Okay, flame suit on!!! here comes a noob...

[mduser63]

As a recent switcher I know what you're going through, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it all pretty quickly. I've gotten to the point after 4 months of being on the Mac to where I sometimes have a hard time doing stuff on the PC! I especially notice how things I was used to doing on the PC before seem ridiculously complicated when compared to the Mac way of doing the same thing. I can really recommend Mac OS X: The Missing Manual by David Pogue. It's more than worth the price. It's got all kinds of good stuff about using the Mac from the simple stuff for beginners as well as tons of detailed tips and help for even advanced users. Another great way to figure things out is to read and post on these forums like you've done. My experience has been that people are for the most part really nice and willing to answer questions here.

 

[savar]

How did others come up the curve? Are there any resources that they found particularly helpful? How the hell do I eject the DVD drive without opening Itunes first?

Well I got to be a whiz by growing up with a Mac in our home. I would crash it about once a month with all of the hacking and screwing with the system files, and eventually we bought a second Mac so that I could destroy my own files without wrecking my Mom's Quicken files.

For somebody who's just getting into it, I suppose the Mac Bible might be useful...I really don't know where to tell you to start.

Are there any good system utilities to keep a mac clean, do you even need to keep a mac clean?

It keeps itself clean pretty much. Like most unix style OSs, it has a bunch of scripts scheduled which do various clean up sorts of tasks, such as archiving systems logs, etc. The only trick is that (AFAIK) these scripts dont run if the computer is off when they are scheduled...and they are all schedule for around 4am. So leave your mac on long enough to get that stuff done.

Also, make sure you don't fill up the hard drive. With the sizes they have now, this shouldn't be an issue, but Macs act real screwy when the available HD space gets down under a GB. I keep mine above 2GB just for a safe buffer.

The one utility that will save your life over and over is built-in. It's in /Applications/Utilities and I think its called Disk Utility. (The name changed with one of the releases, so I'm not sure anymore.) Anyway, it can check the disk and repair file system problems, but it also has a cool feature called "Repair Privileges". Now I don't know how the privileges get so screwed up, nor how this program knows what they should all be, but I run it every 4-6 months and it fixes hundreds of files. I find that when my Mac is acting screwy, Repair Privileges almost always does the trick.

Enjoy your two macs...

 

[Mechcozmo]

I had no idea what she meant when she kept saying "Apple Q"....silly me!

The thread on different names for the "Command" key is interesting. Call it what you will.

I really like using the Apples, I don't know what it is, but there's something about them that just makes me not want to fire up the PC's unless I absolutely have to.

They are Macs, not Apples. Apple makes Macs. Apple also makes iPods, but those aren't Macs. And maybe it is because Macs are just so damn good that you don't want to use Windoze. Go ahead and say it...
BTW, I managed to install a second 250 gig SATA hard drive in my G5, and get it partitioned with the disk utility all by myself.
How many drives can you mount in the G5? It only appears to have one expansion slot.

I also have every intention of adding as much RAM as I can sneak by the guardian of the checkbook....

OS X loves RAM. More than 1.25 GB though and you just waste it because you aren't going to need more than that.

 

[Diatribe]

First of all let me start by saying welcome to our community. Posts like this make newbies something enjoyable not a chore to have to deal with

And I thought I'd add something you might like:

 

[DougJrS]

Use / get a .Mac account

If you have a .Mac account it has a bunch of videos that walk you through how to do lots of things. I used them to help me learn how to use iMovie.

Doug

 

[paul84043]

Holy cow!! Thanks for the great weclome! This is by far the most responsive and civil forum I have ever been on! (Ever tried a digital photography forum? Talk about a slaughterhouse!!)

The tips, and patient pointers towards the (now) painfully obvious are wonderful!
Sometimes, you get so caught up in all the new stuff, you miss the obvious.

One question, why a 1.25 gb limit on RAM? Is it a system thing? Can't the powermac use more than the 32 bit systems? I usually have a minimum of one gig in my XP systems, 2 gigs in the machine that I do photo and video editing on. (and I use it ALL at times..)

