First time MBP/OSX user have a couple silly Qs

[deosaa7]

Hello I made the switch recently and have a brand new 13 inch core i5 MBP with 128gb SSD.

When I used Windows I was always going into the task manager and closing tasks I didn't need as well as optimizing the boot sequence and such. I'm wondering if I need to do the same with my MBP - I'd rather not be so anally retentive about small stuff so I was wondering will I see performance slow downs with having widgets up on dashboard plus dropbox and pandora running, browser with a few tabs, MOOM, etc etc?

Also when I boot up and shut down I notice I get 2 seconds of a sky blue screen - is this normal?

Lastly I know this belongs in applications but please let me ask here: Everytime I save a picture off the internet to my iPhoto account...iPhoto pops up which is a major pain especially because I was saving about 10 pictures from an online album and every picture I saved, iPhoto popped up. Anyway to save to iPhoto without it popping up?

thanks
AKD

 

[pyroo]

From what you listed, you shouldn't have a problem with slow downs, your MBP is a very capable machine, especially since you added an SSD.

The blue screen is normal when shutting down, booting up, I have a grey screen. I barely have my laptop shut down unless I know I won't be using it for more than 24 hours, putting it to sleep is much faster.

And I don't use iPhoto for saving pictures off the internet so I dunno how to answer that last question, sorry!

 

[Peteman100]

No need to worry about any kind of boot optimization. One of the benefits of OSX

 

[w00t951]

1) OS X is already optimized for your computer type, right down to the decision of whether to boot into 32 or 64 bit mode. No tinkering required.
2) You really shouldn't see any performance slowdown. For some reason, OS X uses more RAM than Windows does while at idle with nothing running (1GB vs. 300 MB). However, OS X is much more likely to stay around 1 GB than Windows, which fluctuates wildly. Therefore, even with 20+ apps in the background (with the little blue dots under their icons) and a ton of widgets, my MBP doesn't slow down or use too much RAM.
3) If you are responsible with deleting app files from your Library folder, you really don't need to do maintenance past going to "Disk Utility" and selecting your hard drive partition for a "Permissions Repair" once in a while.
4) The blue screen is equivalent to the Windows "Welcome" and "Shutting Down" screens. They're just much shorter.
5) I had no idea that iPhoto could even do that. I had problems with iPhoto popping up when I plugged my iDevices in, but I've never heard of iPhoto opening when you download pictures. Sorry.
Hope this helps!

 

[darkmess]

For the 2011 model, you're probably all good for performance. My 2010 model is quite slow, don't know why, I've only had it for a few months, and it's just filled with a few gigs of music and videos. Ah well. I just have to close everything (especially iTunes) to keep everything smooth.

 

[Locodice]

Sounds like a mixup of file type associations.

Take a look at the (jpgs?) images you've been downloading and "Get Info" and see what app is associated with it, if it's iPhoto then change it to Preview.