New to mac..just got Macbook pro today

[brentg33]

Hey, im about an hr or so into my new mac experience....so far i love it but being new to osx i have some questions....does anyone here use a virius program, if so which? also is there a way to keep your dashboard widgets on all the time on screen, currently the disappear once i select a new application to run....and how do i maximize a wiindow to be the size of the entire screen?
thanks
brent

[Cybergypsy]

No virus program, if you want the widgets to stay on desktop there is a program for that, good luck :)

[Cybergypsy]

http://www.coolosxapps.net/2005/11/23/tip-widgets-on-your-desktop/

[mgargan1]

Norton makes anti-virus for the mac... but honestly, i wouldn't waste your money unless you're in a windows environment and you're afraid of transferring windows viruses along.

As far as making your window the size of the entire screen, the best way that I know is by moving the bottom right click and drag thingy that makes your window bigger. (I think that is what it's actually called :))

I did hear that in Leopard, that it's going to be resolution independent, which will allow apps to be full screen, at least that's my understanding.

Although, when you think about it, if you're in Safari, or Word... why would you need to have the app full screen?

[heehee]

You dont "maximize" in Macs, just drag the lower right hand corner of your "window".

[Allotriophagy]

Seems like you need to take some time to get out of the habit of thinking you are using Windows! Just persevere and eventually you will wonder how you ever got along without OS X.

[Mr Skills]

On the Mac, the green "zoom" button does not maximise - always maximising programs, like on Windows, would go against the Mac's drag-and-drop philiosphy. Instead, it sets the window to an optimum size, chosen by the developer of the app; press it again and it will go back to your 'personal' size.

For example, in Safari, it will set the window to be just the right size for the website you are viewing. This makes sense if you think about it. There are three possible sizes for a window:
1) The maximum size
2) The actual size of what you are doing (without blank space)
3) Whatever random size you choose

Of course, there is no way you can make a button to do -3-, and it is very easy to do -1- just by dragging the window to its maximum size, so the most timesaving thing to do is either have four buttons in the top corner (which would make it more complex) or to have the button perform function -2-. In this respect I believe it is a variation on something called Fitts' Law. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27s_law)

So you see... Apple think about this stuff very carefully :eek: :)

[Allotriophagy]

Instead, it sets the window to an optimum size, chosen by the developer of the app; press it again and it will go back to your 'personal' size.

Actually, the green button is a bit unpredictable. In Safari right now, if I have my window set to a random size, pressing the green button first makes it small and rectangular in the corner, pressing again makes it tall and thin, pressing it again returns it to small...and so on.

It's one of the annoying OS X things I do not understand. I just never press that button and always resize with the corner.

[Mr Skills]

Actually, the green button is a bit unpredictable. In Safari right now, if I have my window set to a random size, pressing the green button first makes it small and rectangular in the corner, pressing again makes it tall and thin, pressing it again returns it to small...and so on.

Just trying it... yep, you're right! It IS toggling between user and optimum, but with 2 problems. One - it seems that 'user' must be smaller than 'optimum' or it gets confused (hence it's making the very small box). Two - it seems to think that on a variable-width site like MacRumors, really thin is the way to go. If you keep clicking you'll see that it never goes back to full size and just keeps toggling between small and tall. but if you START with your own small size it will happily toggle between that and the tall "optimum" one.

So the theory is great but the implementation may be a bit sloppy. So much for my "Apple Always Gets It Right" post :rolleyes: ... but they do most of the time ;)

[Allotriophagy]

So the theory is great but the implementation may be a bit sloppy. So much for my "Apple Always Gets It Right" post :rolleyes: ... but they do most of the time ;)

Heh. It's a fair trade-off for stability and virus-free living, I feel!

[brentg33]

thanks for all who got back to me so fast i have a few more questions......is there a certain bittorrent app. most people here use? i know utorrent is not made for mac....also if anyone has some suggestions for a dvd ripper and a video converter...that would be great too
thanks
again
brent

[Fukui]

Versiontracker.com is a good place to look for software on Mac.
Just search for what your looking for and you should find quite a few options.