A matter of Opinion

[LostArt]

What do you think would be better, a notebook that can barely run windows vista, and editing software, and a desktop with ubuntu studio, or a notebook and desktop with ubuntu studio, or a desktop with xp and a notebook with ubuntu studio.

Basically I want to know which os would be better for video editing, music production (for my band) and Graphic design ( to build up my portfolio).

Oh yeah, I have another computer with Vista, so these are for the other two.

Cheers!! and thanks for helping me decide

Oh yeah is there more support for ATI cards when it comes to beryl.:popcorn:

[kevinlyfellow]

From what your saying, you may be better off to stick to windows. If your computer barely runs vista you may consider finding a copy of XP.

All those things you listed are possible, but its going to be a headache. Especially trying to get beryl with an ati, but its possible (another edit: ati just released a new version of their driver. I don't think it support aiglx yet, but I could be wrong).

Edit: Some linux solutions
Video
Kino
Cinelerra
Audio
Audacity
Jokosher
Graphic Design
Blender
the Gimp
Inkscape
Scribbus

Yet another edit: We do have powerful stuff, but it doesn't seem like its for someone new. Check out Elephants Dream... http://www.elephantsdream.org/

[LostArt]

Oh I already now about everything open source can do, I've been playing around with Gimp and Blender on windows for over a year, and there are some powerful multimedia tools out there. But I was thinking it would be better to have my notebook and secondary desktop on the same OS for compatibility issues, i can live without Beryl :-). Besides, learning is the way of the world, how else can one improve.

[kevinlyfellow]

Hmmm... you probably know more about it than I do then :-)

I don't know about software on the Windows side much (in terms of compatibility especially), but for compatibility you can be sure that having linux on both will work. But also, much of our software is ported to windows too. I'd say in this case (especially where you're willing to learn) go with Linux. Again ATI may give you a headache, but its probably fixable.

If you really want to use linux but can't do everything you want, you could virtualize windows on top of linux. In any case, I'd determine what software I'd want to use and make a platform decision based on that.

[kpolice]

For those needs I would use Windows XP and also if you have the money because the software isn't free although you can find some free alternatives.

Cinelerra and Kino are good but I prefer Adobe Premiere + After Effects. For design I prefer Adobe Photoshop over any other editor, I use GIMP in Linux but the truth is that it is inferior to Photoshop when you really do complex things.

The truth is that the only one that has the answer is you, try the available Linux alternatives and compare them to the Windows ones to see which one fit your needs better.

[LostArt]

Yeah, I find photoshop more powerful too, but I think I'll put ubuntu on my notebook, cause my main desktop has Vista so I can still use all of those programs

[deuchar1]

I dual-boot Windows XP and Feisty.
I use Feisty mainly for programming purposes - and general use cause it's prettier ;)

Windows is definitely better for audio production and so forth - the software on Linux is good but you're better sticking to industry standards wherever possible if you ask me. Try Cubase (or Cubasis if you're on a tight budget) for the audio work, Adobe Premiere for video and Illustrator/Flash/Freehand for the graphic design work.

And forget the tight budget problem if you know the right sites :D

Avoid Vista. It stinks.