First 5 things to do with a new Mac laptop

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First 5 things to do with a new Mac laptop (after turning it on and running through the initial set-up, of course)

1. Open system preferences and set tap to click, under the Trackpad setting. This includes checking "secondary click" tap under the "Two fingers" menu. Now you simply tap the trackpad and that acts as a click (works even on older trackpads... does anybody know if the 2 finger secondary click works on older trackpads?)

2. Navigate over to Adium - Download and download adium for instant messaging. It's the best skinnable customizable multi-chat server supporting client in existence. (For simple customization, mess around with the app prefs... cmmd +, gets the job done).

3. Go to Blacktree and download Quicksilver - good stuff. Also, if you're a photographer or astronomer or anybody else with light sensitive work, you can turn your computer to night vision with their app called Nocturnal. After finishing the next 2 steps, then check out a Quicksilver tutorial or two. The power of the program is immense. It basically acts as a search for the database of all of your files, and then allows you to demand an action of a file (such as open, move to, copy, etc). It really improves efficiency.

4. Run software update and install everything it recommends. This will bring your system up to current standards. Restart your computer.

5. Navigate to Monolingual and download Monolingual. Run the app, but ONLY REMOVE EXTRA LANGUAGES. Do not touch the other stuff unless you 150% know what you are doing.

Congrats, you just saverd yourself about 5 gigs of system space back with monolingual, updated your system to the latest, got the best chat software, the most powerful app launching program there is (and that's just one of the few things it does), and set tap to click.

I realize now, this is all dependent on your initial set-up having taken care of the internet. But yea, whatever. Feel free to add anyone.
 

chscag

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Agree with everything but step 5. Running Monolingual will get you into trouble - if for example you run Mac Office 2008. Removing languages not needed will cause Mac Office 2008 to refuse to download and install updates.

With today's large hard drives there's really no reason to remove other languages just to save 2 or 3 GB of HDD space.

Regards.
 
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I guess you can turn tap to click on if you really need it, but being off by default is one of the things I really like about getting a mac laptop. I find tap to click so annoying. It is always selecting things that it shouldn't and I find that when I'm typing I will accidentally rest my palm on the trackpad and move the cursor. AAARRRGGG!!!

The new trackpads make this very nice with the whole pad physically clicking. Thats the way to do it.
 
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I would look into Onyx as a system maintenence app, Grand perspective to keep an eye on hard drive space, and App Cleaner to fully uninstall programs. Also, looking around on the downloads page of the Apple website could net you some neat, free applications relevant to your life that could improve your productivity with your new computer (as well as waste time).
 
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I guess you can turn tap to click on if you really need it, but being off by default is one of the things I really like about getting a mac laptop. I find tap to click so annoying. It is always selecting things that it shouldn't and I find that when I'm typing I will accidentally rest my palm on the trackpad and move the cursor. AAARRRGGG!!!

The new trackpads make this very nice with the whole pad physically clicking. Thats the way to do it.

Really? Maybe that's a debate/poll question we should have here haha. Tap to click I feel is one of those features that I couldn't live without. ESPECIALLY with the new keyboards. Trying to push down on the keyboard to click it causes the cursor to move. VERY annoying when you're trying to click accurately!
 
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I'll post a poll if you like.
 
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I like tap to click myself, it feels much more natural to me then pushing down on the mouse pad, and it's how I've always setup my trackpads on laptops in the past.

In terms of monolingual, I'd probably only use it on a system with limited storage capacity of maybe 80 gigs or less (yes, I know rare that people have less, but if someone bought a third party SSD w/ sata, they may 64 or 32 gigs of storage) - 5 gigs out of 250 for me (and eventually 500 when I get it) really isn't a huge amount.

Adium I like, never tried quicksilver (but it sounds interesting) and #4 I always do :D
 
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The reason I ran monolingual is because I only have a 160GB HDD in here, and I decided it was necessary to bring all of my music with me everywhere... which dropped me down to about 25 gigs when everything was all said and done. Now I'm at 33 free. That's acceptable. I'd like more, but yea.
 

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The reason I ran monolingual is because I only have a 160GB HDD in here, and I decided it was necessary to bring all of my music with me everywhere... which dropped me down to about 25 gigs when everything was all said and done. Now I'm at 33 free. That's acceptable. I'd like more, but yea.
Larger HD? I had a 120 and replaced it with a 320. It was worth it.

chscag, I ran monolingual and haven't had any issues with updates. That said, I can't seem to update now because to install 12.1.9, I need to have 12.1.8 installed and I have 12.1.7 installed. For some reason, I wasn't informed of 12.1.8.
 
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Thanks for this post. I have just installed Adium as well as the rest of the applications you have mentioned. I do use Office 2008 so won't be running the tool to remove additional languages - I have more than enough space spare! Although I only have a 120GB HDD in my MBP I don't keep much on it, preferring to use my desktop for all of my music and pictures etc.
 

