Introduction
It’s happening! Finally, after years, I, a self-taught, amateur music maker, composer and writer, am slowly drawing in my first paid gigs. Among many things, this means that for the first time in my life, the computer that I use has to be a reliable tool and not just a gadget that enables me to waste time.
Ten years ago, I would have looked forward to the prospect of building a new system dedicated to production purposes. The truth is, I like computers and gadgets a lot. I honestly wouldn’t be where I am today without the various PCs, tablets, phones and gaming consoles that I have used throughout my life.
But in 2025, I feel a strong lack of enthusiasm for computers. With issues such as various software shenanigans, platform economies, limited upgradebility and companies being morally bankrupt, I find it harder and harder each day to decide on an upgrade path. Add to that a personal mental health issue that could eventually make it necessary for me to leave screen-based hobbies behind as much as I can, and the question of how, when and with what to upgrade my music production machine becomes overly complicated to a point at which I’d rather not engage with the topic at all.
The funny thing is that I’m thinking of upgrading while not being that bad off with my current system. I use a Windows machine powered by a Ryzen 9 5900X, with 32GB of RAM and a Radeon RX 6600XT, as well as two 1TB m.2 SSDs, a 1TB SATA SSD and two HDDs (2TB and 4TB). There’s also a 2TB external SSD dangling off the back of my rig, housing all of my Kontakt libraries. In most cases, the machine fits use case remarkably well. Even the most complicated orchestral productions that I write come in at three hundred to four hundred tracks at maximum, and if that puts too much strain onto my machine, I’m breaking up the production into smaller parts. I’ve done this for years on far weaker machines. And given that I have no ambitions to work with anything larger than small-scale indie projects, that should be more than enough for me, right?
But.
However, there are some legit issues with my system. First of all, I’m not mobile. I built my system into a Fractal Design R5 case, which is large and heavy even without components inside. This means that if I’d ever be required to record on site, it would be a huge pain to move the whole system. Additionally, there’s a possible future in my day job that would require lots of regional travel on my part. Having a way to work on the go sure would be a nice bonus, even if it would require an extra machine in addition to the desktop.
Building onto that is that I originally built this machine as a hybrid entertainment (games) and amateur media production (music and graphics) machine. But my priorities have shifted almost entirely to music production. With that, the need for a beefy GPU is gone. Storage and RAM demands, on the other hand, have risen dramatically and with faster technologies available, I’m not quite sure if investing in DDR41 or SATA-SSDs is enough to future proof the system to function as my main production machine for the coming ten years.
Another point of concern is that my system is a Windows machine. I wouldn’t make a big deal out of this usually because I’ve been using Windows since I’ve been a literal child. And even with the amount of nonsense Microsoft is putting into it, Windows got better over time in terms of stability. It’s been years since I’ve had any Blue Screen of Death, serious driver issues,2 or anything really system-breaking. Windows works well, even if an awful amount of people in the music industry are using Macs (more on that later). The issue, though, is that Windows is a Microsoft product, and Microsoft has become even worse a company than it has been in the years leading up to today. From enshittifying its products with overhyped and bafflingly inefficient AI features to rolling out the red carpet for the fascist regime currently in power to having deals with genocidal parties overseas, I am finding myself having trouble supporting this company any longer.
But the issues with upgrading while staying in the Windows ecosystem are not limited to software and the awful politics and business decisions of its company. They extend also to hardware. Personally, I found that I’m having trouble justifying the drawbacks of newer hardware by AMD, Intel and Nvidia. For example, I value low power consumption in components, because it’s easier to cool and therefore easier to run as silent as I want it to run. The aforementioned companies, though, continue to increase performance by pumping more and more electricity through their component’s circuits. Which, in times of climate change, is just tone deaf. Meanwhile, Apple is running circles around them with their comparatively efficient yet well-performing ARM chips. Apple, however, is far from being a perfect alternative.
Apple Can’t Be The Answer
An anecdote that I usually share when I speak about Apple with others is that I have been wanting to own one of their machines ever since my mom and I saw on of the first iMacs displayed at a local retailer when I was young. This means that Apple and their propaganda team have had their hooks in me for about twenty-plus years. Because I’ve been poor for most of my life, however, they only managed to reel me in last year, when I bought my very first iPhone.
Money is still something I have and want to consider. I’m not a professional, and it will be a long way to go until I can call myself one, if ever. So let’s consider the costs: if I value portability, a 14“ Macbook Pro with a measly 1TB of storage and 64GB of RAM, which is the minimum viable amount of RAM for me in a new macine, would cost about 4800€. For less, specifically 4460€ at the time of writing, I could get a Windows laptop with 96GB of RAM and 16TB of storage at XMG (with the positive side effect of supporting a European PC builder by doing so). I know that this is – pun fully intended, bite me – not an apples to apples comparison, as Windows laptops are bulky, potentially louder, and less energy efficient, and run a slowly deteriorating operating system made by a terrible company. But this would be a huge investment, especially since I’d need to add a hundreds of Euros for external storage, USB hubs and other periphery if I’d decide to buy a MacBook.
