What OS and Software For a Mobile Documentary Crew? 229
jag7720 writes "I am part of a new project that will be filming a documentary. The project HQ will be in the US but it will take us around the world and will last approx 18 months. I am the IT guy and will be responsible for most if not all aspects of hardware and software (not to include editing). We are probably going to use Google mail/calendar/docs and unlocked BlackBerrys for communications. Computers use will mainly be for communications and writing. I am a huge advocate of Linux and Open Source and I want to use it if possible. What would you recommend for an OS platform for a project like this and why? Linux? Mac? Win?"
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Communications and writing? (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's just communications (read: email and maybe IM) and writing, then who cares? Honestly. You can buy portable toys that do those two things for $30 in Toys-R-Us these days.
If you're the IT guy, go with what you're comfortable with. You're the one who's going to have to make it work whenever anything goes wrong.
What? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are the IT guy, you get whatever machines and software the team say they need and have experience on to complete the project.
Re:MacOS X or Windows (Score:3, Insightful)
Wrong.
All three platforms have problems with legacy peripherals, however, Linux has better support for many things.
And with Win 7 coming out, I'm sure the "older hardware not being supported" is going to grow again.
Of course, if you're buying all new hardware, then yeah, you're probably right.
Re:What? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Final Cut Pro (Score:5, Insightful)
You'll want Final Cut Pro, running on OS X. I love Linux too (typing this in iceweasel, running Debian on my Mac), but OS X is the only OS that really works well for pro multimedia. It's the only reason I dual boot anymore.
Considering he said " not to include editing", are you suggesting that they'll need Final Cut Pro on OSX in order to send email and communicate with each other?
Not FOSS for Film! (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to work as a videographer, then left and started an IT business based entirely on FOSS and my own work. The entire purpose of this business was to create a revenue stream so I could start a film business. In other words, I know FOSS well, used Linux almost exclusively on my servers and desktop for years, and know film and video well.
If you want to do ANYTHING with film or video editing, do NOT use Linux. While there are a number of great programs for editing audio on Linux and in the FOSS world, the video programs still lag behind. Many times there are issues with importing the video. (Trying to get video from my HD camcorder into any usable format on Ubuntu Intrepid was a nightmare!) There are some programs that show promise for video editing and DVD authoring, but even as late as Intrepid, many still had issues, wouldn't always burn to different DVD drives, had trouble importing more than one or two formats, or provided only a limited subset of editing abilities.
I started looking at Linux for AV work around 2001 or so and was disappointed by what was available. As time went on and I was doing my IT work for my business, I figured that by the time I was ready to do film work, FOSS programs would be as well. Sadly, 8 or 9 years later, they simply are not. Some people will say, "But xxxxx does a great job!" Yeah, it does -- if you don't need professional editing capabilities. As of now I haven't seen a FOSS video editing program that can even do what Adobe's Premiere did in 2000 for $600.
So a few months ago I bought an iMac and paid $250 for Final Cut Express. I'm stunned -- it's like I'm actually back in the world of film and video and have a program designed by film editors, not by programmers who want to tell film editors what they should need.
I love FOSS. I love it enough to say, "There are some serious problems in the FOSS world," instead of pretending everything is the best it could be. My experience is that in the Windows world the driving force behind new software is a company that wants to make something people can use so they make a profit. In the Linux/FOSS world the driving force behind new software is developers that love what they do but often are touchy when receiving criticism of their "baby" and are used to the console and do not focus heavily on the GUI design, expecting people to learn what they already know to use their programs. I'm not a fanboy, but in 2-3 months on an iMac, my experience is that the driving force of app development on Apple is users or companies that want to give the users the tools they need to do a job.
If you want to provide your people with tools that you, as a techie and Linuxer, like for philosophical reasons, go Linux -- but be aware that your creative people will spend more time adjusting and setting up and modifying their tools than they will doing their jobs. If you want to provide them with software that lets them do their jobs, instead of having to deal with settings and tech stuff, go with Mac.
