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Dell User - Just switched - install question

H

Heart Break Kid

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 13, 2003
574
8
Toronto
Hello Everybody!

Ok so heres the deal

I just ordered my 17" Powerbook recently and i was wondering about how the Mac OS runs. Specifically with instaling programs. Is it similar to windows where if you want to uninstall a program you go to controll pannels and add-remove? Is it different? Yes for those of you who didnt believe I just switched, that question ought to make you. lol
 
Installers can be either stand-alone programs written to install, they can be packages for Apple's Installer to open and install, or they can be disk images that you just drag and drop. Like, you download something, it uncompresses to a disk image, you drag the "X Application" folder to your Apps folder, and boom, you're good.

as for deleting a program, just drag it to the trash.

welcome to macintosh :)

pnw
 
its that easy??
no way

so theres no add-remove progs
or control pannel?

i just have to throw the stuff in the recycle bin?

thats kinda simple
damn

lol
 
It is that simple for nearly everything. Ususally there will also be a file belonging to the app you are deleting in your /Library/Preferences folder, too, but it won't hurt to leave it there.
 
No add/remove programs. If you want to remove it, drag it to the trash. If you want to install, there's 2 methods, one is that the app is self contained and will be in a mounted disk (usually says "Darg this to your applications folder"). The second is to double click on the installer (sometimes shown with "pkg" extension). That's it, follow the on screen commands, usually OK/Continue/Agree/Continue, etc just keep hitting the blue button.

That's it. Most (if not all) apps will be installed in your /Applications folder. When you hate something, just drag it's folder to the trash :)

Welcome aboad.
 
Originally posted by Kid Red
No add/remove programs. If you want to remove it, drag it to the trash. If you want to install, there's 2 methods, one is that the app is self contained and will be in a mounted disk (usually says "Darg this to your applications folder"). The second is to double click on the installer (sometimes shown with "pkg" extension). That's it, follow the on screen commands, usually OK/Continue/Agree/Continue, etc just keep hitting the blue button.

That's it. Most (if not all) apps will be installed in your /Applications folder. When you hate something, just drag it's folder to the trash :)

Welcome aboad.
Click to expand...

not ALL apps can be deleted by taking them to the trash. some programs do fairly obscure installs, particularly something like gimp-print, or norton antivirus (haven't used it, but so i understand). most apps are that easily deleted, but there are a very small number that don't. the ones that don't remove that easily usually have uninstallers. the catch is, they are the installers. to remove such an app, you have to run the installer again, and when the customize option comes, tell it to remove rather than to install. this is the case for packages quite frequently. disk image installs though (the most common), as has been mentioned, you just drag and drop to both install and remove. you'll get the hang of things very quickly, after you start using OS X. it took me a few days to jump into the swing of things with my 15" tibook :). when in doubt with any program, just check the readme file.

sorry kid red if i sounded like i was responding to you, i just quoted you to add on to what you are saying to the guy :).

Welcome to the good side of the force, heart break kid.
 
I just wanted to add a few things.
Never install Norton Utilities or Ant-Virus! Best to run from the CD or the application which is dragged and dropped from the CD to your Applications folder.
A GREAT place for tech help is http://www.macfixit.com. Apple polices their tech site, Macfixit doesnt.
Finally, welcome to Mac. You will find that other Mac users will go out of their way to help you, even to the point of doing research and follow ups. We live in a happy world.
 
Re: Dell User - Just switched - install question

Originally posted by Heart Break Kid
Hello Everybody!

Ok so heres the deal

I just ordered my 17" Powerbook recently and i was wondering about how the Mac OS runs. Specifically with instaling programs. Is it similar to windows where if you want to uninstall a program you go to controll pannels and add-remove? Is it different? Yes for those of you who didnt believe I just switched, that question ought to make you. lol
Click to expand...

First off, you are going to be flabbergasted when it arrives!!
System preferences is similar to control panel, but you can’t uninstall apps from there.
I suggest that you go to a Mac store and play with one them to get use to it!!
Congrads!! ;) :D
 
Re: Re: Dell User - Just switched - install question

Originally posted by xrhajj


First off, you are going to be flabbergasted when it arrives!!
Click to expand...

that's got to be the perfect word for this. good call. it captures that sense of "the most normal thing to happen right now would be if this thing's lid opened and it ate me alive." it's going to be absolutely out of this world, man. my 15.2 was!
 
Re: Re: Re: Dell User - Just switched - install question

Originally posted by Shadowfax


that's got to be the perfect word for this. good call. it captures that sense of "the most normal thing to happen right now would be if this thing's lid opened and it ate me alive." it's going to be absolutely out of this world, man. my 15.2 was!
Click to expand...

Thank you, I guess reading the dictionary every other day comes in handy!!;) :D
 
Originally posted by Les Kern
I just wanted to add a few things.
Never install Norton Utilities or Ant-Virus! Best to run from the CD or the application which is dragged and dropped from the CD to your Applications folder.
A GREAT place for tech help is http://www.macfixit.com. Apple polices their tech site, Macfixit doesnt.
Finally, welcome to Mac. You will find that other Mac users will go out of their way to help you, even to the point of doing research and follow ups. We live in a happy world.
Click to expand...

The only problem with running it from the disc is that you are running a program without the latest updates. Without the latest updates Norton has even worse compatibility with X then the latest version has.

Best recommendation is to sell you Norton on eBay or use it for target practice.
 
Originally posted by MacBandit


The only problem with running it from the disc is that you are running a program without the latest updates. Without the latest updates Norton has even worse compatibility with X then the latest version has.