Another issue I can’t really get over is the culture of Apple. Apple, as far as I have experienced it on the iPhone, doesn’t seem to trust me with my device. For example, even though transferring my own collection of .mp3 files from my PC to my iPhone is possible, allowing them to be actually played with a player of my choice is a horrendously obtuse and stupid process when you’re coming from a Windows machine.3 Hiding important and useful settings for individual apps deep at the bottom of the system settings app as if Apple is afraid I would accidentally change something important on their glorious device is patronizing and continues wasting my time, and the App library keeps confusing me by randomly shuffling Apps between categories (why is „Podcasts“ in „Health and Fitness“ all of the sudden, Apple?). Add to that the surprising amount of bugs, including a sudden reboot of the whole phone while doing nothing more demanding than watching YouTube, and I’m beginning to question if a Mac would be nothing more than a PC in a shinier package with less freedom and no upgradeability. Yes, I like my iPhone; the screen is glorious, the animations are cute and whimsical like they are on a Nintendo device, and the camera is amazing. But if the Apple ecosystem,4 should I buy into it, means giving up so much of my freedom in exchange for prestige of working on an Apple machine, I’m not sure that I should chase that dragon any further.
The issues with Apple’s culture don’t stop here. Because Apple has cultivated a fan base that I honestly have trouble seeing myself aligning with. Back when I used Threads for a short time, I had an exchange with an Apple fan who tried to argue that 1GB of samples loaded into the system’s RAM is somehow less on a Mac than on Windows. Meanwhile, in the real world, a surprising amount of Apple users I know exhibit this salesperson-like attitude whenever it comes to discussing their or my choice of device. „You’re gonna love it“, they always say, shortly before whispering „ONE OF US. ONE OF US. ONE OF US.“ Similarly, when I’m at an event like Studioszene, it appears that audio professionals are using Macs exclusively.5 I don’t want to join that cult. I kind of hate the idea that I’m the tenth person at the café who sits down with a Mac. I want to go against that particular grain.
Finally, Apples politics are not as far removed from the ones of Microsoft. I was deeply disappointed when I read that CEO Tim Cook donated a million American funbucks to the inauguration of the fascist leadership of the USA. If I had known that before I bought my very first iPhone back in September of 2024, I wouldn’t have bought that iPhone. Rolling out the carpet for fascism makes me worry that my data won’t be safe with Apple, and even more so, that some day my super expensive machine even stops working because Apple let themselves be pushed by the government to harm European users for some reason. I don’t even think it’s far-fetched. Apple is a giant tech company. Making money comes first, people way, way later.
So why not switch over to Linux?
The only moral choice left for me would be to use Linux. I honestly love that idea. Because back in the early 2010s, I used Linux to breathe new life into a Laptop and two netbooks. In addition, I experimented with Linux on my desktop PC, for fun, and would’ve probably stayed if it wasn’t for compatibility issues the music software I use. If I was just a writer, I’d probably get a used laptop for 250€, try a couple of distributions, and call it a day. It would be glorious, simple, and I would laugh at Big Tech, and you would laugh too, and we all would laugh because we didn’t pay one or two thousand Euros for sleek surveillance machines.
Unfortunately though, I’m a composer on his way of building a side hustle. Even more unfortunately, I mostly enjoy writing big, overblown, larger than life orchestral kitsch because I grew up on a diet of Lord of the Rings, Warcraft III and Nightwish. In practice, this means that I rely on orchestral sample libraries from companies such as Native Instruments, Orchestral Tools, EastWest, Toontrack or Cinesamples/Musio. These are, according to the Internet, tricky to run on Linux, primarily because of various DRM measures. I’ve already written once about how each company having their own installers and DRM resource hogs is messing with my head. I’m not lookin forward to adding any more complications on that.
The hoops I’d have to jump through to get the tools I want to use running on a Linux system appear to be too tight for my big ol’ butt. To be fair, from what I’m reading on Mastodon, I get the feeling that things have gotten better since my earlier run-ins with Linux. There are admirable forays into Linux by smaller companies such as AudioThing, Audio Assault or Kazrog, and some libraries run through compatibility layers (allegedly). I applaud these efforts and wish anyone who ventures into Linux realms the best, as well as a great time. For me, however, it’s not the time yet to make the switch. If I really want to earn a bit of pocket change from making music, I can’t spend my limited music making time on getting things to run; they have to work out of the box.
So as much as I’d like to give Big Tech the finger, I neither have the time, nor the patience, nor the know-how to deal with the technical headaches that would come with using Linux as my main driver.6 You brave souls producing music on Linux, I salute you, and I am truly sorry: for you’ll have to fight this battle without me. I’m not fit for duty right now and can only support you by purchasing software from Linux-supporting devs.
This is the Part in which it gets a bit silly!
So far, I have outlined mostly technical and philosophical issues I have with different hardware platforms in regards to my music-making workflow. But there is yet another issue that complicates the matter even further.
