac pro,but I keep hearing bad things about apple. My question towards this is on the mac pro. The new nehalem processors, how much better are they than say a processor from last yr? (2.66ghz quad-core 08 to a new nehalem 2.66ghz quad-core) considering both had same of everything else.

I want a computer that can handle recording music,surfing the web and a little media,very upgradeable. Not so much spyware,adware,viruses. I also was thinking about putting hard drives into succession using RAID. (desktop btw)In doing this with the hard drives, lets say in the future when prices drop I change out HDDs for SSDs. How would I transfer data and software from HDD to SSD or form one HDD to another without having to reinstall software?

This is not a windows vs mac comparison. Im trying to figure out the best way to go about this. Reason Id like a mac is because the OS doesnt use a whole lot of resources and is open source with little adware,viruses,and such. Im a pc user looking for options.

I wouldnt mind staying with a pc, but if I do this, what OS should I use? XP?
Im currently running Vista Ultimate. It's not that bad of an OS imo since what I use computers for is nothing too complex. I want it to run much faster though and I understand Vista is a resource hog. Now Win7 is coming out but besides the fact it should be like XP and Vista (better) it too I believe is a resource hog using RAM like crazy to run it. If I use just XP as my OS how much RAM can I successfully use at one time? I'd like 8gigs at least if Im going to custom build a pc. I just want a computer that runs very quickly and efficiently.

Thing about windows is besides the OS like Vista or WIN7 taking 1Gb just to run it is having to run spyware,adware virus protectors so thats taking up RAM as well but if I have 8gb or more shouldnt be a prob, I'd just like it to use it effectively.

Reason Im looking at mac is it rarely uses much to run and is open source. I realize Linux is which was an alternative but then again I have an iphone and Linux doesnt support anything to connect my iphone to itunes to update ect. Also it may not support much of the software out these days Im not sure. yes I could dual boot but Id find it redundant to use windows just for itunes if I could use Linux for everything else.
So any suggestions would help in choosing a fast running computer would be greatly appreciated. Macs normally last 7-10yrs running efficiently which is why i was looking towards that. Windows based pc Im wondering if I make it fast if indeed it'll run fast for 7 yrs without any upgrades?

 

[Devastator_uk]

the numbers below reflect the paragraphs to break it down:

1)
I don't know about music software, but quite a lot can run in Linux with the use of Wine or Mono. Or you could do what I do for the one or two things I have that work best in Windows and run Windows in a virtual (I find VirtualBox 3 is the best).

2)
You could use something like CloneZilla to clone/copy the old drive to the new one (not 100% sure if RAID will affect this in anyway).

3)
Basically go for either a Nehalem (Intel) or PhenomII (AMD) because they have decent amount of cache, QPI or HT, integrated memory controller and so on (much better than Core2s and that).

4)
see 2)

5)
Well Linux can use very little resources (most distributions have a requirement of 256MB of RAM but it is possible to use a lot less), Linux has a somewhat similar architecture to Mac OS due to them both having Unix origins.

6)
If you run a virtual within Linux then XP might be best cos of the lower requirement (although I have ran a whole virtual network (about 10 guests) in virtuals on my machine without any problems), although I do have 8GB of RAM).
If running native it depends how much RAM you plan to have, if more than 3-4GB then go fo Win7 64bit if not you may find that Win XP 32 bit suites you best.

7)
True, some antiviruses do use a lot of resources, but then again others aren't too bad (although they may not protect much either).

8)
When I originally started trying out alternatives to Windows (Linux, QNX, BeOS...) I did dual-boot, which was a pain, then I came across virtual machines, which were pretty poor at the time, but recently I haven't dual-booted at all due to virtuals.

 

[obsidian86]

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