PC user just got a macbook

Hey all, I've been a PC user all my life...I'm a pretty serious gamer, so Windows has pretty much been a requirement for me. Flash forward to college, where I'm in NIU business school and need a laptop...I thought about getting a gaming laptop, but that would have killed my productivity at school, so I hit up Ebay and found myself a decent used MacBook with a Core Duo and 1GB of ram. It's got Snow Leopard on it...Just arrived via Fedex today, and I've been playing around with it for most of the day. I still have a very nice Windows 7 desktop that I built for gaming, and will probably be using that most of the time, but the MacBook is very useful for actually getting classwork, job apps, various other important things done, mainly because I don't have the distraction of games available to me. I had to google a few things to figure out how to do them on the Mac, and most of the results were Mac Forum threads, so I figured I would join since this seems like the best source of information for my future exploits in OSX!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Mac Forums! And, you're correct about these forums being the best source of info. Lots of great guys and gals on here who are willing to help. Enjoy your stay and visit often.

Thanks guys. I really like the keyboard on this thing. Nice and clacky, reminds me of my ABS M1 that I have with my desktop. The first thing I did was get Firefox (been using it since 1.5), VLC (again, YEARS), uTorrent, Steam, and Office. Now it's fairly similar (application-wise) to my 7 rig. Side note: love the way apps are pretty much self-contained in OSX. It's nice.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome.

Next time please break up your text so it's easier to read. Wall of text is not fun to read.

Technically PC means Personal Computer, and that includes Macs or any computer that is used for personal computing.

Secondly Macbooks and MacBook Pros are not laptops. They are notebooks. There is a difference, for obviously reasons too.

Good thing you didn't invest money into a gaming notebook because for one thing, they are overpriced for the performance that you get. Second it is a distraction to your studies which you already mentioned.

Welcome and enjoy!!

Welcome aboard! If we can help in any way, just ask. I also love the self contained Applications. It was one of the first things I noticed when using OSX in the beginning.

Yeah, you might want to uninstall the Steam if you're serious about the Mac being your "serious work" machine ...

Welcome to the forum. I won't try and dissuade you from Firefox if you're used to it, but give Safari a try -- lotsa cool extensions and I just generally like it better. It's nice to have options!

chas_m said:

Yeah, you might want to uninstall the Steam if you're serious about the Mac being your "serious work" machine ...

Welcome to the forum. I won't try and dissuade you from Firefox if you're used to it, but give Safari a try -- lotsa cool extensions and I just generally like it better. It's nice to have options!

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Excellent advice especially ditching Steam. If you got a Mac for work and games would get in the way of that, ZAP Steam. My friend almost lost his job with the government messing with Steam at work when they should have been working.

dtravis7 said:

Excellent advice especially ditching Steam. If you got a Mac for work and games would get in the way of that, ZAP Steam. My friend almost lost his job with the government messing with Steam at work when they should have been working.

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Should have know better than that. >_>" Especially when you are paid to work and not play games...>_<" Unless that's part of your job description...which I highly doubt if you are working for the government.

CrimsonRequiem said:

Should have know better than that. >_>" Especially when you are paid to work and not play games...>_<" Unless that's part of your job description...which I highly doubt if you are working for the government.

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Agreed completely.

chas_m said:

Yeah, you might want to uninstall the Steam if you're serious about the Mac being your "serious work" machine ...

Welcome to the forum. I won't try and dissuade you from Firefox if you're used to it, but give Safari a try -- lotsa cool extensions and I just generally like it better. It's nice to have options!

Click to expand...

Well, I've discovered that none of my steam games will run on this thing anyways...but, I will most likely keep it installed so that I can use Steam Chat.
As for Safari, I really can't imagine ever switching away from Firefox. I messed with the Windows release of Safari, played with Opera, IE 8, Chrome, and even the IE 9 beta. I didn't really like any of them, except for a few cool things in Opera, but definitely not enough to replace Firefox.
I appreciate the ideas guys, keep 'em coming!

Here's a little tip: you should download and install the free Flip4Mac WMV Player and Perian programs. They supplement QuickTime by allowing it to play non-native file formats, particularly handy when surfing web sites, and just generally (and invisibly) make web video easier.

I'll also point you to this essay of suggestions for Mac switchers.

chas_m said:

Here's a little tip: you should download and install the free Flip4Mac WMV Player and Perian programs. They supplement QuickTime by allowing it to play non-native file formats, particularly handy when surfing web sites, and just generally (and invisibly) make web video easier.

I'll also point you to this essay of suggestions for Mac switchers.

Click to expand...

Ha, I actually read that already. It was interesting. And like I said, I have VLC which usually auto-downloads any codecs that needs and doesn't already have.