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New to Mac questions

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bvfrenchknitter

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 4, 2008
4
0
I just ordered a black Macbook. My Dell PC is dying and I couldn't stomach vista or Dell anymore. I'm not totally unfamiliar with Mac's; my wife has a MBP but I have some migration questions that I haven't found answers for. I suspect some of them are stupid questions, my apologies.

1. Can I connect my Dell to the MB and transfer files? The dell CD rom is dead, as is the wireless. Will the firewire work? I guess a zip drive is the only other solution.

2. I have a lot of saved web pages on PC in PC Firefox and Opera. Can these be viewed on the Mac with the Mac versions of these programs? Or do I need to use darwine, or parallels/fusion and run the PC version of these programs on the mac?

3. I have 2 laser printers that don't have mac drivers available. Any way of using them with the mac, short of setting up an ethernet at home?


Thanks for your attention.

Joan
 
1. Yes. I think it will work with firewire, but from experience I know it will work with a direct ethernet connection.

2. I believe they will work with the mac versions of those browsers.

3. Don't know.

I also recommend you get Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual by David Pogue (I think that's the title). It answers a lot of these questions. I always recommend it to new mac users.
 
bvfrenchknitter said:
I just ordered a black Macbook. My Dell PC is dying and I couldn't stomach vista or Dell anymore. I'm not totally unfamiliar with Mac's; my wife has a MBP but I have some migration questions that I haven't found answers for. I suspect some of them are stupid questions, my apologies.

1. Can I connect my Dell to the MB and transfer files? The dell CD rom is dead, as is the wireless. Will the firewire work? I guess a zip drive is the only other solution.

2. I have a lot of saved web pages on PC in PC Firefox and Opera. Can these be viewed on the Mac with the Mac versions of these programs? Or do I need to use darwine, or parallels/fusion and run the PC version of these programs on the mac?

3. I have 2 laser printers that don't have mac drivers available. Any way of using them with the mac, short of setting up an ethernet at home?


Thanks for your attention.

Joan
Click to expand...

1) Your Dell is not going to have a firewire port. Just use an iPod or external hard drive for transferring files between the 2 computers.
 
bvfrenchknitter said:
2. I have a lot of saved web pages on PC in PC Firefox and Opera. Can these be viewed on the Mac with the Mac versions of these programs? Or do I need to use darwine, or parallels/fusion and run the PC version of these programs on the mac?
Click to expand...

Assuming you're talking about bookmarks or favorites, you can export them from the PC as either HTML or text files and import them into Safari on the Mac (or Firefox, Opera, Camino, etc.). Should be File>Export, typically.

3. I have 2 laser printers that don't have mac drivers available. Any way of using them with the mac, short of setting up an ethernet at home?
Click to expand...
What are the make/models? If they're from the last 5 or so years, Leopard likely already has drivers built in. Printers are usually one of the easier things to deal with (or would be, if printer manufacturers could manage their own websites better.)
 
tried some stuff

Thanks for the replies. I just tried connecting the MBP to my PC.

1. I tried an ethernet cable but they didn't want to talk with each other. I'm going to try again and see if I can get them to talk.

2. The files are HTML files. I should be able to read them on the Mac side, I think.

3. I connected the MBP to the HP Laserjet 1020 and it recognized it as a printer but couldn't find the driver. The other, a Samasung ML 1740, isn't here but the Samsung site doesn't have Mac drivers.

The switching to the Mac Leopard manual isn't available yet. I read the description for the switching to the Mac tiger yesterday and realized #1 was possible.

It may be easier to just borrow an external hard drive and transfer the files that way.

Thanks for your help.

Also, I'm a fan of Open Office (PC). How's the Mac version?

thanks so much!
 
bvfrenchknitter said:
2. The files are HTML files. I should be able to read them on the Mac side, I think.

Also, I'm a fan of Open Office (PC). How's the Mac version?
Click to expand...

Of course you will. HTML is a standard, which (amazingly enough), Microsoft followed--at least enough for transferring to other platforms.

OpenOffice is fairly platform-agnostic, you shouldn't see much difference (I've never used the Win version, though).
 
Once you've exported the bookmarks in HTML format, just IMPORT those HTML files into Safari, or Firefox, or whatever. They'll migrate over just fine.

