GarageBand/iLife from a Linux/Windows User's Perspective

I bought a MacBook about 6 months ago because I REALLY wanted to do iPhone development for a few ideas I'd had, and the only Apple-approved way is to break down and by a Mac, which I wasn't crazy about doing. Anyway, I bought this thing and for most of the time I've owned it, I've used it for nothing but iPhone development and web surfing. I also have a Thinkpad T60 that's nearly 4-years-old now and that's running Ubuntu (10.04 currently). I've pretty-much loved that laptop with Linux on it. I wasn't too impressed by the MacBook compared to my 4-year-old Thinkpad. Apparently, Apple thinks laptops no longer need hard drive indicator lights. The problem is, with only 2Gigs of ram on the thing, and the fact that I'm using it for XCode development, I guess resources get pretty run-down to the point that when I click on certain buttons to have things done, I don't always know if it "heard" me or not, and it gives no indication... at least not for a while. That's VERY annoying, because I either sit there like an idiot for a few seconds, waiting to see if it's going to do what I want, or get impatient and click the button again and then eventually it does the action twice or whatever (like opening a window).

However, I must confess that of late, I think I'm finally beginning to see some of what's good about the Macs. I've been a computer-based hobby musician for years and I'd heard about GarageBand for years but never paid much attention to it as I understood it to be an entry-level toy that came free with Macs. While I'm no recording pro, I assumed I was well beyond whatever software Apple would be willing to give away for free with the purchase of a Mac. Long-story-short, I'm becoming increasingly impressed with GarageBand in particular, and iLife (the suite that comes free with Macs and includes GarageBand along with video making software and photo management software) in general. While it is true that GarageBand doesn't have the level of sophistication I'm accustomed to using, I'm quite impressed with its ease-of-use and the level of functionality it does have for free. It's absolutely a useable piece of software for quickly cranking out at least quick demos or sketches. That's not to say one couldn't use it to produce real, finished music either. I think one actually could and I'm strongly considering attempting it. I find the environment very conducive to not wasting a lot of time with settings and crap. They give enough basic stuff with good enough preset patches for sounds and effects that you can get going quite quickly. I think I became completely sold when, for this Christmas, my wife decided to get the kids (and by extension, me) an electric guitar. I immediately proceeded to plug that bad boy into a USB audio interface I happened to have and the thing was immediately recognized by GarageBand (i.e., no driver installation necessary). In no time, I was playing numerous guitar effects provided by GarageBand and they all sounded great (I'm no guitarist so I wouldn't no the diff. but I am musically trained and I'm sure most others couldn't tell the diff between these effects and whatever might be considered high-end ones either). Then, I took another look at the lessons which I'd known were there but hadn't paid much attention to for nearly 6 months prior. OMG! Now I was even more impressed! I've known about 6 or 7 chords on guitar since my college days and that's where my guitar learning stopped, so these lessons were perfect for both me and my boys. Within a day or two, I'd reached a level of comfort with the electric guitar that I was already trying to incorporate my own playing into my own songs, with guitar at the center! My older son is coming along nicely with basic chords too. In fact, I went ahead and bought the updated iLife '11 few days ago because I wanted the newer lessons and the ability for it to "listen" to our playing and score us on our accuracy. It actually works pretty darn well.

One of the things that blows me away about this software is the fact that in the past, on Windows, if Microsoft gave away free software with an OS, it was understood (at least by me) that said software would be VERY entry-level, i.e. fairly useless and not much worth bothering with. I just assumed the iLife software would of similar ineptitude. I've always felt Macs are overpriced for the hardware, and I'm still not all that blown away by the OS in general as compared to just running Linux, but if you're at just the right level of interest/ability in music or video making or something of that nature, I can now see how the Mac fills a really nice spot. In fact, I'm now strongly inclined to buy one just for the kids. You should understand what that means, coming from me. I'm someone who's all but banned the other commercial OS, Windows, from our home. My kids use my Linux laptop or my wife's Linux desktop for all their computing needs other than taking guitar lessons on GarageBand. I've gone WAAAAYYYY out of my way to allow them to get by without Windows (mostly... VirtualBox is the only way they're getting to Windows in this house and the kids don't know how to start that). The problem is, Linux still just isn't the well-supported easy-to-use OS that Windows or OS X are in SOME ways. I kind of like the thought of having another OS option that's more mainstream than Linux but ISN'T Windows (although I still don't have my perfect solution for my kids' ChessMaster 10).

I'll just quickly add that iMovie has impressed me greatly too. Very easy to use and as I'm no aspiring Steven Spielberg, I may never outgrow what iMovie has to offer. So in closing, I'm beginning to see the light!