Macbook Air noob

[Linuxpro]

The "Stork" (DHL) delivered by MacBook Air (11", 256Gb, 8Gb). I am still learning my way around it.

I come from a long Unix/Linux background. Ok, I also develop Windows apps in C++ (no comment).

The first things I did:
Turned off iMessage (I have no patience for problems).
Enabled root
Removed Garage Band, and its associated directories.
Installed Chrome.
Installed Microsoft 365.

Next:
Install development tools.
Install dreamweaver.

How can I get Safari, and Chrome to never keep history other than using incognito mode? My employer is not "mac friendly" and that is why I bought my own. I am required to turn off history for security reasons.

My Cannon EOS writes to memory cards in Windows format. The mac is not happy with that. Suggestions? Maybe just get the bluetooth adapter for my camera?

Thanx

 

[Gav2k]

The "Stork" (DHL) delivered by MacBook Air (11", 256Gb, 8Gb). I am still learning my way around it.

I come from a long Unix/Linux background. Ok, I also develop Windows apps in C++ (no comment).

The first things I did:
Turned off iMessage (I have no patience for problems).
Enabled root
Removed Garage Band, and its associated directories.
Installed Chrome.
Installed Microsoft 365.

Next:
Install development tools.
Install dreamweaver.

How can I get Safari, and Chrome to never keep history other than using incognito mode? My employer is not "mac friendly" and that is why I bought my own. I am required to turn off history for security reasons.

My Cannon EOS writes to memory cards in Windows format. The mac is not happy with that. Suggestions? Maybe just get the bluetooth adapter for my camera?

Thanx

Are you plugging the camera in or the memory card into a reader?

 

[Linuxpro]

Just the memory card. The EOS M has no USB port.

I just noticed that it does not support the Cannon Bluetooth adapter.

I just tried it again. It worked. I guess the filesystem is supported.

Thanx

 

[motrek]

...
Turned off iMessage (I have no patience for problems).
Enabled root
Removed Garage Band, and its associated directories.
Installed Chrome.
Installed Microsoft 365.
...

Good story bro.

I see that your laptop took 9 days to arrive and not the 3-4 weeks you assumed.

 

[Gav2k]

http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=38244

Look at the link above. It offers a solution for you to clear the history etc when you quit safari.

 

[joshlalonde]

I would recommend getting rid of Chrome. Unlike on Windows, it runs worse than the native browser. Also, Safari is pretty good..

What windows format exactly? It should be FAT which is compatible with OS X and Windows.

You should be fine to just take the SD Card out and put it in the Mac, and then open up iPhoto.

Since you're a programmer, let me recommend some code editors.
Xcode (duh)
Atom.io (general purpose, configurable)
Brackets (mostly meant for web dev)
Xamarin (C# mono with .net)

Also, you should get Github for OS X if you do use Github.

Lastly, I recommend running Windows in a VM using VirtualBox which is free. Since you have 8GB, you're good to go. Luckily you got the 256GB so you have enough space to use it too.

Using virtual box is nice, you can swipe back and forth like any other space.

Oh, and another thing, use the gestures. Your touchpad will be your best friend. Two-finger scrolling, three-finger swiping left/right, etc. They will make things nice for you.

Something I had to figure out. Tap Space to preview a file without opening it, Press Enter to rename it.

Good luck.

Oh and last thing, since you come from a Linux background you should be familiar with G++. Once you install Xcode, you can use G++/GCC. Also python and mysql are installed by default. Do not update them though as OS X relies on them being the version they are.

Oh, and to access the shell, you use the terminal of course... but I figured you know that much.
Okay, hopefully i didn't tell you tons of stuff you already knew.

 

[displaced]

This is meant honestly: it's your computer and you can absolutely do whatever you like, naturally.

I'm just wondering what the need is for enabling the root login? Any account designated as an admin can use sudo to execute commands as root.

As a Linux admin, it's my preference never to log in as root on any machine.

