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a switcher's tale : 1 week with MacOs X

S

Symtex

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 27, 2005
515
2
So it's been a week now that i am a switcher. This is a series of though that i have so far with my experience of Mac OS X and PowerPC G5.

Day 1 :
After experiencing with differents programs, I have notice that Firefox for Mac is the best browser so far. I have yet to experience a site which is not display properly. I've learn how to organize my .dmg file (thanks to macrumors) and feel more conformtable with software installation.

I manage to find Microsoft Messenger for Mac and it works within minutes. at my suprise, i was able to do so while installing World of warcraft without a slow down. at different intervale, I was looking into the installation program to make sure it was still running : it was. the installation was complete and was able to play after a few patch is downloaded.

Day 2 :
I've experience my 1st program freezing (beachball). I wasn't too sure how to shutdown the application. I wasn't able to complete a normal shutdown and was force to turn off computer. Later on, I found the activity monitor and terminal windows. I was prepare to kill the application if another occurence happen.

The people at the office are telling me i'm crazy. Why did i spend so much money of a Mac computer. Discussion is useless and try to avoid confrontation.

Day 3 :
I have installed OsXNVC and tried to remote my G5 from the office, but it's not working. When i came home, the computer was completly frozen. I've blame it on VNC but not sure yet. I've yet to try it again.

I found the disk utility repair and thought it was good to do a repair permission. It fixed a few files and think it was a good idea. Not sure how it's going to effect eveyrthing.

The network in finder is so easy to use. I've shared some folders on my xp machine and was able to mount drive easily. I opened up Itunes and at my suprise when i pointed to my music folders, it copied everything in my playlist folder while it was playing a few mp3. The operation was flawless. I really like Itunes. The only problem that i have is my RCA Lyra 2840 is not compatible with my Mac. I'm going to have to find a buyer and switch to an Ipod soon.

Day 4 :
I'm getting the hang of Finder. No freeze today. I think the repair permission fixed whatever problem I had. Again, not sure how it got messed up in the first place. Maybe some program i have downloaded.

For the first time in a long time, I have spent more time running application then fixing them. I no longer worried when a website takes longer to load (spyware) and can officialy say my isp is having issue or the website i'm browsing is slow.

Day 5 :
Everything is still up and running. no reboot today. Stable has it can be. Played World of Warcraft all day. I've looked into Energy saver settings and change to higher settings. For the first time this week, the fan when full throttle for a good 2 sec. It was very lound but it went back to normal state very quickly.

Day 6 and Day 7:
Nothing to report. Everything just work. I've yet to go into IDVD or Imovie. I have found EyeTV or EyeConnect to try out my Plextor TVR402U. It was the main reason i got a Mac.

I give some more thoughts in a month. So far it's very good. No real issues or problems. Nothing i can't handle. My linux backgrounds helps alot and i'm going to mess with the command line soon.

Till next time
 
Nice little run down of your experience with OSX and glad to hear you're enjoying your switch!

Check out some of the freeware/shareware threads for some good apps to test out, . Some of the apps out there are great and can really enhance the OS, personally I couldn't live without [URL=http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/14831]Quicksilver. There are some great iTunes add ons as well, like Synergy and JewelCase. You've quickly figured out how to repair permissions but an app like Onyx makes it easy to maintain your system, before you get to grips with the terminal of course!

Anyway keep enjoying your Mac! :)
 
Glad to hear you're having fun.

A quick note, in case you're interested, on your hard freeze. It can happen occasionally, but if you see several then it's pretty much guaranteed you either installed/are running something that the OS isn't happy about (VNC sounds like the sort of thing that might do this, though I haven't heard of issues), or there's something wrong with your OS install or hardware. Under most use OSX shouldn't freeze more than once in a rare while if ever, so keep an eye out if it does.

Also, since you have a G5 if your computer actually freezes the fans will ramp up to full blast (VERY noisy). This is normal, but if the fans *aren't* ramped up (it'll take them a couple minutes if you're sitting there when it happens), then the OS isn't completely frozen--you might mess around a bit and see if an app or your mouse just went wonky or something.

Just something I've noticed from experience--once in a rare while something will stall the OS (usually firewire drives), but so long as those fans don't kick in it's usually recoverable.
 
Poorly written software is able to cause kernal panics in OSX. OSX, generally though, is bullet proof.
 
Hey you guys forgot to tell him how to kill a frozen application! Shame on you! ;)

Whenever your applications freese (or get the beachball), simply click the desktop, and your mouse will turn back to normal. You then can go to the Apple menu (the Apple on the upper left of your screen, the first item in the menu bar) and click Force Quit. Then on the menu, you'll see all running apps. Just pick the one that froze and click Force Quit. Bye-bye application! That's one of the great things about OS X, if an app crashes, the rest of the OS doesn't. You can even operate normally with a crashed app in the background! :D

And I agree with the above poster about kernel panics/total freezes, it should not happen. In fact, I had this iBook since July 2003, and an iMac G4 before that since August 2002. And I have never, not once, seen OS X freeze or the kernel panic. Not once.

*knocks on wood*
 
Raven VII said:
Hey you guys forgot to tell him how to kill a frozen application! Shame on you! ;)

Whenever your applications freese (or get the beachball), simply click the desktop, and your mouse will turn back to normal. You then can go to the Apple menu (the Apple on the upper left of your screen, the first item in the menu bar) and click Force Quit. Then on the menu, you'll see all running apps. Just pick the one that froze and click Force Quit.
Click to expand...


You can get that window as well by pressing Command(Apple)+Option(Alt)+Esc no matter what application is active.

Another way is to Hold Control+Option(Alt)+Click on the applications icon in the dock. Then you will be able to force quit. Or if you have a two button mouse then just Option+Right Click. You can also Control+Click or Right Click on the dock icon to quit, hide, show the app in the finder. iTunes also has some expanded features in it's dock menu like pause, next song, etc. I find this the easiest way to quit open apps.
 
Edot said:
Another way is to Hold Control+Option(Alt)+Click on the applications icon in the dock. Then you will be able to force quit. Or if you have a two button mouse then just Option+Right Click. You can also Control+Click or Right Click on the dock icon to quit, hide, show the app in the finder. iTunes also has some expanded features in it's dock menu like pause, next song, etc. I find this the easiest way to quit open apps.
Click to expand...

Er....

Just Control-Click works or with a 2-button mouse, right-clicking. No other keys needed. :D
 
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