Re:MacOS X or Windows (Score:3, Insightful)
If you're dealing with video equipment, Linux support is often poor.
you get whatever the apps need to run on (Score:4, Insightful)
ask the people what apps they plan on using, and build everything around there.
these people are media people, they don't want to remember cryptic commands to do the simplest things
Support whatever your users are used to (Score:5, Insightful)
They'll be traveling, working hard, dealing with all the crazy problems that come up in a project like this. They don't need the extra hassle of dealing with unfamiliar software just because you think it's neat. Find out what they use now, and make sure they can continue to use it as needed throughout this project.
Google docs for mobile usage? (Score:1, Insightful)
But if you're trying to appeal to the hip metrosexual expensive coffee drinking iPhone using crowd then by all means use web apps exclusively, preferably from a Mac
Re:Mac to Edit/Process, Linux to Capture/Store (Score:1, Insightful)
all aspects of hardware and software (not to include editing)
This machine, you should use for editing and processing your video.
Congratulations! You are today's winner of the "I'm so stupid I would fail a second-grade reading comprehension test, but am going to reply anyway" award!
Mainly? Meaning they actually *will* do preview? (Score:5, Insightful)
Mainly? Meaning they actually *will* want to do preview at occasions?
That's a no brainer: Mac OS X.
If they only want to communitacte and use the web, that's a no-brainer aswell: Get some cheap-ass netbooks that are cheap, small, light and don't break that easy.
If you're going into warzones, deserts or rainforests that's also - guess what? - a no-brainer: Get Panasonic Toughbooks. And some solar panels.
Another thing: If you're going on a 18 month tour as the prime IT guy and you have to ask this question I'd actually presume you're maybe the wrong guy for this sort of thing, no?
Find the tools, ignore the OS (Score:4, Insightful)
Here's a general comment: Applications should drive the OS decision, not the other way around. Find the software you want to use--play with it, work with it, and then if you have a choice, look into the OS.
Decades ago, someone mentioned that an OS is kinda like underwear. It should be there, it should provide support, but only the fashion-obsessed really spend much time thinking about it.
Re:MacOS X or Windows (Score:5, Insightful)
Weird. I read the post several times through -- didn't see the "(not to include editing)" and now it's there. While I miss words and symbols due to a learning disability, I don't see how I missed that. I'm going to see if the cached original is different.
Still, after 10 years of a Linux desktop, then switching to an iMac for the past few months, my experience is that on FOSS there's too much time spent working with tools than using tools to do the work.
What do your users need? (Score:4, Insightful)
Your job is not to be an advocate, it's to support your users to the best of your ability. That means steering them towards stuff you know how to support, but doesn't mean pushing them towards your favorite hobby OS when that's not a good match for them.
The most important thing is to support what your users need to do. For creative users, including writers, that means the tool they're familiar with. If they're used to Windows and Windows tools, give them Windows. If they're used to OS X, give 'em a Mac. Either way, give them a usable screen and a good keyboard - writers will likely kill you if their main writing machine has a plasticky 93% size keyboard.
The second most important thing is to make sure that the systems are available and the data is safe. Which makes Windows a PITA to support if you're not familiar with Windows administration (which is what it sounds like).
If it were me, I'd use Macbook Pros running OS X, with VMWare Fusion with unity mode turned on allowing me to run Windows (or Linux, come to that) applications, as though they were native apps. (Don't skimp on RAM). That way the machines can be shared by users who prefer different apps to do what they do, and you can take advantage of either the OS X level stuff or the underlying unix to do backups.
And a couple of cheap netbooks for emergencies, email, throwing in the back of a truck, that sort of thing. Then a bunch of robust, cheap media for ad-hoc backups (USB sticks, CD-Rs).
But I'm not your users. Ask them what apps they need, then work out how best to support them.
