Setup for new Mac

[steve-not-jobs]

I need to update my old CRT iMac and so assuming the new iMac is available in the next few weeks I will be upgrading.
The question is what is the best user set-up for home use - mainly web, email, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and a bit of photo editing and "Office"? I was thinking of 4 users;
Admin (just me) - to control the main system,
Me & my wife - all our day to day, Tunes, Photos etc
Kids
Guest
Is there value in having a seperate Admin user?
Should I partition the disc to split out the OS (and app's)?
What's the best way you guys have found to set-up?
Thanks.

 

[windowsblowsass]

the point in having aseperate admin account is so you cant mess up the admin account day to day ndyou wont do things you shouldnt. i wouldnt partition just for multiple users

 

[emw]

This sounds like a fairly reasonable user setup. Remember to take advantage of setting up user limitation is the System Preferences for Accounts - you can go so far as to restrict applications your kids can use, as an example.

As for partitioning the HD - I'd have one partition for both the OS and the Apps; multiple partitions isn't that valuable for the applications you're running.

 

[seamuskrat]

You are on the right track. make a second admin account and call it Troubleshoot or something. Leave it pristine. Use this to trouble shoot the OS. That way if 5 months down the road you have issues, you can log in and see if its a user thing or OS wide.
As for partitioning, there is no technical benefit for this anymore. In fact, many OS X apps insist on being on the boot drive, so ultimately you could end up with a bloated boot drive and tons of space. I have an external drive for backups and documents.

If you want to limit the damage kids can do you can set those permissions in the SystemPref under Accounts. Its a nice feature.

I need to update my old CRT iMac and so assuming the new iMac is available in the next few weeks I will be upgrading.
The question is what is the best user set-up for home use - mainly web, email, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and a bit of photo editing and "Office"? I was thinking of 4 users;
Admin (just me) - to control the main system,
Me & my wife - all our day to day, Tunes, Photos etc
Kids
Guest
Is there value in having a seperate Admin user?
Should I partition the disc to split out the OS (and app's)?
What's the best way you guys have found to set-up?
Thanks.

 

[steve-not-jobs]

Thanks for the advice - one other quick question - can I store photos and tunes under say admin and have other users access them through some kind of shortcut?
Now just waiting to see what comes next week

 

[wordmunger]

Thanks for the advice - one other quick question - can I store photos and tunes under say admin and have other users access them through some kind of shortcut?
Now just waiting to see what comes next week

No, you can't. The point of having user accounts is to prevent other users from having access to them. If you want everyone to have access, create a folder in the root directory (actually, now that I reread your question, this may have been what you were asking. Yes, that is how you do it).

Personally I don't have a separate admin account--just an extra burden. If I need to troubleshoot, I can always create a separate admin account later, and it's a pain to have a bunch of different passwords for day-to-day use. I do have separate accounts for the kids, though.

 

[ChrisFromCanada]

Well you could always put anything you want to share in the shared folder. Its located in Users/Shared