From a young age, the computer was my refuge. As a kid, I spent a lot of time with it, playing games, learning creative software, and finding out what it can do. Frequently, I felt that the machine I was using was outdated, leading to arguments with my mom about getting a newer one. Coming from a rather poor family, there weren’t many options beyond whatever the used market had to offer, which led to me being unhappy with what the PC could do, repeating the cycle. Waiting for a new system or planning the next upgrade became a pastime, and eventually a coping mechanism for the stress I put on myself during my college days. I was thinking about computers a lot.
When YouTube eventually came along, I skipped the hardware sections of gaming magazines and started binging videos about graphics cards, processors and other hardware. Outside of video content, I browsed the web searching for rumors about processors that were going to come out in two to three years, checking prices for SSD storage, and building imaginery systems. I regularly wandered the isles of the local elecronics store to test laptops and mobile gadgets, thinking about what I could add to my setup. I was never not planning the next upgrade.7
I still do all of these things, especially when I’m away from home, falling into a loop of wanting a new system, to researching it, to finding alternatives, to calculating the finances, to finally coming to the conclusion that I don’t need it when the trip nears its end. It’s an exhausting cycle that I struggle to escape from. But because I used to put so much hope and expectations into computers for so many, many bad years of my life, it is hard to shake off. Right now, a site blocker on my phone is keeping me from checking hardware news, prices and rumors whenever I have to visit the bathroom. It helps with not getting lost in content, ads and opinions, but it doesn’t stop the constant thinking about the next upgrade, which in turn keeps me from thinking about music, writing my stories, and simply enjoying life.
I want to stress that I’m aware that this is a first world issue, a luxury problem. There is nothing existential about this, and yet it somehow has managed to run my life. If I want to make the kind of art that I want to make, I simply can’t afford to spend so much time on thinking about this. Therefore, I have to learn to handle it, and I believe that if I’d get a new system, it would need to assist me in that, which means not making me think about upgrading it. In practical terms, it would mean that I would have to either buy or build it with the explicit intention to not upgrade it for, let’s say, five or more years. This is something I have to learn, as silly as it is. I will have to learn to let it go.
The Road Ahead
As I said in the beginning, I like computers, and I owe them a lot. It’s amazing what we can do with them today, although I get the feeling that we could do more things and do them more efficiently if we would get rid of arbitrary platform constraints, DRM, and unneccessary gimmicks. Buying or building a computer should be fun and exciting, however between companies with questionable ethics,8 rising power consumption of many hardware parts, compatibility issues, and rising prices I find it hard to enjoy.
There are probably some compromises I will need to make, and fortunantely, there’s a phrase in German speaking of the „eierlegende Wollmilchsau“, a fictitious animal one can take eggs, wool, dairy and meat from. Most commonly, this animal is mentioned when it comes to the futility of trying to find the solution that will satisfy all needs. I feel like this is my case: I will probably have to do without wool, or without dairy, or without eggs (pretty fine doing without meat, no need for that). There’s no ideal combination of hardware in my scenario, because every decision I make will bring its own advantages and disadvantages.
This will mean that I will have to live with my decisions for a while. For that, in turn, I will need to fix my expectations and behavior towards computers. I will have to take responsibility for what I’m doing with my time and my life, and therefore I will have to get over myself and stop doing things that harm me. Because if I want to be happy and do things that bring me joy, I can’t afford to be harming myself. I can’t afford to be obsessed with upgrading my computer.9 I can’t afford to be constantly checking benchmarks, hardware rumors and component prices when I should be out there, making music, writing prose, connecting with people, and experiencing life.
Maybe, I will have to learn to like computers a bit less.
Footnotes
1Just an hour before editing the final draft of this post, I read that DDR4 has become more expensive than DDR5 due to multiple manufacturers stopping production. Guess I’m stuck with 32GB for a while.
2I had a small issue with my Arturia Minifuse audio interface a while ago, but it’s since been fixed by Arturia.
3Don’t get me started on the pain that is bringing your photos over to your Windows machine from an iPhone. Maybe it was the cable I was using, or something else: but I wasn’t able to transfer more than about three hundred images at once. You could say that it’s my issue, since I’m on Windows, but I’d rather have it that these devices, if they offer this functionality at all, play nice with each other. Platforms suck, is what I’m saying.
4I honestly hate that tech journalism adopted the term ecosystem to describe a set of apps that and devices that have been arbitrarily restricted to not work with certain other devices and apps, but I’m too lazy to come up with another term. Maybe „dungeon“ would be so much more fitting.
5Curiously though, some of my favorite composers on YouTube, such as Anne-Kathrin Dern, Venus Theory, and Benn Jordan, appear to primarily use PCs.
6I’m under the impression that the road into Linux land gets paved by the synth people, followed by the guitar folk. I, unfortunately, belong to the (orchestral) composer battallion. While not averse to the occasional bump in the road, we need very stable roads to travel on.
7I spent years overthinking the potential purchase of a Playstation 3. When I finally made my decision, the PS3 was obsolete and I got a PS4 instead. lol
8I didn’t speak about the ethics of building hardware, e.g. the conditions of mining the resources and fabricating chips, because this is already too long and I have no expertise in that.
9Ironically, I can’t spend my time writing rants about computers, either.
christoph-david volbers 