Like I say though -- I'm just curious, not judge-y

 

[Linuxpro]

Thank you

I just wanted to be able to su - root from my user account, then exit rather than sudo. I am an old school, Unix then Linux person. Using sudo is considered bad practice.

My new Mac replaced my old Linux laptop. I always kept one terminal window running as root. I never use the GUI as root.

 

[b0fh666]

when was using sudo considered a bad practice?

anyways, on any 'admin' account on OSX 'sudo su -' and the password will give you the root prompt to play with.

cheers

 

[displaced]

Ah, I getcha.

Would a sudo -s or sudo -i work?

Not that enabling the root account is necessarily risky. Although I've not checked the default configs of stuff like sshd to make sure they're sane. I suppose if you're enabling root then you're more than capable of auditing each service's configuration to check that they don't permit root logins (e.g. sshd's PermitRootLogin directive)

 

[b0fh666]

Ah, I getcha.

Would a sudo -s or sudo -i work?

Not that enabling the root account is necessarily risky. Although I've not checked the default configs of stuff like sshd to make sure they're sane. I suppose if you're enabling root then you're more than capable of auditing each service's configuration to check that they don't permit root logins (e.g. sshd's PermitRootLogin directive)

yup, both work.

I would not trust appel to have secured the system with root logins allowed, given the MESS that is yosemite

 

[displaced]

yup, both work.

I would not trust appel to have secured the system with root logins allowed, given the MESS that is yosemite

Meh. I don't trust Apple any more than I trust Canonical or anyone else. It's all about layers of protection. I don't run the services I don't need, I don't let things run as a superuser, I don't allow services to accept root logins, and I don't enable the root login.

OS X is doesn't need it enabled, so I don't enable it -- just use sudo for individual commands or sudo -i when I need a shell.

 

[motrek]

Thank you

I just wanted to be able to su - root from my user account, then exit rather than sudo. I am an old school, Unix then Linux person. Using sudo is considered bad practice.

My new Mac replaced my old Linux laptop. I always kept one terminal window running as root. I never use the GUI as root.

Best practice is to not run anything as root unless it's necessary, so using sudo is good practice, not bad practice. Not sure where you got your information but it's backwards.

 

[displaced]

Best practice is to not run anything as root unless it's necessary, so using sudo is good practice, not bad practice. Not sure where you got your information but it's backwards.

Hehe. My unix systems prof. at university taught me a memorable lesson about root shells. I turned my back for five minutes with a root shell left open. When I turned back, the box was sitting at a login prompt and none of my known accounts would work.

She'd quickly hopped on the system and reset every user account's password without me knowing, then logged out.

She wouldn't give me the password until I'd signed a fake contract to only ever use sudo and if... if I ever, ever had a root shell prompt, I'd never leave it unattended.

I was told not to take it too personally -- she said she'd get someone with that trick every time the course ran.

(edit: I've even been taught to set the HISTIGNORE variable in bash to prevent sudo'd commands from being kept in the history and to clear the screen so that use of sudo cannot be seen. It's the next-best-thing to disabling sudo's grace period for not needing a password on subsequent invocations during a short time window, which is rather convenient when doing admin-heavy tasks)

 

[dyt1983]

edit: To remove personally identifying information not relevant to the thread.

 

[Dweez]

Thank you

I just wanted to be able to su - root from my user account, then exit rather than sudo. I am an old school, Unix then Linux person. Using sudo is considered bad practice.

My new Mac replaced my old Linux laptop. I always kept one terminal window running as root. I never use the GUI as root.

Congrats on the new laptop - it's a pretty capable box.

My preference is "sudo su -". I'm also an old school unix guy, cut my teeth on bsd 4.1.

And I disagree with a previous poster regarding Chrome, as it's the only browser I really make use of. Safari is good, but I use chrome across multiple platforms and the user experience remains constant. It may be a resource hog, but that doesn't bother me much.