Second time's a charm

Well hello there guys and gals,

So I'm not exactly "new to Macs", this is my second MacBook Pro; however, I intend on using this one the way it is supposed to be used. After being a life-long Winblows user, I purchased my first Mac (god rest It's soul) in May of 2011. I jumped right into it, only using features that I found myself and then figured them out on my own, all while slowly convincing myself more and more that I was a genius on MacBooks. This past June, my home was burglarized, and the rude awakening of reality hit me.
I produce music as a professional hobby (see what I did there? ;P) and that means, of course, I had a lot of one-of-a-kind, priceless files that couldn't be replaced if something terrible happens, for example...oh I dunno...your house gets robbed. I called Apple, only for them to ask me things such as, "Did you have FindMyMac enabled?", "Did you back up anything to the Cloud?", etc., etc...and all I could say was, "no". (and all I could think was "#*!@")
So here I am, with my second amazing machine that some people consider a computer...I consider it a flying space capsule of speed and wizardry. I refuse to allow myself, and this computer, to become stagnant and vulnerable towards myself, burglars, or anyone else that wants to ruin my day. I have already enabled FindMyMac, I have an Apple Airport securely hidden in a small crevice of my house that you will never find, and I have instilled more password protection on my here than the NSA's agenda (Dear NSA, I really wouldn't know, please don't hunt me down). I've browsed through the forums here, and learned a lot already, but I would like to introduce myself and learn much much more.
First, I intend on purchasing LittleSnitch, but I am curious if NoobProof would do what I need it to do - with the added benefit of being free. I have also read that if I have a firewall protected router, that is all I really need. Is that true?
I purchased my new Mac with the solid state hard drive. As far a maintenance is concerned, is there anything out of the ordinary that I should be aware of?
On my last Mac I ran Safari for my web browser about 99% of the time. Now that I have a super awesome Droid Ultra (sorry iPhone enthusiasts, I just cant do the iPhone. don't hate) that is Google-ed out from head to toe, I have and been primarily using Google Chrome. Are there any better recommendations on web browsers for OSX? So far I am really satisfied with Chrome though.
On my last Mac, I was running OSX Lion if I'm not mistaken, and I'm thinking about upgrading to Mountain Lion for its memory management. Unfortunately, I have read some really bad things about it being glitchy and unresponsive. Anyone out there having these problems with ML?
Sorry for the really long post. I ramble. A lot.
I have read some threads pertaining Application Management hubs that incorporate all of your applications' software updates together in one app. Which one of these apps would you guys recommend to be the best, focusing on the "bang for you buck" aspect?
That's all I'm really curious about at this point in time, as I slowly rebuild my computer back to the way I want it, and further. If there is anything else you guys didn't see me mention that you would consider important, please please feel free to chime in.

Drew Porter

MacBook Pro 15"
2.7 GHz Intel I7
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
251 GB Flash Storage

Others may differ in their opinions but I personally haven't bothered with utilities such as Little Snitch in quite some time. My complain was that some of the dialog boxes which asked if you wanted to allow something to access / send data did not describe things well. It was difficult to know if the process being named was some legit (but obscure) network process or something nefarious. I do have the firewall turned on on my router.

I personally have not noticed a juge memory management improvement for Mountain Lion over Lion but I wasn't likely to notice one. Both versions have run well for me.

If you are happy with Chrome by all means keep using it. I haven't tried it much since the early days. I would keep a second browser around for the few times when some site just won't play nice but that's true for any browser.

1. Little Snitch will show you every time your MBP accesses, or is accessed by, something in the net. I found it interesting, but quickly got tired of the reports and interruptions. Can't speak to NoobProof.
2. Firewall router is good, will protect you if you are wired to the router, but if you use WiFi, you should have a firewall on the MBP. Fortunately for you, it's there, and it's on by default. You can check at System Preferences/Security and Privacy/Firewall to see that it is, indeed, on.
3. Nothing to do on the SSD, it's taken care of by the OS.
4. I use Safari for browsing. Works well for me.
5. If you bought the machine new, it should have ML on it. I haven't seen any glitchyness with ML personally, but as in all things computing, YMMV.
6. Most apps I've seen have an update checking setting in Preferences, I've never used any third party software to do that. Don't see any reason to have some third party do what the apps do natively.
7. You didn't ask, but backup, backup, backup. And if you are worried about burglary again, hide the backup drive somewhere really well so it isn't likely to be found. Backup to the cloud is a good, but expensive, solution if the material warrants.

Didn't think to mention backups. Off site backup can be important in the event of fire etc. Given the expense of online backups I have read of users who have two external backup drives that are rotated regularly. One kept at home and one in another location (office, relative, safe deposit box, etc).

@MacInWin Nice job. It's posts like this that got you the MoTM badge.

Gosh, Sly, you will turn my head...:Blush:

Be warned when the badge goes away you may find that your posts are . . . well . .. merely ordinary. Yhat's what I'm blaming it on in my case anyway, lol

Kinda like staying in a Holiday Inn, right?

ROTFL Yeah. But I think it works best when you stay at the Holiday Inn Express.