trying to understand

[blue&whiteman]

i'm trying to understand why so many people here with new and very powerful macs are having so many problems and even a lot of people with older macs like me are also having problems.

my blue and white G3 has been upgraded like crazy (usually upgraded cpu can cause problems like incompatibilities etc.) yet I have no problems at all with anything. my computer is 100% rock solid. any problem I have ever had was my fault and not my trusty old powermac.

here are some personal rules I follow that have gotten me the end result of a very reliable mac.

1. keep installed apps to a minimum. the more you have the more chance for conflict so try and only install what you need. before you install anything ask yourself if you really need it.

2. don't install too many os hacks. ie. theme changers, menu bar apps etc. the more system hacks you have the more conflict and system slow down you will have. I know these little apps make your system cooler and more interesting to use but are they really worth the possible headaches?

3. don't let your friends alter your settings when they use your system. if they don't like the way you have things set then they don't have to use it.

4. run disk tools once a month minimum, defragment, volume structure etc.

5. keep an identical version of your os on another disk or partition and install anything there first to try it out for a couple days and see what problems it could cause.

I know a lot of this sounds like a hassle but putting in this extra effort will pay off in the end, trust me.

 

[SilentPanda]

Both of my Macs that I've owned have been fine generally. I install whatever I need, never install hacks or mess with things I'm not supposed to, I don't have any friends that want to touch my machine, I repair permissions if something is acting funky, and there's not a chance I'm keeping a "test" partition.

So many people are complaining and having problems but you also have to consider that most people are quick to complain while very few will put up a post that looks like:

"Hey guys! Just letting you know my computer works!"

And even if they did, how do you respond to that? So it never gets bumped. All you will see on most *any* forum is problems and complaints. They tend to stick around longer.

 

[bousozoku]

You should add "wait until the o.s. upgrade is ready to install it"

There do seem to be a lot more complaints since the first of 2003 but I think there's a lot of experimentation happening.

I also believe that a lot of people don't understand how haxies work--and they don't want to know either.