Need advice from Apple users

Heh, probably a good idea.

As far as obtaining software... I have heard good things about Hotline, but I have personally never used it. But from what I hear, you can find just about anything on there.

Another option is LimeWire (Gnutella client), which I have used (but usually for MP3's). I would imagine you could find it there.

The eBay idea is a great one that I hadn't even thought of. Photoshop's pretty easily worth the $150 + whatever you pay for version 4.0 or something on eBay. Just make sure you get the <b>Mac</b> version - upgrades are not cross-platform, unfortunately.

As far as help... anything I can do to help, let me know. It's cool to me because I think more people should be using Macs. I'm willing to devote some time for advocacy because I believe that much in it. As a matter of fact, I believe so much in it that I believe if you give it a chance, you'll believe that much in it as well.

One thing that will bug the hell out of you for the first few months - you're used to doing things the hard way. It's almost easier on Mac OS X, and consequently, you'll find yourself trying to do something the hard way and it won't work. Fortunately, Apple has anticipated this and included the hard way as well. But here's an example of where they haven't (and it's stuff like this that'll drive you nuts until you figure it out and go "Of COURSE that's how it's done!"):

I had an inkjet printer that I wanted all of our Macs to be able to print to. I had been taking it from Mac to Mac, but this was a pain in the ass. Mac OS X 10.2 came out and supported USB printer sharing, so I thought I'd give it a try. In the Print Center, I checked the option for "Share this printer with other computers" (or whatever the actual text says). Then I went to Jenni's flat panel iMac and opened up Print Center. I noticed the old printer info there but didn't think much of it. Hit the Add Printer button... can't find any way to add a shared printer. Spent fifteen minutes trying to find it when I finally realized that Apple's Rendezvous had automatically discovered the shared printer and added it to the list (by replacing the old one). I went to my iBook and, sure enough, there was the new printer, automatically in the printer's list. I did test pages from both computers and it worked flawlessly. And then I banged my head against the wall for wasting fifteen minutes on something so simple.

You'll have experiences like this too, but once you get used to the Mac way of doing things, it's second nature (and you'll really appreciate it).

Also... Spring Loaded Folders. That's all I'm saying.

[Uryoces]

I wouldn't worry too much about the differences in Photoshop between the PC and OSX versions. The interfaces [for the program] should be nearly identical, and the files created should be readable by either version. Get that Mac, feel the Mac goodness, and get familiar with the interface. You should be good to go. To be honest, I haven't had much experience with the Mac OSX interface, except my brief encounters at Comp USA. It didn't seem that difficult to grasp, there was some similarity between it and the Mac OS 8.x and 9.x interfaces. As soon as I get the Mac hooked up, I'll be dropping OSX on it.

Grab a used iMac book from your local Half-Price books to get a basic primer on OSX, and then just check the errata that comes with Jaguar for any updates in functionality.

As a quirky aside, I've been playing with Basilisk II, an open-source 68K Mac emulator for PC's.

Just get a Rom image file -- from a living Mac or Google, pick up a used OS 8 CD, and you're golden.

Emulates: 68040
ROM Required: Yes - 512 KB or 1 MB
Memory: Unlimited
Sound: Supported
Mac OS supported: 7.x - 8.1
Modem Support: Yes
Ethernet Support: Yes
Hard Drive size: Unlimited
Current Version: V0.9-1 (Win - Build 143)
Creator:Christian Bauer
Price:Free
Runs On: Amiga, Linux, UNIX, BeOS, Windows 9x, Windows NT (and Win2000 and WinXP)

[hot_pastrami]

Well, I went and bought myself a Power Mac. It's basically identical to the one at SmallDog that Dave pointed me to, except it's new instead of refurbished, and it's got 2GB of RAM rather than 256MB. It cost $200 more, but the savings from buying the 2GB of RAM myself more than makes up for that. It's supposed to arrive sometime this weekend, and then I get to dive into the wonders of the Mac world, one I have scarcely touched or even seen.

Thanks for the advice and stuff, I may need some more once I get the box and start trying to figure it out.

I'm gonna PM you my cell number and instructions - you can call me when you need help.

