Switched last night, have a few basic questions.

Hello,
After years of contemplating I switched last night. I have a G4 now with OS X 10.1.5 and I have a few questions. Any answer/help would be appreciated.

1.) Is there a location where I can view what hardware is on the machine (Like Device Manager in Windows) ?

2.) How do I get a command prompt up?

3.) Is there an upgrade from 10.1.5 > better? (I would like to upgrade as Safari needs at least 10.2)

4.) Are video cards specific to Macs? Right now there is a GF MX in an AGP slot. I have a normal AGP Radeon 8500, can I use that in my Mac?

Thank you in advance.

I must say that I have been EXTREMELY impressed thus far with the G4 and OS X. I had been a widnows user for decades, and a linux user since 97, however since using OS X for just 3 hours last night .... I don't think I will go back.

1.) Yes, its the Apple System Profiler in Applications/Utilities.

2.) Open Terminal in Applications/Utilities.

3.) Yes, get Panther. It's alot better than 10.1.5.

4.) I'm not sure.

5.) Congratulations

1. You can use system profiler which can be found in the utilitys folder in apllications and I think that you can access it from the apple menu (top left of desktop) and going to about this mac. (cant check this for sure coz im on os9 at college,

3. When you connect to the internet go to system preferances which can be found on the dock and clck on update software at the bottom. Click on update now and it should make the available update available for download.

Could only answer to so I hope this help.

L8trs.

Thank you for the help. I do appreciate it.

I will have to check out system profiler for sure, I just didn't know where to find such a thing.

When I went to "About this Mac" it only told me that it was OS 10.1.5 and had 896 mb or RAM, nothing else.

Thanks for all of the information.

I am starting to think that you have to have a "Mac edition" ATI to put in there ... still don't really know however.

Ask Apple.

4) i was actually under the impression that Macs used ATI cards only... guess that one was wrong. But yes, there are "Mac specific" video cards. Last I heard at least.

Under "About this Mac" click More Info. If that button's not there.... maybe it was added in 10.2.

But definitely go get Panther.

hey JGO. you go to the About this mac click on the more info button to open profiler. In my room now so I can see it. Enjoy your new mac

Thanks for all of the replies and the help. I do appreciate it.

When I find out difinitively about the video cards I will post to let everyone know.

Thanks.

I found out that there is a differnce between the Mac and PC Ati Radeons and Nvidia GeForce cards.

The difference in the firmware they carry.

So if you are brave enough you can flash the firmware on a PC card with the Mac firmware and have it work.

As for me I think I will stic with my anemic GeForce MX.

less than a day after switching he's already a contributing member of the community! Well done!

Took me WEEKS to start sharing my knowledge!

I know for a fact that in 10.1 there is no "More Info" button in about this Mac. You have to manually open Apple System Profiler. I remember because I had to live with 10.1 for about 3 months while waiting for Panther.

Mr.Curlynose1 said:

I know for a fact that in 10.1 there is no "More Info" button in about this Mac. You have to manually open Apple System Profiler. I remember because I had to live with 10.1 for about 3 months while waiting for Panther.

Click to expand...

Yeah you are correct about this. I am running 10.1.5 and can't wait to upgrade.

I was working with OS X again last night and put to use everything I have learned here so far.

One thing still puzzles me however. When using the System Profiler and viewing your video card settings it does not list the ammount of RAM. (At least in 10.1.5 it doesn't) how odd?

I was also messing around in the terminal last night, I am glad to see that all of the common commands I learned in Linux work in OS X as well. It does make sense, but you never do know.

One thing amusing happened, I was messing around with the network tools and used the port scanner on my Windows box .... it turns out it has a trojan. LOL There was "blackjack" running on port 1025 wich is some "storm" trojan. How amusing is it that I used my OS X box to find a torjan on the Windows box.

Beatles: the Apple icon in the top left corner is a menu, drop it down and System Preferences is under there. Once it starts up, you can right-click or control-click on the icon in the dock and choose "Keep in Dock" to make sure it stays.

Beatles4Life said:

Star: I tried that, and nothing happened. I'm not sure what else to try. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks.

Click to expand...

double click your hard drive, go to Applications, then find the System Preferences icon and just drag it to the dock.

it didn't work

Wapa: I tried that, but the icon wasn't there. It seems to have completely disappeared from my compter. Does anyone have any other ideas? Thanks.

jump up and down and spin 3 times then click your heels and say there's no place like home and wake up. and if nothing works, then you do a search with sherlock for System Preferences. and if worst comes to worst, you could call the genius bar or even... reformat.. :shiver:

JGO said:

3.) Is there an upgrade from 10.1.5 > better? (I would like to upgrade as Safari needs at least 10.2)

Click to expand...

Did you buy the G4 new or used? Because if it's new, I beleive Apple will update you to Panther at a greatly reduced charge (like, $30 instead of $130). They usually give people who buy Macs just before a major system upgrade a break because all new Macs after the upgrade ship with it. It's just a way for buyers not to be punished for buying right before an upgrade. If you bought it used though you can't take advantage of that.