Im just wondering on the communitys opinions on which is better, Firewire or USB?

Personally I go with USB as most computers have one, so I dont have to worry if my device is compatible.

Just drop the pool. Pools don't work.

firewire is currently better than USB in every possible way, but is not present on many machines.

Firewire may be technically superior, but practically nothing uses it, voiding any benefits it may have.

Lul-some.

Every possible way, except for the only one that actually matters.

Brilliant argument there, Spock.

PS: USB 3.0.

Wait I know what a USB is but what is firewire?

If your definition of "better" is only related to how useful it is to a consumer , but then any new technology would be a step back since nobody would have used it yet.

That said, I've never used a piece of hardware with a 1392 connector, so I can't really give an opinion as to which I like better. From the wiki article it sounds like it's faster than USB, so I might be inclined to use it if we were back when there wasn't a clear winner in the war between it and USB.

@Leon: Check Wiki.

Also, the fact that few people are aware of it...

Firewire isn't a new technology, by a long shot. It's like Betamax or Laserdiscs - it doesn't matter which one is technically better, it matters which one gets more practical buying power behind it.

All I'm saying is that only actually useful item of comparison between two superficially related devices (which are also the exact opposite of mutually exclusive) is which one "won" after the fact. And, hey, look, USB. USB won the war, ergo it's the better technology. Technical specifications don't matter by virtue of the fact that they didn't matter when there was a "war" going on.

Though I'm actually pretty sure that Firewire and USB were never in direct competition, since both serve fairly different purposes and are, again, capable of mutual existence.

As evidenced by professional vs. home consumer splits in usage. I suppose you're right.

fine, I'll rephrase. Firewire is more powerful, but more rare.
The Firewire 800 port on this mac is just about as fast as the actual disc drive, so external hard drives are 9001% more useful. Also: Professional video cameras. I prefer to not wait forever for my video to copy over.
BUT USB 3.0 looks like it'll solve all this. And this makes me happy.

Firewire is used a lot for audio interfaces and the like and they perform much faster allowing higher bit-rates through firewire.

My 2 cents.

So this entire topic can be summariezed by say that firewire is better in every way but nobody uses it.

Until USB 3.0 comes out, then it'll be getting smoked.

And with that, thread is over.

...It is.