Getting started with MacOSX - the hard way

Discussion in 'Community Discussion' started by johnix, Sep 29, 2011.

Most Liked Posts
  1. johnix, Sep 29, 2011

    johnix macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Sep 29, 2011
    Location:
    RP China
    #1
    Hi all,

    I'm coming here for help.

    I know it's my fault. I bought a 2011 Macbook Air just because of the great hardware and the (relatively) low price tag. I just wanted to get Linux running and be done.

    But I should have known this was Apple, and Apple means trouble. One week later, I'm stuck with crappy video drivers, a worse-than-nothing touchpad and a keyboard map that can't be fixed without breaking something else. In addition, because I went for the latest drivers, I chose Ubuntu 11.10 beta, and now every day, another vital part of the system breaks apart.

    So I figured, I might as well try to use MacOS X Lion. They say it's Unix... and apart from the Wifi that keeps disconnecting and no accents on my Dvorak keymap, it's running fine. I just have to re-learn 10 years worth of shortcuts...

    Now, if only I could get basic software onto my MacOS. You know, OpenOffice.org, GnuPG, Thunderbird, wget, Gimp, a torrent client, OGG player, Anki, rsync, and the 1000 others one can't live without. But Macports has a dependency list long like my complains list, and Fink binaries seem to have stopped at 10.4. And installing every software package by hand is not an option for someone who has been using a Debian package manager for the last 10 years.

    Is it true that there's no software on MacOS, and that you have to purchase every package one by one from Mac Store and install them manually?

    Please, someone, give me hope! Where do I find software for MacOS Lion?
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  2. lighthouse_man, Sep 29, 2011

    lighthouse_man macrumors 6502a

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2005
    #2
    Welcome to Earth,
    You know there is this thing called Google, it's a search engine and it's found at google.com where you can search for the apps you want and you can find their respective websites and download them. Many of the software that you mentioned is also available on Mac.

    For example, a simple Google search resulted in finding:
    http://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/
    http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/

    and by the way this is not the right part of the forum to ask about Lion; try here:
    http://forums.macrumors.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=30&f=152
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  3. likemyorbs, Sep 30, 2011

    likemyorbs macrumors 68000

    likemyorbs

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2008
    Location:
    NJ
    #3
    So basically you're complaining that mac os doesn't come loaded with free software? Which btw it does if you buy a new mac. But why would you not just use google? There is also tons of free software in the app store.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  4. -tWv-, Sep 30, 2011
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2011

    -tWv- macrumors 68000

    -tWv-

    Joined:
    May 11, 2009
    Location:
    Ohio
    #4
    I'm sorry to say, but there isn't much that you can install through things like macports. I tried out ubuntu and that was one of the things I loved about it, but with a Mac you are going to have to install programs by themselves. This really isn't that bad because either you do it through the app store or download the application from a website, copy it to the applications folder, and you are done..

    I know that I was able to get ubuntu fully functional on my MacBook about a year ago, I searched around the ubuntu forums for a while to find what I needed, but it worked. Have you looked at the apple section of the ubuntu forum?

    You could also run ubuntu on your Mac as a virtual machine with virtualbox if you wanted. You can set it to run fullscreen and it's like having a whole ubuntu machine inside the Mac OS. I've used this a lot just to try out operating systems and ubuntu works particularly well. I have never had a problem with it, I would give it a try
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  5. ender land, Sep 30, 2011

    ender land macrumors 6502a

    Joined:
    Oct 26, 2010
    #5
    I'm pretty sure your OP actually convinces me even more strongly that I should like Macs.

    All the crap you listed would be things I would have to spend time going through and removing... and since it's not installed I don't have to!

    Also, you chose a beta OS for your ubuntu... don't be surprised if you have problems and the "system breaks apart."
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  6. AnimaLeo, Sep 30, 2011

    AnimaLeo macrumors 6502

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2009
    #6
    You bought a Mac before researching this kind of thing? PCs are way better for this sort of thing, and cheaper.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)

Share This Page