Best recommendation is to sell you Norton on eBay or use it for target practice.
Click to expand...

Definitely. That ******* doctor on the box makes for awesome kicking.

Not that I've ever needed any utilities to fix my mac running X, but if I did, I'd use Diskwarrior. It's a god.
 
Originally posted by springscansing


Definitely. That ******* doctor on the box makes for awesome kicking.

Not that I've ever needed any utilities to fix my mac running X, but if I did, I'd use Diskwarrior. It's a god.
Click to expand...

it is. i really like it.
 
Originally posted by springscansing


Definitely. That ******* doctor on the box makes for awesome kicking.

Not that I've ever needed any utilities to fix my mac running X, but if I did, I'd use Diskwarrior. It's a god.
Click to expand...

Bow to DiskWarrior and kiss his feet for he could be your saviour.:p

Seriously DiskWarrior is the best disk repair program for OSX or OS9 on the market today or ever.
 
Diskwarrior has magically saved my dad's 7600 a billion times... and still is to this day. It will not recognize drives, freeze on boot, etc.

Pop in discwarrior, run it once, restart, and everything is perfect. Well.. as perfect as a 7600 with a flakey G4 upgrade card and a semi-compatible ataptec SCSI card can be.
 
Originally posted by MacBandit


Bow to DiskWarrior and kiss his feet for he could be your saviour.:p

Seriously DiskWarrior is the best disk repair program for OSX or OS9 on the market today or ever.
Click to expand...

have you heard about an update to it to make the thing run from OS X natively? i thought i read that was supposed to becoming the first half of the year.
 
Originally posted by MacBandit


Yeah, I believe what I read was they said it would be out by March. They were apparently demoing it at MacWorld.
Click to expand...

yeah, macworld, that's right. that's going to be so cool. all the power and innate coolness of diskwarrior with the looks of Drive 10. lol
 
Originally posted by Shadowfax


yeah, macworld, that's right. that's going to be so cool. all the power and innate coolness of diskwarrior with the looks of Drive 10. lol
Click to expand...

I just wish they would add a Disk Defragger. I don't care what people say I know how much fragmentation goes on and when you are talking about 100s and 100s of thousands of files spread out across 80-200+ Gig hard drives this does slow things down.
 
Originally posted by MacBandit


I just wish they would add a Disk Defragger. I don't care what people say I know how much fragmentation goes on and when you are talking about 100s and 100s of thousands of files spread out across 80-200+ Gig hard drives this does slow things down.
Click to expand...

isn't that what plusoptimizer is? it comes with diskwarrior (at least, the one i bought after christmas).

[edit] this really is like chatting! [/edit]
 
Originally posted by springscansing
I'd use Diskwarrior. It's a god.
Click to expand...

D'OH! Diskwarrior is the best to be sure in fixing directories. It's never failed me. I was just trying to warn of potential Norton issues if installed. Norton IS a good tool, however, in ridding my 750 machines of the macro viruses I have to deal with: Mellissa and MarkerA. They are annoying to our users, but pretty harmless on OS9 or X. (I lock the normal template so at least it doesnt infect new files) I use a 2-year old copy to sweep on occasion, but generally I'd PERSONALLY never update the descriptions. I did see somewhere where it's not really necessary to defrag a machine running X exclusively. Anyone hear that? I've never bothered, and have 10 X servers that have never even been rebooted this school year, and I have 1500 users hammering them constantly without issue. Okay I'm rambling. I guess for the ex Dell Dude, Diskwarrior for sure, Norton if you like adventure! IMHO.
 
Originally posted by Shadowfax


isn't that what plusoptimizer is? it comes with diskwarrior (at least, the one i bought after christmas).

[edit] this really is like chatting! [/edit]
Click to expand...

Sure does. I hadn't previously realized that it came with a program to defragment. I will definitely be getting it now as soon as they release the OSX dedicated version.
 
Originally posted by Les Kern


D'OH! Diskwarrior is the best to be sure in fixing directories. It's never failed me. I was just trying to warn of potential Norton issues if installed. Norton IS a good tool, however, in ridding my 750 machines of the macro viruses I have to deal with: Mellissa and MarkerA. They are annoying to our users, but pretty harmless on OS9 or X. (I lock the normal template so at least it doesnt infect new files) I use a 2-year old copy to sweep on occasion, but generally I'd PERSONALLY never update the descriptions. I did see somewhere where it's not really necessary to defrag a machine running X exclusively. Anyone hear that? I've never bothered, and have 10 X servers that have never even been rebooted this school year, and I have 1500 users hammering them constantly without issue. Okay I'm rambling. I guess for the ex Dell Dude, Diskwarrior for sure, Norton if you like adventure! IMHO.
Click to expand...

I too have heard that you don't need to defrag. Needing and wanting to defrag are two different things though. Just because you don't need to doesn't mean that there isn't some benefits to it. As I stated previously on my system with 100s and 100s of thousands of files spread out over my 80gig hard driver there has to be a slow down because of it. Just think about people with larger drives they have to be even slower. Though this doesn't mean you absolutely need to. I believe in OSX no matter how fragmented the drive gets it will never be a problem in the since that it will cause lock ups like it does in OS9.
 
Okay, I'm continuing the off-topic, but here goes.
If you installed Mac OSX into a UFS partition (what I din't make clear above when using strictly OSX), then defragmenting would be a waste of time since the unix file system handles file fragmentation just fine. If you have HFS or HFS+, you need contiguous space for movies and such or use a lot of Classic apps, then defrag. Norton is best if only for it's speed over Plus Optimizer.
 
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