I was actually planning on stacking 4 gigs into the powermac, I have 1 gig in the power book, but didn't really see the jump in performance that you see in a PC when you quadruple the RAM. But if it's in vain, I'll just put 2 gigs in it.....it's alot cheaper, and easier to slip past Cereberus...or whatever that three headed dog that gards the gates of hell is called....

Today was the first day that my Mac sat unused somce I brought it home. I had to run in to work, we're swinging a bunch of facility systems into a V-Lan.....what a PITA. I found myself wishing that I had brough the powerbook with me on more than one occasion.

I played with VNC for mac, but ran into several apparent bugs...it will be nice when I iron out netowrking and sharing. The stickies on the front of this forum are awesome, my compliments to Admin for posting them!

I don't want to overlook anyone, but there are too many great responses here to get them all. I can only say that I appreciate every last bit of information that you have given me, and I plan on hanging around here until I become a mac-god.....maybe just a mac demigod.....that ought to only take a decade or so. Being "into" computers as I am, I appreciate the time and intellect it takes to come up the curve on anything related to a computer.
After taking a "Certified Ethical Hacker" certification class, I recently installed my first Linux system, I guess I'm a glutton for punishment!!

My sincerest of thanks to all who have responded here. Your tips, no matter how seemingly small, have helped more than you know.

Thanks, and happy holidays to everyone!!

Paul.

 

[Mechcozmo]

One question, why a 1.25 gb limit on RAM? Is it a system thing? Can't the powermac use more than the 32 bit systems?
I was actually planning on stacking 4 gigs into the powermac, I have 1 gig in the power book, but didn't really see the jump in performance that you see in a PC when you quadruple the RAM.

Because you rarely go over that. Unless you run 12 programs at once, all using a fair amount of RAM, you should be O.K. with 1.25 GB. The PM can use up to 8GB now (physical limit... you can actually go to 16GB with the memory controller in there). As soon as they make a 4GB RAM chip, then you can go higher...

OS X loves RAM. Hell, stick 4GB if you want. OS X will love you. I was just making a suggestion because you are on a budget... but remember to install in pairs!

 

[paul84043]

Thanks, I understand now! I appreciate it. I think I'll put in 2 gigs and see how things pan out! I have had photoshop using over 1 gig at a time before, but it's pretty rare. I'm really curious to see the difference in how photoshop runs on the mac...

Paul.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I put in 2 GB of ram in my Powerbook and have no regrets. It cost $500 for both modules with lifetime warranty. One of the reasons was that I wanted to make sure I had the same vendor, specs, generation of memory rather than deal with memory that may or may not be compatible with each other in the future. When shopping for memory, it was extremely confusing with a wide ranges of prices and quality. I love to max out all my Macs with the maximum amount of memory possible. For example, I had 1 GB of memory in my 5 year old iMac back in those days. The total cost was under $350. It runs great with Panther today. Plus I can sleep at night knowing that I am getting the best possible performance from my Powerbook. 2 GB is great if you also use Virtual PC but still want to have plenty of memory for your Mac also.

 

[mkrishnan]

I love to max out all my Macs with the maximum amount of memory possible. For example, I had 1 GB of memory in my 5 year old iMac back in those days.

It seems so arcane now that my one year old iBook could only hold 640 megs...

 

[abhishekit]

It seems so arcane now that my one year old iBook could only hold 640 megs...

I think transintl came up with a 1 GB stick for the older iBook too.Very expensive though.

 

[mkrishnan]

I think transintl came up with a 1 GB stick for the older iBook too.Very expensive though.

Yeah, probably not worth it. But I'm probably getting pretty close to the point where I want to stop letting any new software onto it. That's my theory...you have a little while when your computer is still powerful enough that you can upgrade and install all kinds of new stuff, and it'll still be solid, and then over time, you have to pare down, and eventually only do security updates.

And then the G5 notebooks come out, and you sell it on eBay or turn it into a wireless active painting for the hallway wall.