rackmount g4 server, perfect for musicians? Options

[damann]

i want one of these so badly.
has anyone bought one yet?
it appears to be a macmusic dream come true.
does it support os9.2?
how long do i have to wait?
will it overheat in my rack?
will my girlfriend overheat when it dosen't work?
help.

[lepetitmartien]

It uses a MacOSX server OS… (check on Apple site it's detailed)

But I haven't seen for the moment a comment of someone who brought it in different roads than the cluster one.

Is there a rich musician hacker somewhere?

[damann]

surely a different os version (standard x, classic or 9.2) can be loaded. can't servers function as regular machines ?
isn't it just the os that makes it function as a server ?
surely the hardware dosen't have to be different for it to function as a server !

[lepetitmartien]

MacOSX server is a darwin based OS like OS X,, in fact a rather similar thing to X but with no 9 and with additional tools for administration, etc.

I've never been able to dig into a server beast with this soft, and also know someone with a server using it so I don't have a clue it'll work… possible, but not sure.

Old server under 8 could use normal software, but here it's a bit different, and communication is aimed at net/system engineers not hackaholics creatives



A cluster of those things would be fun, sure

[prutulz]

clustering is a serious clue!

darwin is based on FreeBsd, and supports process clustering
this means that ones could imagine to cluster a few macs (not only servers, any mac with OSX) to get a powerful processing unit, G4 based.

adding 'processing' power to the system would just need to add a new mac, network it and run the client daemon to slave it to the main brain!

soundz like a Big VST-link?

mlan may be the key for the system...

networking macs/gear using a fast firewire network would certainly push our current MIDI and cards based sytem to the jurrassic ages;)

we're living a great transition theses days!

i hope we will know more when jaguar is released!


Vive MacOSX!

[lepetitmartien]

There were hints on the apple commercial and rather technical blablablah but you need to be much more than a graphic designer lord of the mac (if anybody see modesty here, kill it on spot like me to understand the full of their account.

They market it really for rendering need, but look only in the video/3D/science 'I need pro clusters' direction.

Crazy photoshopers, musicians could do with it too. but the clear aim is pro… and you know, these guys with guitars or playing the Mini are not tech savvy just street pro playing in the subway/underground. )

The missing links in the Digidesign needs for hardware (HD, macs) give a hint too

There something definitely crawling there.

[damann]

i guess crawling, as usual is what's (not) going on.
thanks a bundle for the input guys.
have you heard about the new steinberg developement, apparently supported by cubase sx that actually implements the networking of apparently limitless numbers of macs and/or pc's of varying spec to provide exactly what you're talking about here ?
i guess as usual i'll just have to wait...

[lepetitmartien]

That's the VST link prutulz talked about… demonstrated already but NOT SHIPED (as usual and as far as I know)

Cool yes, but I can't help myself to have the L word flashing when I think about it… LATENCY

(damann it's something for you

And I definetly like a system supported distribution of duties better… even if it confines me to a single platform (mac, maybe other BSD unixes). A bit more confident there. The marketing blockbusters of Steinberg (they are really good at that) usually shows as 'we advertise fro features that won't be here for 6-12 months, we ship them too early, bugs lurking everywhere, we forgot about important stuff -timing everyone?'

Some say that Steinberg shows the way, but usually others do almost the same at around the same time and don't believe they are god on earth.
(rant rant)

I won't mind a clustering facility system supported in DP or Logic

time will tell

[damann]

hi lepetitmartien !
yeah, it scares the pants off me the more i think about it. ;sad:
it seems that i've been an unofficial (and unpaid) bug-tester for these guys
for so long.
professional 'carrot follower'
hey, on this subject, i checked out the test site last night.
was that news item about the quad processing g5 just for fun ?
or real ?
oh shit, here i go again......

[lepetitmartien]

You're not supposed to tell all the bad jokes we make on the test site

I've got one I can be ashamed of

And we are way off topic