Re:Mac to Edit/Process, Linux to Capture/Store (Score:2, Insightful)
Why a edit on a mac desktop? Adobe suite + powerful pc will come in at less than just the cost of just the mac!
Re:Consider an XO if you're really in the muck (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mac to Edit/Process, Linux to Capture/Store (Score:2, Insightful)
all aspects of hardware and software (not to include editing)
This machine, you should use for editing and processing your video.
Congratulations! You are today's winner of the "I'm so stupid I would fail a second-grade reading comprehension test, but am going to reply anyway" award!
It's posts like this that make me wish I had never found Slashdot.
Re:What? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's good advice so long as they didn't come to him and say, "We don't know what to get, you're our IT guy, so you tell us." As an IT guy, it's worth taking your users' preferences into account, but it's not always the sole determining factor.
Besides, it sounds like he's talking about email, word processing, web browsing, etc. Anything can do that. For traveling, you're going to want something small, light, and with good battery life. Traveling around the world with a film crew, I wouldn't be surprised if something got lost, broken, or stolen, so I'd also be looking for something relatively cheap and replaceable. From those criteria, I'd be at least considering netbooks, and then figuring out a scheme to keep important documents backed up online.
Whatever it is, I'd try to standardize (get all the same model) and set the software up so that they're nearly interchangeable. That will make some things easier, but still keep track of who's responsible for which computer. Of course, you may find that someone needs a different model for some reason, so be flexible there, especially if it's your boss.
Why not all 3? (Score:4, Insightful)
In the field you have to be prepared to handle pretty weird stuff, choose an OS that presents the least obstructions. Use a popular distribution of Linux, you don't want to be in the middle of the Congo and make a satphone call to Microsoft or Apple support
Get one or two laptops running MS and OS X in case someone absolutely needs software that only runs on these or if you get a hold of some hardware that only works on one of those
Re:Communications and writing? (Score:1, Insightful)
Or: If you're the IT guy, go with what your users are comfortable with. You're the one whose job (and supposed expertise) is to understand computers. The users are being paid to shoot a film, not spend time learning their way around an unfamiliar OS.
Re:What? (Score:3, Insightful)
He isn't in charge of editing.
Advise from a Pro that's been there (Score:2, Insightful)
Mitigating stresses of bottom-up design (Score:3, Insightful)
my experience is that on FOSS there's too much time spent working with tools than using tools to do the work
I have had similar experience in that there are always way more options and ways of doing or learning things that you can spend all your time figuring it out and get nothing done. Discipline in outlining what do you need to know to get the job done right is really a challenge, and I think that Apple thrives to give you the best options with the least amount of worry at what seems to be the cost of unnecessary alternatives. Apple is really great at simplifying the top down approach of "What can the software do?", "Which features are going to be most useful to my project?", "How do I go about implementing them?" steps. Apple makes that a very narrow and logical path to follow, and teaches you stuff along the way. If you try to take the same approach with Linux/OSS, you will find you can spend all the time in the world reading through documentation of many pieces of software with all kind of features that can often spark the imagination, but can make you feel dizzyingly hopeless.
When I approach a major project, I will designate a limited amount of time to just surf through what is available to get things started planning wise, then totally forget forget it and start WRITING DOWN what specific tasks will need to be completed at each stage of development. Next, what is the best tool for completing that task, and evaluate how well I know the tool, and how much time may be necessary to learn a good tool I have not used before. Next, find the smallest possible example that would allow you to test a "proof of concept" and see if it is possible to take some info/footage/whatever and move it through each of the stages to a quality level of completion without having to mix steps, go backwards, or whatever. Then people can be broken into teams, you can show them what they are going to get footage/info wise, the tools they are going to get, how they are going to use them, and who to pass it onto when it is finished.
Typical business organization / delegation type stuff, I just think it really needs to be pointed out that Linux is by design aggressively in support of the bottom-up engineering principle and it is easy to see that ignoring that reality can manifest itself as a load of nightmares.