Corp000085 Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 I decided the best way to get myself into the mac world was to dive in head first. I ordered a macbook pro, wireless keyboard and mouse, the 24" led monitor, and I got an airport extreme. I mainly went with that router because I want to cut down on the pieces of equipment and power consumption in my network. I can cut out the router and wireless AP that i have for one unit that can use the time machine feature. I'm most excited that the macbook pro has a SSD in it rather than a hard drive. Anyways, I would love for some input from the mac guys here about what i am to expect with my setup...
Fezmid Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 Anyways, I would love for some input from the mac guys here about what i am to expect with my setup... Shell: http://aplawrence.com/MacOSX/macosxshell.html http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/02/24/bash.html That's all you need to do everything.
Wacka Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 I have a Mac Mini (OSX.3.9) and a Dell laptop (XP-for work) with a Linksys wireless router. The DSL goes through the Mac. The problems I have are with the Windows computer or in the DSL network outside the house. No prob;ems whatsoever for the last 4 years on the Mini. I had a G4 tower before and the motherboard was getting flaky after 5 years on that one. I'd love to get a new Mac, but no $
MattyT Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 I'll say one thing...you don't eff around. That's a premium Mac setup for sure....especially for your first go-around. Can't wait to see what you do for an encore when the bug really gets you. OTOH, I hope you hate it and want to sell it to me for a discount. Enjoy your sweet rig.
DrDawkinstein Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 we're a mac shop at work, in an IT industry. i love all our macs. when people ask us how/why a group of techies use only Macs, i usually give them the short answer of "As an IT professional who deals with issues all day, the last thing I want to do is go home and have to fix MY computer as well" If you arent used to using a Mac there will definitely be a learning curve, and an UN-learning curve where you get to forget all the crap you used to have to do with a PC just to get it to function properly. Does each platform have its good points and bad points? sure. but i think youll be very happy with your Mac for YEARS to come. and youll probably never have to reload the entire OS just to get it back to working form. if you even have any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM. I dont know everything there is to know about Macs, but I'm fairly well versed.
Corp000085 Posted April 13, 2009 Author Posted April 13, 2009 I'll say one thing...you don't eff around. That's a premium Mac setup for sure....especially for your first go-around. Can't wait to see what you do for an encore when the bug really gets you. OTOH, I hope you hate it and want to sell it to me for a discount. Enjoy your sweet rig. Just for poops and laughs, i priced out a mac pro for like $25 grand. Oh to be a dreamer!
John Adams Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 I decided the best way to get myself into the mac world was to dive in head first. I ordered a macbook pro, wireless keyboard and mouse, the 24" led monitor, and I got an airport extreme. I mainly went with that router because I want to cut down on the pieces of equipment and power consumption in my network. I can cut out the router and wireless AP that i have for one unit that can use the time machine feature. I'm most excited that the macbook pro has a SSD in it rather than a hard drive. Anyways, I would love for some input from the mac guys here about what i am to expect with my setup... I use both and have no idea what you're talking about. Setup for a mac is easy as pie. My hardest transition was giving up Picasa for photo organization (many years ago) but now I'm an iPhoto convert. My iMac (also have a laptop) is set up for Windows/Mac dual boot. I did that at first so I could use all the Windows things. After the first few weeks, I stopped using that. I haven't booted into Windows in at least 6 months. At work, I am in a PC world. It's a painful difference.
Corp000085 Posted April 14, 2009 Author Posted April 14, 2009 All right... Through the power of google, I have figured out how to transfer my outlook 2007 pst through thunderbird for pc to thunderbird for mac to entourage 2008. I have also watched some videos and read some stuff so that I can at least navigate throughout my home network and run the programs through the GUI. I do have one question though... What kind of AV do you mac guys recommend? I've read that none is ok, but I just want some opinions...
MattyT Posted April 14, 2009 Posted April 14, 2009 Some recent info here... http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...rss&emc=rss http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...a-numbers-game/ If you're going to run Windows on it too... http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0...ndows-on-a-mac/
BuffaloBill Posted April 15, 2009 Posted April 15, 2009 At work, I am in a PC world. It's a painful difference. I bought the wife a Macbook (now 2 of them). At first, because I live in a PC world at work I hated the thing. As I have adjusted, it is a great machine. I carry a laptop for work but if I buy another machine for the house it will be a Mac.
Corp000085 Posted April 16, 2009 Author Posted April 16, 2009 I got the 24" led cinema display, the wireless mighty mouse, and the airport extreme today. I put the monitor (which is friggin beautiful) on my desk and left the mouse in the box. I'll be setting up the router later tonight after I'm finished using my network for a while.
JoeFerguson Posted May 1, 2009 Posted May 1, 2009 Mac experts.... How do you Search for specific file types on an external hard drive that is not yet indexed? Better question, how to force a drive to be indexed?
