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Some advices on my 1st Mac ever ?

S

ss.soulbeat

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 31, 2013
22
8
Hi Guys,

I've just ordered my 1st Mac computer ever... a 15'' Haswell rMBP !:D

I've never used MAC OS in my whole life, but I've been a user of iOS on my iPad, iPhone and iPod.

(Halo effect here)

I've been a PC user for more than I'd like to count, so, 3 questions:

1 - Do I need to install an Antivirus and/or Firewall ? (On the PC side it's unthinkable to work without this 2 installed, these days)

2 - Some websites, videos, books, etc, you recommend to familiarize with OS X / learn about the main differences in the ways of doing things, between a Mac and a PC ?

3 - Any recommendations/advices about software everyone installs on their Macs ?

(I plan to take it easy migrating to Mac, so, I'll keep using Windows for quite some time. I'm thinking about installing Bootcamp or Parallels or VMWare, or something else... not quite decided yet).

Thanks in advance for your help, guys ! ;)
 
ss.soulbeat said:
Hi Guys,

I've just ordered my 1st Mac computer ever... a 15'' Haswell rMBP !:D

I've never used MAC OS in my whole life, but I've been a user of iOS on my iPad, iPhone and iPod.

(Halo effect here)

I've been a PC user for more than I'd like to count, so, 3 questions:

1 - Do I need to install an Antivirus and/or Firewall ? (On the PC side it's unthinkable to work without this 2 installed, these days)

2 - Some websites, videos, books, etc, you recommend to familiarize with OS X / learn about the main differences in the ways of doing things, between a Mac and a PC ?

3 - Any recommendations/advices about software everyone installs on their Macs ?

(I plan to take it easy migrating to Mac, so, I'll keep using Windows for quite some time. I'm thinking about installing Bootcamp or Parallels or VMWare, or something else... not quite decided yet).

Thanks in advance for your help, guys ! ;)
Click to expand...

Welcome to the Mac family!

1) No you don't need to install any anti-virus software. Just make sure you turn on firewall under System Preference -> Security & Privacy.

2) Try reading on http://www.apple.com/support/osx/ to get yourself familiar with the system. Like you said, just take it slow and easy. If you encounter any problem along the way, just do a google search or ask here. Someone will help you out.

3) The two apps you definitely want to have on your MBP are f.lux and BetterTouchTool.

Enjoy your new machine!
 
Thanks for your warm welcome !:)

I'm surprised a program like F.lux exists. I've never heard about something like this before !

Thanks for sharing !
 
1. Not exactly needed, but I run ClamXAV every so often just to be safe. Especially if you're dual-booting.

-

3. What do you do with your machine? I've not found much Apple didn't include for just standard uses. Handbrake is always useful, though.
 
ss.soulbeat said:
2 - Some websites, videos, books, etc, you recommend to familiarize with OS X / learn about the main differences in the ways of doing things, between a Mac and a PC ?
Click to expand...

Give this web page from Apple a look. It has a whole section on how to adapt from Windows to Mac.

Just post up if you have questions during the transition. There are lots of users here who will help you out. :)
 
kanon14 said:
Welcome to the Mac family!

1) No you don't need to install any anti-virus software. Just make sure you turn on firewall under System Preference -> Security & Privacy.

2) Try reading on http://www.apple.com/support/osx/ to get yourself familiar with the system. Like you said, just take it slow and easy. If you encounter any problem along the way, just do a google search or ask here. Someone will help you out.

3) The two apps you definitely want to have on your MBP are f.lux and BetterTouchTool.

Enjoy your new machine!
Click to expand...

One more thing: beware while cutting and pasting folders because the destination one will be substituted, rather than merged, with the source one. Read: you may lost a tons of datas.

This may trick former Linux or windows users.
 
I'm in this exact same boat. I'm about to order my Haswell rMBP as I'm tired of badly made windows systems and crap OS's (W8).
My question is; I use Firefox and have done for a long time, there's one addon I can't live without, that's Adblock. I refuse to browse the web without it. Is it easy to put this on Safari? Does Safari have it's own addons and spellchecker/dictionary like you have on Firefox?
Thanks
 
ss.soulbeat said:
3 - Any recommendations/advices about software everyone installs on their Macs ?
Click to expand...
Just like on the PC, everyone does not use all the same software. It would be much more productive to tell us what you're looking for versus having us give you random suggestions that may or may not be relevant to you.
 