Your passwords etc won't, though, unless you've stored them in an excel sheet or something.

The easiest way is to probably migrate the whole PROFILE from the Windows version of the browsers into the same location on the Mac version. That way all settings, etc, will migrate over.
 
bv: Generally when you want to hook 2 computers directly to each other, a standard ethernet cable won't work. You need what's called a "Crossover cable", which is basically an ethernet cable, but 2 of the wires are crossed, to allow direct transmission back and forth.

You can pick one of these cables up at most stores...I know Compusa carries them (25% off, even), Office Depot, Office Max....I would assume Best Buy and Circuit City carry them as well.

If you have a hub, switch, or router, you could plug both computers into that with standard ethernet cables and transfer that way.

Hope this helps!

-Bryan
 
GoKyu said:
bv: Generally when you want to hook 2 computers directly to each other, a standard ethernet cable won't work. You need what's called a "Crossover cable", which is basically an ethernet cable, but 2 of the wires are crossed, to allow direct transmission back and forth.
Click to expand...

You don't need a crossover cable with modern macs. Macs automatically detect when you're using a non-crossover cable and adjust accordingly.
 
Samsung ML-1740 Printer Drivers for Macs

And according to this thread over at MacOSXHints, you can download the HP LaserJet 1022 drivers from HP's site, and that will possibly install the correct 1020 drivers (or at least it seems to have done that on Tiger). Edit: The mentioned thread is LONG, but they seem to get to Leopard in the end... ;) Edit 2: Summary of the thread (with instructions reported to work with Leopard) here: http://www.railsguru.com/articles/2006/08/26/hp-laserjet-1020-on-osx
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Samsung ML-1740 Printer Drivers for Macs

And according to this thread over at MacOSXHints, you can download the HP LaserJet 1022 drivers from HP's site, and that will possibly install the correct 1020 drivers (or at least it seems to have done that on Tiger). Edit: The mentioned thread is LONG, but they seem to get to Leopard in the end... ;) Edit 2: Summary of the thread (with instructions reported to work with Leopard) here: http://www.railsguru.com/articles/2006/08/26/hp-laserjet-1020-on-osx
Click to expand...

Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just got the printer working on my wife's tiger machine. It works perfectly. I won't get my leopard machine till tomorrow but I'll do the same process on it. I'm so happy I don't need to get a new printer.

Joan
 
bvfrenchknitter said:
I just ordered a black Macbook. My Dell PC is dying and I couldn't stomach vista or Dell anymore. I'm not totally unfamiliar with Mac's; my wife has a MBP but I have some migration questions that I haven't found answers for. I suspect some of them are stupid questions, my apologies.

1. Can I connect my Dell to the MB and transfer files? The dell CD rom is dead, as is the wireless. Will the firewire work? I guess a zip drive is the only other solution.

2. I have a lot of saved web pages on PC in PC Firefox and Opera. Can these be viewed on the Mac with the Mac versions of these programs? Or do I need to use darwine, or parallels/fusion and run the PC version of these programs on the mac?

3. I have 2 laser printers that don't have mac drivers available. Any way of using them with the mac, short of setting up an ethernet at home?


Thanks for your attention.

Joan
Click to expand...

1) Zip drive? A thing of the past! Buy a USB key (4Gb=40$)
Of course, you can use scp/ssh/ftp if you know how to, over the LAN
 
If you're planning on retiring the Dell, you could always just pull out the HDD and put it in an external enclosure. Your new Mac will be able to natively read (though not write) from the drive and that should give you access to all the data you need.

B
 
Also, I'm a fan of Open Office (PC). How's the Mac version?

thanks so much![/QUOTE]

I've not used the PC version, but the Mac and Linux versions are nearly identical, so there probably is not much of a difference.

Jim O
 
Got a lot done

Well, I got my macbook today and have things pretty much fixed. I've downloaded X11, GIMP, NeoOffice, and Firefox. I've moved my PC files over using an external drive. I have the HP 1020 working on leopard. I still need to figure out darwine, and/or parallels/fusion. All in all it has been a very painless migration.

Thanks so much for all the help I've received. You've made it so much easier.

Joan
 
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