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1 Barber Shop. 4 Ladies. 1 Macbook.

fivepoint

fivepoint

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 28, 2007
1,175
7
IOWA
After years of struggling with viruses and malware on her Dell, my relative is planning on getting a Macbook for use in her Barber Shop. In that shop, there are 3 other ladies using the computer for personal use (checking email, playing online games, weather, etc.), and this I think is what caused her old computer to slow down so much. With 4 unregulated users going to whatever webpages they wanted to downloading whatever they wanted to, things got bogged down quickly.

The Mac, I think, will fix about 80% of these problems. However, I'm looking for other methods to help ensure this computer stays as fresh and speedy as possible after being used by 4 non-techie people who always seem to find a way to screw things up. What recommendations do you have on this front? Multiple user accounts which can be deleted and recreated occasionally? No cookies accepted in Safari? Some sort of limitations on downloads?

What steps should I take in setting the computer up? Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
 
Just setup the user accounts and let them have at it. Really the only maintenance needed is to make sure they don't fill up the available drive space (which that kind of stuff isn't likely to do) and to run Disk Utility every couple months or so. There's not much they'll be able to mess up.

jW
 
Mal said:
Just setup the user accounts and let them have at it. Really the only maintenance needed is to make sure they don't fill up the available drive space (which that kind of stuff isn't likely to do) and to run Disk Utility every couple months or so. There's not much they'll be able to mess up.

jW
Click to expand...


So... then if the computer begins to slow down you can simply delete users which will delete everything they downloaded, all of their settings, etc.? And you'll be back to normal at that point?
 
fivepoint said:
So... then if the computer begins to slow down you can simply delete users which will delete everything they downloaded, all of their settings, etc.? And you'll be back to normal at that point?
Click to expand...

That's not even necessary, Macs don't really bog down in the same sense that PC's do over time. However, if you felt like it, yes, you could do that.

jW
 
Isn't there a guest user account now that wipes everything clean after you log out?

I would just login as that each morning and not worry about it.

XP slows down over time. You need to reinstall it every so often (Admins might dissagree here).

Most of the crapware gets installed by visiting the game sites, kids websites are particularly bad. I wouldn't really worry about it on the Mac though.
 
Any suggestions for specific applications and the like? Anything other than creating individual user accounts?
 
I think if you make the accounts standard or managed/limited accounts that cannot install software, you will be more than fine without doing anything beyond that.
 
fivepoint said:
After years of struggling with viruses and malware on her Dell, my relative is planning on getting a Macbook for use in her Barber Shop. In that shop, there are 3 other ladies using the computer for personal use (checking email, playing online games, weather, etc.), and this I think is what caused her old computer to slow down so much. With 4 unregulated users going to whatever webpages they wanted to downloading whatever they wanted to, things got bogged down quickly.

The Mac, I think, will fix about 80% of these problems. However, I'm looking for other methods to help ensure this computer stays as fresh and speedy as possible after being used by 4 non-techie people who always seem to find a way to screw things up. What recommendations do you have on this front? Multiple user accounts which can be deleted and recreated occasionally? No cookies accepted in Safari? Some sort of limitations on downloads?

What steps should I take in setting the computer up? Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
Click to expand...

My grandparents used to own a salon in Jacksonville, off San Jose. Their shop computer was an E-Machine. Everyone and their mother was getting on it to go to Myspace.

We did a full system scan of the computer, and found over 100 trojans and keyloggers.

As for the computer, get an iMac instead and a macbook for her own personal use. Restrict all use to the computer except for work related purposes.
 
Yeah, I'd second the iMac suggestion. Aside from giving you more life span/performance bang for your buck, it's also less prone to breakage and can be subtly chained to a desk using the security lock slot. That's how mine is set up at the moment.
 
pilotError said:
XP slows down over time. You need to reinstall it every so often (Admins might dissagree here).
Click to expand...

No we don't it does slow down and you have to reinstall. You can run defrag and clean up unused programs all you want and it will still never be the same as a fresh clean install.
 
The reason for the macbook is because she takes it home every couple of days to 'do books.' (accounting) The machine has to be portable. However, we are also getting a cheap 20" dell screen ($150) and a logitech wireless keyboard and mouse with it as well so the macbook can stay in a drawer safe and sound during the day.

mkrishnan said:
I think if you make the accounts standard or managed/limited accounts that cannot install software, you will be more than fine without doing anything beyond that.
Click to expand...

Excellent. Thanks... That's all it should take, huh? No other software suggestions?

Thanks guys!
 
tell her to enforce some shop rules and put up some site filters. I know my boss used to chew us out for wasting many an hour on youtube (thanks to histories...just deleting them would make you look suspicious lol). personally, for a shop computer, I would stick w/ the dell, or something that is cheap and doesn't matter much.
 
4 Non admin accounts, quick user switching. Ethernet cable. Lock cable. Max out RAM.

fivepoint said:
So... then if the computer begins to slow down you can simply delete users which will delete everything they downloaded, all of their settings, etc.? And you'll be back to normal at that point?
Click to expand...

OSX doesn't slow down very much even with constant use. There are no spyware or viruses.
 
fivepoint said:
After years of struggling with viruses and malware on her Dell, my relative is planning on getting a Macbook for use in her Barber Shop. In that shop, there are 3 other ladies using the computer for personal use (checking email, playing online games, weather, etc.), and this I think is what caused her old computer to slow down so much. With 4 unregulated users going to whatever webpages they wanted to downloading whatever they wanted to, things got bogged down quickly.

The Mac, I think, will fix about 80% of these problems. However, I'm looking for other methods to help ensure this computer stays as fresh and speedy as possible after being used by 4 non-techie people who always seem to find a way to screw things up. What recommendations do you have on this front? Multiple user accounts which can be deleted and recreated occasionally? No cookies accepted in Safari? Some sort of limitations on downloads?

What steps should I take in setting the computer up? Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
Click to expand...


Keep the Dell, put Xubuntu on it, and keep it there for public use. Get a MacBook just for your relative.
 
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