SCOLANATOR said:
I'm in this exact same boat. I'm about to order my Haswell rMBP as I'm tired of badly made windows systems and crap OS's (W8).
My question is; I use Firefox and have done for a long time, there's one addon I can't live without, that's Adblock. I refuse to browse the web without it. Is it easy to put this on Safari? Does Safari have it's own addons and spellchecker/dictionary like you have on Firefox?
Thanks
Click to expand...

There is AdBlock for Safari too.....couldn't live without it :)
 
SCOLANATOR said:
I'm in this exact same boat. I'm about to order my Haswell rMBP as I'm tired of badly made windows systems and crap OS's (W8).
My question is; I use Firefox and have done for a long time, there's one addon I can't live without, that's Adblock. I refuse to browse the web without it. Is it easy to put this on Safari? Does Safari have it's own addons and spellchecker/dictionary like you have on Firefox?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Like tmoerel mentioned, there is an Adblock for Safari extension. And OS X has system wide spell checking and dictionary built in that will work in Safari.
 
bhonder said:
One more thing: beware while cutting and pasting folders because the destination one will be substituted, rather than merged, with the source one. Read: you may lost a tons of datas.

This may trick former Linux or windows users.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's some great advice ! Otherwise, I'd be learning it the hard way !
 
takeshi74 said:
Just like on the PC, everyone does not use all the same software. It would be much more productive to tell us what you're looking for versus having us give you random suggestions that may or may not be relevant to you.
Click to expand...

I use my computer both for work and fun.

On the work side, I'm mainly a Word, Excel and Autocad user, although I don't need 3D in my CAD drawings, as 2D is enough for me. (Autocad prices are out of this world, I'm greatly considering moving on to GstarCad, on my next CAD software purchase.)

On the fun side, I enjoy some gaming on my weekends and holidays. That's why I ordered the GT 750M version.

Like SCOLANATOR, I'm tired of badly made windows systems. My current system is an Asus G73jh laptop that overheats and shuts down all the time ! :mad: I need to underclock the videoboard each time a play a game like Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3, to avoid unexpected shutdowns. :confused:
With this Asus laptop, I feel like I purchased a car that can run at 150 mph but I must limit it to 100 mph to avoid unexpected crashes. This ruins the purpose of spending money on a 150 mph capable car in the 1st place ! :rolleyes:
 
ss.soulbeat said:
1 - Do I need to install an Antivirus and/or Firewall ? (On the PC side it's unthinkable to work without this 2 installed, these days)

2 - Some websites, videos, books, etc, you recommend to familiarize with OS X / learn about the main differences in the ways of doing things, between a Mac and a PC ?

3 - Any recommendations/advices about software everyone installs on their Macs ?
Click to expand...

Hey! Welcome to the Mac world. You'll enjoy it here!

1. No, don't install Anti-virus. OS X has 0 viruses in the wild. There are malware out there like any OS does but just use common sense when browsing and it will be fine. Install Anti-virus if you purposely want to slow down your new Macbook Pro. ;)

2. I like websites like macosxhints and OSXDaily. But when I got my mac about 6 years ago now, I learned most of the things by just using it.

3. Top three Mac apps that I can't live without: Alfred (with Powerpack -- paid feature but so powerful!, you can have things like weather by just typing forecast in Alfred or a unit converter, or wolfram alpha searcher and much more!), flux (takes a bit of time to get used to but at night, turn it off and you'll see just how BLUE the screen is, flux helps with that), Pixelmator (amazing image editing. Way cheaper than Photoshop).
 
That's good to know!

Really looking forward to my first Mac experience. It's just the perfect package, superb display, great performance and respectable gaming performance, all flash with no optical drive (good to see Apple really pushing forward as I can't remember the last time I used the optical drive on my laptop and even if I did I can deal with paying £20 for an external), slim and fairly light, beautiful, well thought out design with excellent build quality with a solid and healthy selection of the most important IO. Why do people complain about loosing firewire and VGA etc? It's 2013! No ethernet isn't great but I'm not complaining.

It's not cheap but aside from that it really is the perfect package, I can't ask for more.
 
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