Posted by
Gino Canessa on
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Advices-on-computer-hardware-tp3701254p3701258.html
When the 17" model came out (don't remember when), I purchased a MacBook Pro
with 2 GB RAM. It is running 10.4.8, and has never run anything less than
10.4.
I typically have open XCode, Mail x 2 (Entourage - which is Outlook for Mac,
and Mail.app), Firefox and Camino, many terminals, OsiriX, Parallels (VM
Ware type software - usually running Win2K since I don't have a dedicated
box for it anymore), and many background procs (e.g., MySQL, Apache, etc).
I reboot my system about once every month or two, just suspending (via
closing the laptop) whenever is convenient (typically 2-5 times per day).
If you are constantly monitoring memory usage, you will see some 'funny'
numbers, but they appear to be just that (I believe the OS just does more
caching than typical, but it seems to free the cache without issue).
That said, I'm using the box for general office, storage-oriented
development/testing, and target testing from the Win2K VM. My memory usage
profile would be fairly different from image processing/analysis, so YMMV.
As far as coding, it depends on what you are doing. As far as IDE's, you
have your choice (XCode, Eclipse, etc), or you can use text editors with
build utilities. OS X has its quirks (Aqua, Frameworks, etc), but I don't
recall anything being any worse than others. Again, this mostly depends on
what you are doing (type of application, language choice, etc).
For instance:
-If you are using Eclipse and writing Java code (since ImageJ is, I'll
assume many are), there are few differences between _any_ operating system
(Windows/Linux/Unix).
-If you are using VI and the GNU Build Utilities (for command line apps),
Windows would be the "odd man out".
-If you are doing interface work with a windowing toolkit (e.g., wxWidgets,
etc), then again, there should be little difference between the three.
-If you are used to Microsoft, Linux and Unix will both have a higher hurdle
to jump.
And so on...
As far as price, my MBP was comparable in price to others (less than Dell's
standard price when I bought it, but Dell had coupons, so it would've been
cheaper). The trick, again, is what you are buying and through which
department (education, healthcare, government, personal, small business,
etc).
So, for the original poster:
OS should be decided based on which applications you are using, and which
systems you are familiar with (even if a system is slightly less functional,
if you are more comfortable with it, you will get more use out of it).
To the 64-bit question specifically, I'll say that it depends on how large
your datasets are, how they are broken up, and what you are doing with them.
64 bit systems have more addressable memory*, so if you require more than is
typically available, that's a good route to go.
Keep in mind which apps you are using for processing, and look into any
limitations caused by them (for instance ImageJ is limited by the JRE on the
OS above and beyond any limits from the code itself).
*In order to use more than the standard 32-bit addressable memory, both the
OS and the application need to be able to handle it. For instance, in OS X
the largest contiguous block of memory you can have is 2 GB, so if your
application is hard-coded to use a single block of memory, you're stuck
regardless of what you are running on. Operating systems in general have
various limits for memory usage (e.g., how much a single
process/thread/block/etc can have), but that's a bit long-winded already, so
Google can fill in the blanks.
Hope this helps,
Gino
On 10/20/06 8:32 AM, "Mark J. Chopping" <
[hidden email]>
wrote:
>> The Macs are pretty, but if you intend to write your own code, they're
>> very hell to program on.... You'll get a really pretty computer for the
>> price from Apple, but you'll get every bit as much computer for half the
>> price from one of the PC vendors. Also, OS X doesn't manage memory
>> well, so you will have to restart from time to time to clear it out if
>> you're going through large datasets.
>
> Anyone care to comment on this assessment of Mac/OSX? I wonder whether
> the machines were comparable -- or is this the older Mac vs. new PC
> chestnut (viz. "I do most of my image processing on an old Powerbook...")?
> Is OSX' memory management really worse than other Unix implementations?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Mark
>
> Mark J. Chopping, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor -- Remote Sensing
> Earth & Environmental Studies ML350C
> Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043
> Tel: (973) 655-7384 Fax: (973) 655-4072
> -----------------------------------------------
>
http://csam.montclair.edu/~chopping/jornada/EOS--
Gino Canessa
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