I'll also write up a list of links that I check out and I'll point you in the direction of some apps that'll make life easier for you. Mac OS X has a lot of conveniences built it, but with a few apps it'll be... well, let's put it this way: I actually <b>like</b> using it and the few shareware apps I own. It's not that it stays out of my way; it's also a joy to use.

By the way, where'd you buy the Power Mac? That's a damn good price with the RAM included.

[hot_pastrami]

I grabbed it as a Buy-It-Now purchase from an eBay seller....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=3401833834

...And shipping is $34 for 3-7 day ground freight, not bad at all. I still need to buy a couple cheap KVMs so I can use dual monitors on both my PC and the Mac (once you've used dual monitors you can never go back), and then figure out how to get ahold of Photoshop, Illustrator, and maybe QuarkXpress and Bryce without committing financial suicide, and I can really dig into learning what I need to get into designing graphics professionally.

Again, thanks for the help... and useful apps you can point me to would be... well, useful.

Do a search for über here in the technology thread and look at the KVM I'm using - its Mac support is pretty decent (USB *and* audio switching) and its price was... hey, expensive. Nevermind Might wanna look at it anyway. It's a Belkin.

[juju]

I wouldn't recommend cheap KVMs. They tend to really screw up monitors. The expensive ones are much more gentle and safe with your equipment.

[hot_pastrami]

Hmm, it harms the monitors to use cheap KVMs? I can't see how that could be unless they forced some wierd refresh rate or something. My problem is that I need two KVMs to support the two monitors, so even two cheaper KVMs will be pricey... here's the one I was thinking of going with, which I can get for about $40 from a local place:

http://www.trendware.com/products/TK-200.htm

I know it's hokey, but I was going to use the KVMs for the monitor switching, and just move my USB trackball from the PC's USB hub to the Mac hub manually when switching. The PC has a cordless keyboard, so I'll just put that one aside when using the Mac. I won't be switching very often, so convenience is not as critical as finding a low price.

One thing I haven't figured out yet is how to have my speakers work on both boxes... I either need to get a Y cable and just deal with the signal loss, or buy a cheap amp and wire it all into that. Hmm.

[juju]

Yeah, I'm not really sure <i>why</i> this happens, but I know that it does.

I got a KVM off ebay for like $5-10, and it promptly killed my MS Intellimouse. Whenever I would switch between computers, the cursor would jump all around the screen whenever I moved the mouse, opening and closing programs at random, and just causing general chaos. I think this was because Windows sets the mouse to one protocol, and Linux uses another. So when I would switch from Linux to Windows, and then back, the number of bytes being used for the X and Y position was different, and thus the number was different. But even after I stopped using the switch, the mouse still did this, so I can only guess that some sort of permanant damage was done. I had to throw the mouse away and buy another one!

I also found that my monitor was flickering in weird ways whenever I switched over to windows. I think you might be right about it having something to do with a refresh rate problem. Anyway, after I stopped using the switch, the display problems mostly went away, although I still occasionally get vertical lines rolling across my screen whenever I use Windows, and this just didn't happen until I started using the KVM.

I do know that difference between the cheap KVMs and the expensive ones is that the former is purely mechanical, while the latter is software based. The good KVMs send a fake signal to the non-active computer, fooling it into thinking that the device is still there. This way, the OS doesn't lock up or drop the device if it tries to poll it and discovers it isn't there. Also, with the mechanical KVMs, you have to leave a computer switched on while it's booting up, otherwise you won't get keyboard/mouse/monitor support.

Still, what I do know about KVMs doesn't really explain why it destroys my devices, so maybe it's just me. I don't see any instances of fouled-up monitors on Usenet, but I do see lots of broken Intellimouse incidents.

How's the Power Mac-ing going? I just got my PMG4 back yesterday and I'm loving having it back. I'm amazed by how <b>fast</b> it is. I had forgotten, but Jesus! It's smokin'.

There are some apps you might wanna check out.

http://www.unsanity.com - I have purchased their Window Shade X, Fruit Menu, Labels X and Mighty Mouse products, and use a few more (that are free). Fruit Menu is the most useful - you owe it to yourself to check out the demo.

http://www.obdev.at - LaunchBar is, simply put, awesome. I split it with a friend, but I'd buy it even if I weren't going 50/50 with someone. Jesus it's great. I think I'll buy another copy just because it's so awesome.

