New to Mac

[Ninja Viper]

Hi guys, I am a PC technician by trade and finally decided to try out a Mac. So today I bought a Mac Mini. So far I am really liking it. This is the first Mac I have really used and am finding it pretty easy to catch on (not like Linux). Anyways, as a new user I have some really dumb questions:

Do I need to worry about virus protection?

Do I need to worry about spyware and adware?

I am only running a few programs and the OS kinda feels like it is chunking up a bit (a term I use for when the OS is not as responsive) is 256MB enough RAM? Can I use my PC RAM to upgrade? Is there any built in utility that tells me what my memory usage is?

Now this will sound dumb, but I had always assumed that Macs were just such a good computers (at least that is what all the Mac users have been telling me) that a crappy video card like what came with my Mini would still run some games (like Battlefield 1942). Is this true?

Crud!! I had more questions but this all I can think of right now. I am sure I will have many more questions as time goes on, for now I am having a lot of fun exploring. Thanks for the help.

 

[DeSnousa]

Hi guys, I am a PC technician by trade and finally decided to try out a Mac. So today I bought a Mac Mini. So far I am really liking it. This is the first Mac I have really used and am finding it pretty easy to catch on (not like Linux). Anyways, as a new user I have some really dumb questions:

Do I need to worry about virus protection?

Do I need to worry about spyware and adware?

I am only running a few programs and the OS kinda feels like it is chunking up a bit (a term I use for when the OS is not as responsive) is 256MB enough RAM? Can I use my PC RAM to upgrade? Is there any built in utility that tells me what my memory usage is?

Now this will sound dumb, but I had always assumed that Macs were just such a good computers (at least that is what all the Mac users have been telling me) that a crappy video card like what came with my Mini would still run some games (like Battlefield 1942). Is this true?

Crud!! I had more questions but this all I can think of right now. I am sure I will have many more questions as time goes on, for now I am having a lot of fun exploring. Thanks for the help.

Welcome to mac.

No you don't need to worry about virus unless you are networking with pc's where it can come in handy.

Every on in MR will tell you that the more ram you have the better. I would recommend 512mb as a min and if you can afford go for 1gb. Depends on what you do with your computer. Buy 3rd party ram as they are alot cheaper then apple.

Battlefield should run but don't expect top notch frame rates.

Enjoy using your mac

 

[Ninja Viper]

Now I remember one more question, how about an easy migration tool? I am moving my home computer (Win XP Home) to the Mini. Can I bring my email, addresses and favorites over?
I am going to run an external HD as this 40GB is just not going to cut it, how do I format it with a format both XP and OSX will recognize?

 

[clayj]

Now I remember one more question, how about an easy migration tool? I am moving my home computer (Win XP Home) to the Mini. Can I bring my email, addresses and favorites over?
I am going to run an external HD as this 40GB is just not going to cut it, how do I format it with a format both XP and OSX will recognize?

I'm pretty sure* the Mac mini comes with migration software that should be able to "suck"/migrate your content over from your PC. Of course, you should make sure that everything on the PC is backed up, to prevent possible data loss.

And if you want an HD accessible from both the Mac and a PC, format it using FAT32. NTFS doesn't work on Macs, and the Mac file system doesn't work on PCs, but they can both read and write to FAT32.

* Yes, I own a Mac mini, but I didn't migrate anything over from my PCs to it.

 

[sorryiwasdreami]

Is there any built in utility that tells me what my memory usage is?

Hey Ninja Viper; welcome! (Nice name, btw.) As far as a built-in app that monitors memory usage in OS X, I'm not sure. However, there is an app called Do I Need More Memory? that will give you a ballpark idea of what amount you should be using.

The link above points to MacUpdate, a great site for downloading all kinds of little apps that I find very useful.

 

[mac-er]

Crucial is a great place to get memory. You drill down and tell it which computer you have, and they will make sure you get exactly the memory stick you need.

Activity Monitor (in the Utlities Folder, which is in Applications) is like System Monitor on the PC.

Apple has some information on a program that can help with data migration.

 

[JzzTrump22]

Don't worry about getting virus protection/adware protection. It's just a complete waste of money. Just stick some more ram in that little guy and it should be running really good.

 

[emptyCup]

Is there any built in utility that tells me what my memory usage is?

Activity Monitor will monitor all sorts of things including memory usage. It comes with the machine. Go to http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/ and search for MenuMeters, a free utility which puts monitors in the menu bar rather than the dock.

Version Tracker will help you with many things, more memory will help you with everything.

HTH

 

[skp574]

Email Migration

Like you I am a recent Mac migrator.

I dumped most of my PC files but needed to transfer over my email and address book.

As mentioned elsewhere here Outlook2Mac is a greate piece of software that can export your Outlook email/contacts and import it into Mac Mail.

Have a look at http://www.littlemachines.com for more info. I bought the software and it saved me a lot of time.

Welcome to Mac! Hopefully like me you won't be disapointed.

P.S. The more memory the better! I have 1.5GB and makes a big difference over 512MB that my iMac came with. Definitely source RAM elsewhere, don't buy it from Apple, it's more expensive.

 

[cmvsm]

I believe Tiger will have NTFS support which will help with Windows user data migrations.