From the Dark Side! Just got a few questions.

[adskin80]

Hi Guys,

I just recently bought a macbook (1st Oct). I have ordered Leopard through the Up-To-Date program for £5.95. When I bought the mac I didn't realise that a new OS X was coming out. To Be honest I had only used a mac a couple of times but i still bought it! After having it a couple of weeks I absolutely love it!

I have joined up to the forums, as although I'm a experienced Windows user I'm a total newbie to mac. I am gonna have a good read through all the guides. However I just have a couple of quick questions.

1) Does any external DVD-RW work with my macbook? I was going to by a Liteon one that I would use for both my PC and macbook.

2) What internet security is best for the mac.

Thanks

 

[Nick12945]

1) I'm not sure, I'm kinda new here too.
2)So far there are no known viruses for macs so you don't need one.

 

[bjett92]

1) Does any external DVD-RW work with my macbook? I was going to by a Liteon one that I would use for both my PC and macbook.

Check the box. It should say the system requirements or have a logo of the OS's it works with.

2) What internet security is best for the mac.

You shouldn't need one at all, because unlike your former OS macs aren't susceptible to viruses and spyware. If you feel like you need one, there are some available, just Google it.

 

[slooksterPSV]

There is a piece of software out there that allow almost any DVD-RW +- and CD-RW +- to work with Mac OS X. I can't remember the software, but I'll try and find it when i get spare time.

2) Well as for security you should be fine, there is one known virus for OS X, but the programmer failed when writing it so it didn't run. Other security issues to watch out for (rare for a personal mac) is ssh really.
SSH allows you to remotely connect to a networked computer and make changes via a command line based interface called Terminal that usually uses bash, but may also us tcsh (doesn't matter). But usually you have to enable that in System Preferences. Basically you're good on Mac OS X.

Viruses that work for OS X, but basically don't do any damage are Java viruses. Java viruses can affect any machine that runs java but again it depends on if the java virus is ran and if it can access critical parts of your system. Permissions will usually protect your files from unknown access. Here let me show you with a simple pic:

On the pic see System how it has: drwxr-xr-x
r = read, w = write, x = execute, - in position of where a w, r or x would be means its a right that the specific doesn't have, and d = directory (I think) and l is link. It reads as: its a directory, user (which is root in this case) has rwx rights, group (which is wheel in this case) has r-x wheel groupies can't write to system, and others (which is everyone else) has r-x which means no one can write to it, but can read and execute apps in it.

Ok that's more than you wanted, sorry.

 

[blodwyn]

1) Does any external DVD-RW work with my macbook? I was going to by a Liteon one that I would use for both my PC and macbook.
Thanks

A point worth noting is that when you connect the drive to your Mac, there will be no sign that it's connected, unlike Windows which will display an 'I've found some hardware' message. Of course once you insert a disk, then it will work just fine.

 

[Makosuke]

1) The software the previous poster was talking about is Toast; with Toast, you can use pretty much anything.

However, to burn discs with some of Apple's "native" applications (iDVD in particular) not all drives will work. You should be able to read with pretty much anything, and maybe burn, but it may not be 100%. Pioneer-brand internals are pretty much guaranteed to work, but since Apple doesn't (to my knowledge) use LiteOn mechanisms, I'm not entirely sure it'll be fully supported without Toast.

Here's one way to find out, though:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/

...they have a user-submitted database of thousands of drives of all sorts, whether they work, and how well. Search there for what you're thinking about getting and you should be able to find something useful (hopefully).

2) As said, at this point in time it's probably not necessary. I can't guarantee that'll remain true, and the lack of functional viruses on the MacOS isn't an excuse to get lazy, but it's not a big worry right now unless you pass a lot of Word files around from possibly-infected users.

If you want to install one, though, ClamAV is my recommendation. It's free and appears to work pretty well. The "Big names" have Mac versions, but in my experience they cause far more problems than they solve--they're practically malware in and of themselves. Be wary.

 

[adskin80]

Thanks for the advice guys its much appreciated. I'm loving using my macbook and enjoying the learning experience,

Thanks