Also, search for Fetch at http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/index.html for a good FTP client. I was so impressed with it, I bought it the first day I used it.

There's a lot more you'll want. I can burn you a CD if you like.

[hot_pastrami]

Sorry about the slow reply, I've been out of town since last Thursday. The computer arrived just in time for my departure, so I didn't get a chance to hook it up and turn it on until last night.

First impressions....

* By and large, setup as been pretty easy. Got it hooked up to the home network and grabbing an IP off the DHCP server, so I was connecting to the Internet via DSL within minutes.

* I love the anti-aliased display, it looks very nice. It makes small fonts a bit fuzzy at my preferred resolution (1600x1200 on a 19"), but not terrible.

* The dock is cool, but I wish it has a system clock on it like Windows, I kept glancing down to check the time.

* Impressive speed... I only got to try a few things, but what it did it did FAST... I downloaded and installed Mozilla 1.2.1 and it took mere seconds to install.

* Spring loaded folders = cool.

* The AIM client is a liitle annoying with the balloon text, but it's not so cutesy that I can't overlook it. I just wish <a href="http://www.trillian.cc">Trillian Pro</a> had an OSX build.

Question... when typing in text input boxes, like a browser URL area or the text box in webmail, the Home and End keys don't behave as they do on a PC, in fact they do nothing. I use those keys a lot, particularly in software development, so being without them was a little crippling. I presume that these keys are supposed to do something, probably exactly the same thing they do in Windows... any idea what might cause them to do nothing? Well, in one app they did insert little null-character boxes into the text, so that's something, just not very useful.

Another question... can a Mac connect to a Windows file share (XP) over TCP/IP? I couldn't find anything about it in the Mac help system, only info on how a Windows box can connect to a Mac share.

Anyway, I'm still in tinkering/learning mode, but I won't get a chance to dig in too deep for a few days. I'll probably start downloading demos of the apps you've suggested later this week, once I'm more comfortable using the system. One thing I'll need to find is a good text editor for HTML... any suggestions?

Thanks a bunch, I'll keep you aprised of my progress. From what I've seen so far, the only big thing that would be a showstopper for converting to Apple is the lack OSX versions of several useful, beloved apps. But maybe I can find suitable alternatives.

Later,

Originally posted by hot_pastrami
* By and large, setup as been pretty easy. Got it hooked up to the home setwork and grabbing an IP off the DHCP server, so I was connecting to the Internet via DSL within minutes.

* I love the anti-aliased display, it looks very nice. It makes small fonts a bit fuzzy at my preferred resolution (1600x1200 on a 19"), but not terrible.

You may want to play with the anti-aliasing options. They're in System Preferences, I think under the Displays preference pane. I'm not with a Mac right now, so I can't check, but they have like four settings there that you might wanna try out.

* The dock is cool, but I wish it has a system clock on it like Windows, I kept glancing down to check the time.

I just got used to looking into the upper-right hand corner. I'm sure there's a fix for this (perhaps by running Apple's clock program and placing it where you want it), but I don't use it.

* Impressive speed... I only got to try a few things, but what it did it did FAST... I downloaded and installed Mozilla 1.2.1 and it took mere seconds to install.

You'll probably notice a nice boost when you get a better graphics card, too. GF2MX is okay, but with a GF3 or higher, it will be wicked fast.

* Spring loaded folders = cool.

These are to die for. I wish Windows had something like this, because it's so stupidly useful it's not even funny. I'm super used to it now, and I feel crippled on Windows because I can't do it.

* The AIM client is a liitle annoying with the balloon text, but it's not so cutesy that I can't overlook it. I just wish <a href="http://www.trillian.cc">Trillian Pro</a> had an OSX build.

You can turn this off. It's on the main iChat window, one of the buttons on the bottom pops up some prefs. I have mine set to just lines of text, which makes it way more usable. You can also install X11 and use GAIM, which I find to be the best AIM client on any platform.

