New member, couldn't find a intro thread. :P

Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hey all,
I just wanted to drop in and say hello. Interesting forum.
Pretty new to Macs as a general rule, but I have used them a little in the past. I've been using various distros of Linux for the past few years, and still do on my laptop/netbook (currently Mepis 8.0).

Since this was the "switcher" hangout, I figured it was the appropriate place to stop in. More or less just got the machine up and running this afternoon. It's an older G4 machine, runs 933MHz PPC, 1.5GB of RAM, something around 300Gb of storage, Airport firmware 9.52, standard DVD burner... etc. I think it is a "Power Mac" though I have yet to determine the difference between this model, and any of the other older G4 series desktops. Still runs pretty smooth, quick enough for my needs. I don't do a lot of gaming on computers, so I am not really giving anything up in that regard. The extent of my gaming would be arcade emulation, or maybe some Warcraft, if the discs that I have are even Mac compatible.

About the only thing that I do not like is the mouse... that is going to take some getting used to, or I can just get a multi-button mouse, and call it a day. Though I DO like the Mac keyboard. One of the things that influenced my decision to get the G4 was case design... I like the flip out mobo tray... that and the price was low enough.

Later!
 
Joined
May 19, 2009
Messages
8,428
Reaction score
295
Points
83
Location
Waiting for a mate . . .
Your Mac's Specs
21" iMac 2.9Ghz 16GB RAM - 10.11.3, iPhone6s & iPad Air 2 - iOS 9.2.1, ATV 4Th Gen tvOS, ATV3
Hey shoggoth80 welcome to this great little community.
If posting a ? use the search feature 1st to see if there is a answer out there in another thread....
Enjoy your stay learn and acquaint us with your knowledge

Cheers
 
OP
S
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Thanks for the welcome. My girlfriend uses this site on occasion, which is how I found out about it. I've had this G4 for a few weeks, but never got a chance to mess with it until today.

I didn't even know Mac OS was Unix based, until googling for info. I find that neat.
Installing software was simplified to the point where I couldn't figure it out. No joke. The whole drag and drop thing is a bit different than the package managers I am used to with Linux. I need to get Garage Band and maybe a BLUE Snowball. I like condenser mics, and the BLUE is supposed to be plug and play, on top of having a really good, natural sound to it..

The only question I have at the moment is about MAME OSX, and that is posted in the gaming forum. Not necessary, but would be a lot of fun to get it working. There were almost no threads about arcade emulation on Mac, so I started my own thread.
 
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
144
Reaction score
3
Points
18
...About the only thing that I do not like is the mouse... that is going to take some getting used to, or I can just get a multi-button mouse, and call it a day. Though I DO like the Mac keyboard. One of the things that influenced my decision to get the G4 was case design... I like the flip out mobo tray... that and the price was low enough.

Later!

Yes! Get a two-button mouse before you drive yourself nuts! Just use the one off your old PC. Makes it much easier!
 
OP
S
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Yes! Get a two-button mouse before you drive yourself nuts! Just use the one off your old PC.

I can't...I sold it with my old PC. Ha ha ha! Mice are cheap anymore these days anyway. I'll snag one when I get paid again.
 
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
144
Reaction score
3
Points
18
I can't...I sold it with my old PC. Ha ha ha! Mice are cheap anymore these days anyway. I'll snag one when I get paid again.

Do yourself a favor and get a MS mouse or at the very least a logitech. Screw all those fancy "gaming" mice like Razor's. Their plastic POS.
 
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Messages
204
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Georga
Your Mac's Specs
Mac mini 2.6GHz i5 8GB RAM 1TB HDD OSX Yosemite
I have a new imac and it came with I'm guessing macs new wireless mouse. No buttons not even a wheel. But you can still scroll by just running your finger across the top like you are moving a wheel. The only complaint is it's movement across the screen. Not fast enough... I like em fast so I don't have to move my hand much... Man this computer is nice...
 

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
I didn't even know Mac OS was Unix based, until googling for info. I find that neat.

Yes, OS X is a variant of FreeBSD, the kernel is known as Darwin. There's a ton of Mac ports of open source software as a result, since it's relatively easy to do.

Open up Terminal from Applications => Utilities, and you should be familiar with the BASH-based shell that you'll see.
 
OP
S
Joined
Dec 21, 2009
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I never used FreeBSD, though I wanted to. I could never get it to run right on my machine, likely because of the hardware. I did try PC-BSD a little and liked it, though I had serious driver issues. I wanted to try Open Solaris on my netbook, but using unetbootin for it corrupts the kernel.

The new Mac mice look sick as can be, I'd give that a shot, if it wasn't for the price tag of buying it (I can't remember how much at the moment, but I thought it was a little high for a mouse)... though they do seem to be slick pieces of work.

Having used Linux a lot over the past few years, I have gotten away with very little terminal/command line work. Most of my stuff was "automagically" detected when installing, or I was able to get the drivers I needed through GUI package managers like Synaptic. About the only thing I ever used the command line for was apt-get to snag items that weren't found using a package manager search.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top