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chscag, I ran monolingual and haven't had any issues with updates. That said, I can't seem to update now because to install 12.1.9, I need to have 12.1.8 installed and I have 12.1.7 installed. For some reason, I wasn't informed of 12.1.8.
Apparently, I don't know what I'm talking about. The reason the update wasn't working must have been the removal of languages. +1 for chscag :).
 
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Apparently, I don't know what I'm talking about. The reason the update wasn't working must have been the removal of languages. +1 for chscag :).

That does bring up an interesting question tho - let's say you've yanked the languages, and later find you need them again to perform an update (or run something that needs them and you didn't know it) - can you have monolingual restore the languages or do you have to do a reinstall...?
 

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I'm guessing that since it removes them, they're gone. I ended up just doing a reinstall of Office which allowed me to install the update.
 
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That seems to be a pretty easy fix.
 

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That seems to be a pretty easy fix.
True, but reinstalling something should always be a last resort in my books. Have the fun is tinkering with things and the other half is fixing it (that would be the nerd in me).
 
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First 5 things to do with a new Mac laptop (after turning it on and running through the initial set-up, of course)

1. Open system preferences and set tap to click, under the Trackpad setting.
...unless you prefer to just use the mouse button (like I and many others would)... or you could just use an external mouse...
2. Navigate over to Adium - Download and download adium for instant messaging.
...unless you don't do instant messaging (like I and many others don't)... otherwise it's a waste of a download and installation.
3. Go to Blacktree and download Quicksilver - good stuff. .... really improves efficiency.
...this is another matter of opinion.
I don't use the app and never saw much need for it.
I know plenty of others use it and find it indispensable, but I wouldn't rank this as a priority as one of the first things to do with a Mac.
4. Run software update and install everything it recommends. This will bring your system up to current standards. Restart your computer.
This one is a good bit of advice, though if you don't have to install everything it recommends.
Some of the updates might be application specific and if you don't use that app, there isn't much need to update it.
5. Navigate to Monolingual and download Monolingual.
As others have said, this one is pretty much unnecessary as well.
If you're not careful, it can cause more harm than help.

Many of these things are a huge matter of personal preference. Some of it is okay advice, but overall it's not really needed.
I'm not trying to rain on your parade or anything, but it's just not a list of things that I would suggest to any new Mac user as something deserving of urgent or immediate attention.

The first thing I would suggest to any new Mac user would be to read their manual.
Once they have internet access set up, they should visit the following links:

Apple - Support - Switch 101

Apple - Support - Mac 101

There is a wealth of information on those sites that will answer many of a new Mac user's first questions.
If they come to this forum, then reading the Switcher FAQ would be a good bit of advice as well.
 

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chscag, I ran monolingual and haven't had any issues with updates. That said, I can't seem to update now because to install 12.1.9, I need to have 12.1.8 installed and I have 12.1.7 installed. For some reason, I wasn't informed of 12.1.8.

I guess you were lucky. There's a notice about running Monolingual posted in the Mac Office 2008 MS newsgroups. It specifically says not to. And from my personal experience - it did prevent me from updating Office 2008. It wasn't until after I uninstalled Office 2008 and reinstalled that I was finally able to update.

As far as requiring 12.1.8 before installing 12.1.9, I was under the impression that the MS Office updates were cumulative. Or maybe that's just for the service packs? I'll have to find out about that.

Thanks for letting me know.

Regards.
 
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Even though its not free I much prefer Xslimmer to trim down my apps. It automatically will find all apps and depending on your settings, strip unnecessary languages and remove unused architectures. It also keeps track of programs that won't agree with being cut down to size.
 

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I guess you were lucky. There's a notice about running Monolingual posted in the Mac Office 2008 MS newsgroups. It specifically says not to. And from my personal experience - it did prevent me from updating Office 2008. It wasn't until after I uninstalled Office 2008 and reinstalled that I was finally able to update.

As far as requiring 12.1.8 before installing 12.1.9, I was under the impression that the MS Office updates were cumulative. Or maybe that's just for the service packs? I'll have to find out about that.

Thanks for letting me know.

Regards.
As I found, it probably was monolingual that caused it because after my reinstall, all was good and 12.1.9 installed without a hitch. I guess the best way to learn is through experience (at least for me).
 
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...unless you prefer to just use the mouse button (like I and many others would)...

Only thing is on the new unibodies (macbook aluminum and I'm pretty sure on the newer 2008 and later MBP as well), instead of a traditional mouse button you just have the giant mouse pad that is clickable itself - so unlike having a button under your thumb for a normal trackpad, you now have the entire trackpad being pushed for a mouse button which to me, although kinda neat in a way, feels awkward.
 

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