Question... when typing in text input boxes, like a browser URL area or the text box in webmail, the Home and End keys don't behave as they do on a PC, in fact they do nothing. I use those keys a lot, particularly in software development, so being without them was a little crippling. I presume that these keys are supposed to do something, probably exactly the same thing they do in Windows... any idea what might cause them to do nothing? Well, in one app they did insert little null-character boxes into the text, so that's something, just not very useful.

I don't use those keys and I don't have a Mac with me right now, but I'll check when I get home. I'm gonna run to the Apple store tonight anyway, so I'll ask 'em there too.

Another question... can a Mac connect to a Windows file share (XP) over TCP/IP? I couldn't find anything about it in the Mac help system, only info on how a Windows box can connect to a Mac share.

Absolutely, and it's super easy. In Finder, hit CMD-K (Apple-K) or click the "Go" menu, I think it is, and select "Server" or "Connect to Server" (I forget exactly, I always use the shortcut). You'll be able to figure it out from there, but basically, in the text field you can type

smb://192.168.1.1

where the IP is that of your server. But the server name will probably show up in the server browser if it's local.

Anyway, I'm still in tinkering/learning mode, but I won't get a chance to dig in too deep for a few days. I'll probably start downloading demos of the apps you've suggested later this week, once I'm more comfortable using the system. One thing I'll need to find is a good text editor for HTML... any suggestions?

BBEdit and its little brother TextWrangler - http://www.barebones.com - are quite good, though they are pricey. But I might be willing to go splits-o with you on BBEdit (it's kinda expensive). TextWrangler is a great editor but lacks HTML syntax highlighting. You can always use jEdit - http://jedit.org - which is free, but written in Java and therefore a bit of a hog.

Thanks a bunch, I'll keep you aprised of my progress. From what I've seen so far, the only big thing that would be a showstopper for converting to Apple is the lack OSX versions of several useful, beloved apps. But maybe I can find suitable alternatives.[/b]

I'm sure you'll find 'em, or you can always use RDC from Microsoft to connect to your XP box and use 'em over the network.

Hope all goes well.

[jaguar]

Chat...Grab an App called Proteus - handles every protocol, well thought out interface, some nice options.
I'm loving my 12" powerbook.

As for netowrking with windows, i've had mixed experienced. I added a user to my windows box for network access (remember to disable the 'change passowrd at next logon' option). Shared a few things i wanted to copy across. Connected, authenicated. The share turned up on my desktop, i clicked on it and is dissipeared! Not amused.

The other way round i can open shares but i can't write to them, i can't find an option to set permissions either, i'm guessing i'll have to dig out terminal and do it that way. A little dissapointing. Anyone got any advise?

[hot_pastrami]

You may want to play with the anti-aliasing options. They're in System Preferences, I think under the Displays preference pane. I'm not with a Mac right now, so I can't check, but they have like four settings there that you might wanna try out.

Cool, thanks for the tip. I poked around the preferences a bit just looking around, but I didn't spot this one.

You'll probably notice a nice boost when you get a better graphics card, too. GF2MX is okay, but with a GF3 or higher, it will be wicked fast.

This machine actually has a GeForce4 MX card. The display is very smooth, I've been impressed with it.

These are to die for. I wish Windows had something like this, because it's so stupidly useful it's not even funny. I'm super used to it now, and I feel crippled on Windows because I can't do it.

Don't worry, Microsoft will eventually catch on, steal the idea, then brand it with their own name and take credit... "New Windows PP with pop-open folders"

You can turn this off. It's on the main iChat window, one of the buttons on the bottom pops up some prefs.

Excellent, I'll have to find that. I like cool-looking stuff, but that balloon text was too cute for my taste.

You can also install X11 and use GAIM, which I find to be the best AIM client on any platform.

I wasn't familiar with X11 until I did a search prompted by your mention of it... I'll have to dive into that one of these days soon so I can make more apps available.

Thanks for the suggestions and stuff, once again your advice has proven extremely useful. I owe you, dave.

[hot_pastrami]

Jaguar... thanks for the tip on Proteus. It looks like exactly what I'm looking for in a chat client, I'll have to download it and try it when I get home tonight.