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First time Switcher!

T

TheSisko

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hey all,

I bought my first Mac ever 2 weeks ago (Ibook G4 1.2), mainly because I'm doing a traineeship in Switzerland for 3 months, and needed a computer, and a laptop is something I could continue to use when I get back.

Bought it mainly for size, battery life and of course looks 🙂. Plus, I wanted to try a new platform. Though its performance isn't quite up to my machine back home, I'm very pleased with it so far, specially after I got a 512MB stick for it.

So far I'm very impressed with OS X and find myself sorely missing Exposé on my work computer.

Then I found myself needing a mouse, and though I breefly considered the Apple BT mouse, one button IS NOT enough. I mean c´mon, the OS is obviously built for 2 buttons...there is no way to open a link in a new tab or save a picture with one button (OK, you can assign a corner to show desktop, then select the picture, drag it, go to the corner, drop it on your download folder, and go to the corner again....but come on 🙂 ) And when you have a coffee in your left hand, its very annoying to keep setting it down all the time to hold the ctrl button 😉 Not to mention the lack scroll wheel...dragging scroll bars feels sooo wrong.

So I bought a Logitech V500 mouse, which at first I was VERY dissapointed in, since frankly the Logitech drivers sucked, but then I found USB Overdrive, and could finally use the horizontal scroll!

I can also recommend XGestures, which promptly cured the lack of back/forward buttons on my mouse.

So now I´m very happy with my Mac and look forward to to using it for a while...at least until I get that Yonah-Powerbook 😎 .
 
Well, switch already!!!

Just curious, too, is it possible to be a second time switcher? I guess so if you went to another platform and then back to Mac...
 
Well, switch already!!!

Just curious, too, is it possible to be a second time switcher? I guess so if you went to another platform and then back to Mac...
Click to expand...

Yeah..Just DO IT! I mean really...I know there's no way I'd wouldn't notice a 10% faster processor and a slightly-less-crappy GFxC (i mean both the r9200 and FX5200 suck pretty bad), so I just bought it. The thing that matters is RAM...it everything feel 10x faster, and I got a spec:d-for-mac Kingston stick for 75$...way cheeper than Apple.

As for second time switching...actually I was a die-hard Amiga fan for many years (1989-1998) before I realized that it sucked (the latest&greatest game in '97 was Doom2 and it played at 10fps) and got a PC.
 
Man, I would switch. Easily. If I had the money right now, you'd see me typing on a Powerbook while wearing the box it came in as a substitute for clothes.
 
Congratulations on your buy. You got yourself an awesome little workhorse. 🙂

I hope you opted for the biggest HD possible. I'm struggling daily to keep 5-6 GB free on my 60 GB HD... 😉
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Congratulations on your buy. You got yourself an awesome little workhorse. 🙂

I hope you opted for the biggest HD possible. I'm struggling daily to keep 5-6 GB free on my 60 GB HD... 😉
Click to expand...


Actually I got the smallest one 😱 ..since I bought it at a store and saved $90 compared to a 60GB at the Apple store.

Really, I have 18GB free space, and am not planning to put much else on it, so I doubt I'd have use for more. Even on my 200GB drive on the PC, I barely have 30GB stuff I actually use, most of it is games I never play and a load of useless stuff for filesharing (hope I don't get banned now 🙄 )
 
I have the logitech mx310 and find the drivers very useful - maybe they're different for your mouse. I've bound the "browser back" button to expose🙂
Anyway, if you're a firefox user and are stuck using a 1-button mouse, you can click and hold on a link then the right click menu opens up. Dont know about safari though.
Congrats on the iBook, i love mine!
 
nichos said:
I have the logitech mx310 and find the drivers very useful - maybe they're different for your mouse. I've bound the "browser back" button to expose🙂
Anyway, if you're a firefox user and are stuck using a 1-button mouse, you can click and hold on a link then the right click menu opens up. Dont know about safari though.
Congrats on the iBook, i love mine!
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Logitech drivers restrict the horizontal scroll to a uselessly slooow speed, but with USB Overdrive I can change it or even map it to another function.

And, no, that doesn't work with Safari, for my trackpad, I've mapped the button to right-click and tap for left-click...works pretty well! And of course, couldn'
t live without the two-finger scroll...the guy who made IScroll is a genius!
 
TheSisko said:
Yeah, the Logitech drivers restrict the horizontal scroll to a uselessly slooow speed, but with USB Overdrive I can change it or even map it to another function.

And, no, that doesn't work with Safari, for my trackpad, I've mapped the button to right-click and tap for left-click...works pretty well! And of course, couldn'
t live without the two-finger scroll...the guy who made IScroll is a genius!
Click to expand...

Well, although I'm very happy about iScroll, the guy who made it was just writing a front-end for functionality that Apple provided. So, apple is a genius, and the guy who made iScroll is a life-saver.
 
congrats on the switch, as you have already noticed how great the system is, i know you will continue to enjoy it more and more!! as for a mouse search around the forums for BT mice, i know there are a lot of threads out there that could be help if you want to find a mouse that will be a little more pleaseing. welcome!!!
 
stridey said:
Well, although I'm very happy about iScroll, the guy who made it was just writing a front-end for functionality that Apple provided. So, apple is a genius, and the guy who made iScroll is a life-saver.
Click to expand...

From his website:

Please note that this is not just the driver for the 2005 models hacked to run older models - the new models use a completely different trackpad and driver. iScroll2 is based on Apple's AppleADBMouse-209.0.10 driver for the trackpads found on older models...
Click to expand...

The code added for supporting two-finger scrolling was written from scratch.
Click to expand...

So I think he deserves some credit, no?

as for a mouse search around the forums for BT mice, i know there are a lot of threads out there that could be help if you want to find a mouse that will be a little more pleaseing. welcome!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks! Actually I'm very pleased with it now...it's the most responsive wireless mouse I've tested and also looks cool and is travel-sized. Later I might get a wired full-size mouse for use at home. I had a very nasty email I was going to send to logitech for their lack of support, probably should send it anyway...since some guy obviously makes better drivers at home than their Mac-department (though that's probably just one guy too🙄 .)
 
TheSisko said:
From his website:





So I think he deserves some credit, no?
Click to expand...

😱 Guess I was wrong! Maybe the guy is a genius after all (although the concept was still a brilliant bit of thinking on apple's part) 😀
 
stridey said:
(although the concept was still a brilliant bit of thinking on apple's part) 😀
Click to expand...

Agreed! It's such a simple idea and it works so well! Quintessentially Apple, wouldn't you say?
 
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