Fezmid Posted May 1, 2009 Posted May 1, 2009 People complain about MS (myself included), but Apple's not much better when it comes to being overly protective and trying to squash fair use (although this isn't quite as bad as the universal garage door opener copmany that was sued...): http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/04/27 "Late last year, Apple lawyers demanded removal of some of the content on BluWiki, alleging that the discussions constituted copyright infringement and a violation of the DMCA's prohibition on circumventing copy protection measures. The discussions in question focused on how hobbyists might enable iPods and iPhones to work with desktop media management software other than Apple's own iTunes software, such as WinAmp and Songbird. Fearing legal action by Apple, OdioWorks took down the discussions from the BluWiki site."
Wacka Posted May 1, 2009 Posted May 1, 2009 NEVER GET A MAC UNLESS YOU HAVE APPLE CARE! Why? I've never had it. T took my last one in, A 5 year old G4 tower because it was freezing up randomly, including at startup before the OS loaded. They, FOR NOTHING ran a diagnostic disk which pointed to a motherboard problem. That is the only problem I have had with a Mac.
John Adams Posted May 2, 2009 Posted May 2, 2009 People complain about MS (myself included), but Apple's not much better when it comes to being overly protective and trying to squash fair use (although this isn't quite as bad as the universal garage door opener copmany that was sued...): http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/04/27 "Late last year, Apple lawyers demanded removal of some of the content on BluWiki, alleging that the discussions constituted copyright infringement and a violation of the DMCA's prohibition on circumventing copy protection measures. The discussions in question focused on how hobbyists might enable iPods and iPhones to work with desktop media management software other than Apple's own iTunes software, such as WinAmp and Songbird. Fearing legal action by Apple, OdioWorks took down the discussions from the BluWiki site." Yeah but Macs work.
The Big Cat Posted May 2, 2009 Posted May 2, 2009 Why?I've never had it. T took my last one in, A 5 year old G4 tower because it was freezing up randomly, including at startup before the OS loaded. They, FOR NOTHING ran a diagnostic disk which pointed to a motherboard problem. That is the only problem I have had with a Mac. Well, there must be a glitch with the MacBook. Mine and my best friend's both froze then subsequently lost all the memory, required a new had drive. I've also had my CD drive fail and my power source fray. All of the aforementioned = free with Apple Care (as is phone support, something you can't get without it, at least not at the one time I called). Without Apple Care all of the aforementioned = about $400 (when you factor in the external disc drive a purchased (less than having her serviced at Apple Store on Mag Mile)
Corp000085 Posted May 2, 2009 Author Posted May 2, 2009 After 2 weeks, I can totally confirm that I'll never, EVER, EVER go back! Now that I just said that, I think that I could only tolerate Windows if it was running on a SSD. I am not totally sure if OS X has a ton of hard drive thrash like Windows XP/Vista does, but there's obviously no thrash, heat, noise, or delay with this SSD. I am tempted to use boot camp to load vista just so i can have a benchmark as to how much faster this thing is, but I don't even want to bother. I'll just get a SSD for my wife's laptop when her current HDD dies. Aside from the SSD, the macbook is a phenomenal machine. I love the feel of the keyboard, the sound is of decent quality (although, i do use my headphones for music), the battery life is great, I love the multi touch pad... Basically, I love this machine.
Fezmid Posted May 2, 2009 Posted May 2, 2009 After 2 weeks, I can totally confirm that I'll never, EVER, EVER go back! Now that I just said that, I think that I could only tolerate Windows if it was running on a SSD. I am not totally sure if OS X has a ton of hard drive thrash like Windows XP/Vista does, but there's obviously no thrash, heat, noise, or delay with this SSD. I am tempted to use boot camp to load vista just so i can have a benchmark as to how much faster this thing is, but I don't even want to bother. I'll just get a SSD for my wife's laptop when her current HDD dies. Aside from the SSD, the macbook is a phenomenal machine. I love the feel of the keyboard, the sound is of decent quality (although, i do use my headphones for music), the battery life is great, I love the multi touch pad... Basically, I love this machine. Be careful with the SSD drive -- they have a very limited number of read/write cycles per block, at which point it'll fail. We have a SAN device at work that uses all SSD drives in it -- cost about $500,000 for the array -- and there's logic built into the controller so that all of the writes get spread more evenly across the drives, but the home drives probably don't have that same level of intelligence built in. Basically - make sure you have backups! (which you should be doing regardless of whether it's a regular drive or an SSD)
/dev/null Posted May 2, 2009 Posted May 2, 2009 Basically - make sure you have backups! (which you should be doing regardless of whether it's a regular drive or an SSD) Why do you need backups? The genius says Mac's sh#t don't stink?
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