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Mac Starter Guide

The only absolutely essential things in my list are Onyx, and either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. It is important that people with only one hard drive need to quickly learn that they MUST figure out a way to get backup. For them, an extra internal hard drive or an external Firewire hard drive JUST for backup is essential.

As to the rest of the list, much of it reflects common newbie questions about how to do "x" on a Mac.
 
spinne1 said:
The only absolutely essential things in my list are Onyx, and either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. It is important that people with only one hard drive need to quickly learn that they MUST figure out a way to get backup. For them, an extra internal hard drive or an external Firewire hard drive JUST for backup is essential.

As to the rest of the list, much of it reflects common newbie questions about how to do "x" on a Mac.
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I added the two.




I also added a how to on changing icons and I am still debating over whether I should include CandyBar and Shapeshifter. Any thoughts
 
Even though you're keeping it lean, I still think Camino could be included. When I switched to Mac a year ago, Camino made a much better impression than Safari.

Audacity for working with sound files!

I think your post is magnificent, and agree that it's best to have a list that doesn't go on forever. But there are lots of good suggestions that fall just outside of that (including mine - at least Audacity :rolleyes: ). What about making a second list, for those who are up-and-running and ready for a little more info?

Definitely sticky-material :)
 
I just rearranged everything a bit and added the Apple 101. If there's anything else missing, tell me. I guess a sticky for this would be nice considering all the questions for apps and the like.
 
Diatribe said:
Mac Starter Guide

You just got your Mac and don't know what kind of software you need, what media player to use, what keyboard shortcuts there are and all the other little and big things about Macs and the community? Look no further, here it is in an aggregated list.
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Short and sweet reaction: Superb! Many thanks to you.
 
annk said:
Even though you're keeping it lean, I still think Camino could be included. When I switched to Mac a year ago, Camino made a much better impression than Safari.

Audacity for working with sound files!

I think your post is magnificent, and agree that it's best to have a list that doesn't go on forever. But there are lots of good suggestions that fall just outside of that (including mine - at least Audacity :rolleyes: ). What about making a second list, for those who are up-and-running and ready for a little more info?

Definitely sticky-material :)
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Thanks. I think that Safari has come a long way since then and I think that it is now better than Camino. I included the two most common alternatives, which I think will suffice.
I added Audacity though, good call.

Cinnamon Swirl said:
Short and sweet reaction: Superb! Many thanks to you.
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Thank you. Welcome.




I added a guide to uninstalling software and a troubleshooting guide. I hope that helps people to deal with the most common problems.
 
Just wanted to add my thanks as well - I didn't know this little FAQ existed until you pointed it out to me in another thread. Thanks for the hard work in compiling all this info - I'll be copying the link to it and keeping it handy for those annoying newbie questions... ;) :cool:
 
~Shard~ said:
Just wanted to add my thanks as well - I didn't know this little FAQ existed until you pointed it out to me in another thread. Thanks for the hard work in compiling all this info - I'll be copying the link to it and keeping it handy for those annoying newbie questions... ;) :cool:
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Yeah, I thought it might be useful as a reference, so we don't need to say the same things over and over again. I'll ask a mod for a sticky when I get around to it. Thanks for the flowers. :)
 
Diatribe said:
Yeah, I thought it might be useful as a reference, so we don't need to say the same things over and over again. I'll ask a mod for a sticky when I get around to it. Thanks for the flowers. :)
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No problem - I hope they were your type... ;)
 
As a new switcher and a user that's getting his ibook pretty soon, i've been reading and searching for all the info I could soak up, this is a good consolidated list that saved me a lot of time. Thanks for your efforts!

Jack
 
Zman5225 said:
As a new switcher and a user that's getting his ibook pretty soon, i've been reading and searching for all the info I could soak up, this is a good consolidated list that saved me a lot of time. Thanks for your efforts!

Jack
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More flowers for Diatribe... ;)
 
Great compilation of things here, thanks a bunch Diatribe! This grouping is great for utter noobies and elites alike, all in one. Awesome, thanks again.
 
Thanks all, I appreciate it. :)

I have a lot of things planned for this thread, that I just haven't had the time to implement yet but as soon as I am done with my thesis you can expect an update to this thread with a lot of new info.
 
Diatribe said:
Thanks all, I appreciate it. :)

I have a lot of things planned for this thread, that I just haven't had the time to implement yet but as soon as I am done with my thesis you can expect an update to this thread with a lot of new info.
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Looking forward to it Diatribe. I already have the link to it handy for answering any questions (newbie or otherwise!) that I might come across... :cool:
 
Great thread, helped me a lot getting my first few programs on my new Ibook as well as changing some settings that were bugging me.

Quick question, where can I get the thing for the menu bar that enables me to change ITune songs?
 
Dynamyk said:
Quick question, where can I get the thing for the menu bar that enables me to change ITune songs?
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Hmm, not sure what you're referring to exactly. Applications like iMote or Synergy might be of interest to you though. Other than that, there's always the iTunes controller widget in Dashboard!
 
Dynamyk said:
Great thread, helped me a lot getting my first few programs on my new Ibook as well as changing some settings that were bugging me.

Quick question, where can I get the thing for the menu bar that enables me to change ITune songs?
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Synergy is what you are referring to I assume. Link is to versiontracker, perhaps can be had elsewhere. 5EUR shareware, well worth it.

Edit: Well damn, here I thought I was going to be first :p
 
Have to mention MainMenu, a small free menu bar utility that lets you perform most maintenance tasks with a click (also includes a script to let you authorize it on startup).

Very handy! :)

Product description from VersionTracker:
MainMenu is an easy-to-use menubar item that allows you to run a large set of Mac OS X maintenance, cleaning and optimization tasks. MainMenu can repair permissions, update prebindings, clean system and users caches, empty many browsers caches/history, force empty the trash, clean logs, repair disks, and much more. Most tasks provide feedback in the log window during execution. The batch task function allows you to run many routines at once. Bug reports, feature requests, feedback (positive as well as negative) and anything else are welcome. MainMenu is and will always be free, but donations to support development and future projects are appreciated.
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great thread...just wanted to add my .02 in.

had my pb since monday and already this thread has helped with a few things.

a sticky would be nice too. i've had to go hunting for it a few times.

dhc
 
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