stupid quick computer questions about operating systems
going to get a new laptop this month, and i know as soon as i get it im going to reformat the drive and make it a dual boot. now my question is: for the boot partition thats for music i will obviously want it stripped down as much as possible, is there any reason not to install windows XP as the OS versus windows 7?
what to do
Xp will do just fine and will be faster than 7, just make sure to think carefully about the partition size.
If your using an external hard drive, make it as small as possible (enough to fit the OS, your dj software, and possibly your DAW (making an assumption)+plugins. If no external hard drive, make it about the same size as your other partition
By the way, for your non-dj partition, don’t rule out linux. No viruses + Free= 
. Right now I’m dual booting linux Ubuntu and windows Xp and I love it. 
Look up gpart for parting your drive…you can do it through windows after you install but it won’t work as well. Right now I have 2 copies of win 7 running on my comp
1 for dj’ing and 1 for my gf to browse the web. Seems to work well for my situation.
It may be nice to know your specs so I can recommend xp vs. win7. Win7 is more intensive but it does offer a few more features…why not just try hackintosh?..depends how computer literate you are i suppose.
Go for Win7, it’s not slower at all than XP, on the contrary - even on older systems. Only reason to install XP would be if you had some old-ass hardware for which Win7 drivers are not or not properly available, possibly making your system unstable.
Edit: the most important thing basically is to install as few drivers as you possibly need. Internet drivers are not one of them, removing the need for antivirus at the same time.
in my experience win 7 64 bit is more stable and faster than xp. If your new machine has a 64 bit cpu and more than 2gb ram go for win 7 64 bit. and with the professional version you also get a compatibility mode for our ald ass xp drivers.
Is it really necessary to have two instances these days? Surely just doing regular ghosts with something similar to Apple’s Time Machine, and making sure you don’t fill it with crap would be more efficient and effective?
After doing EXTENSIVE stress testing in Traktor, in order to decide weather I could achieve better latency on my computer with Windows XP, Windows 7 Pro 32-bit, or 64-bit…
I found I had the best results under Windows 7 64-bit.
Thats my 2 cents.
On the nose info in terms of what I was looking for.
My current lap top is a dual boot running xp, wasnt sure if xp would have a ceiling for utilizing ram/processor cores, Im going to get an i7 machine. Im familiar with xp and how to strip it down to essentials hence reluctance to even bother with 7 but if xp can’t even recognize the extra muscle looks like I’ll have to stick with learning 7.
Another +1 Win7 64bit.
I wouldn’t bother with dual boot and just go Win7 64bit. 32bit operating systems have a 4GB memory limit. XP is getting pretty long in the tooth and gets less supported with each passing day.
I have Win7 64bit on my desktop and laptop and have not had any problems with it.
I tell my clients this all the time (I work in IT)… Why limit yourself out of the box with a 32 bit operating system? The instant you install 32 bit anything you have the “4gb ram barrier”. Unless there is a specific reason against 64 bit, then consider this another
+1 for win7/64
if you going to mess around with dual boot and what not. make sure that you check the drivers for win7 32 & 64 bit.
In my defense, I’m using a netbook, so Xp tends to be a bit more spec friendly (gotta admit, its pretty damn good for an 8 year old OS).
If your getting an i7 machine, don’t even bother with Xp. There would be no performance difference.
but seriously, don’t rule out linux.
Traktor works under linux?
traktor 3 does through wine (like that matters), but I’m thinking more of as the non-djing partition. The system requirements of my distro (Ubuntu) are a fraction of xp, 7 and osx, so it runs super fast. It’s also incredibly easy to use and completely free and open source (in most cases)
Ubuntu scarred me on linux back in 2003 when I tried to install it. I may need to give it another go.
Oh I’m not knocking linux… I’ve used it on and off for over a decade, If I wasn’t in IT, I’d likely only run osx/ubuntu…
I’m actually surprised that it works under wine… When you say ‘works’ do you mean flawlessly? Not that I would ever even think about using it on a gig through wine… lol
it starts, but you can’t find a directory or analyze tracks for some reason (I guess “not really” then)
@BigC: Ubuntu has come a really long way since back then. I’ve been running 10.10 since it came out and it is absolutely flawless, easily their best build yet.
dont forget suse. novell has made leaps and bounds with it since they bought suse.
plus, rpm’s kind of kick all kinds of ass.