?'s from a PC/UNIX Admin w/ first MAC

CerealKiller · Feb 20, 2007

So I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro and I'm kind of excited about it, except that I've never used a Mac...

Anyway, I have been working with PC's my whole life including a computer science degree from ASU, website development and network and server admin for 5+ years. I am in no way a newb to computing. I have never liked Mac but with the new Intel architecture I figured it was worth a try. Plus I love video editing and hate Premier Pro.

I was curious what I should do with my Mac when I first get it. Being a computer literate person, I am sure there are some settings, options, and workarounds that I want to get out of the way as soon as I open the box (or maybe not and all my Windows days have corrupted me?). If you guys have any suggestions or things that I should look into and consider please let me know. I am still a little weary of Mac so please sell me on this thing! I just paid waaaay too much for it. I hope it was worth it.

CerealKiller · Feb 20, 2007

Oh yeah, one more specific question, what kind of shell does Mac run? How do I access it? Thanks.

Jonnyfive · Feb 20, 2007

I think that the OS runs beautifully right out of the box. There really isn't anything that I can think of except I like to set it so that when I put the mouse in the top right corner of the screen expose comes up and when I put it on the bottom left it shows my desktop.

It's very exciting coming to a new OS, especially a MBP, you will have a wonderful time.

RiDE · Feb 20, 2007

My suggestion is to just use it for a couple of weeks prior to "tweaking" things. There is nothing that needs to be done immediately... other than maybe the Updates that will pop-up on there own.

I will say this though... Get Quicksilver. The things this app can do are almost limitless if you take a little time to figure it / out add plug-ins etc... Amazing!!!

http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

Jonnyfive · Feb 20, 2007

RIDE said:
My suggestion is to just use it for a couple of weeks prior to "tweaking" things. There is nothing that needs to be done immediately... other than maybe the Updates that will pop-up on there own.

I will say this though... Get Quicksilver. The things this app can do are almost limitless if you take a little time to figure it / out add plug-ins etc... Amazing!!!

http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

I second that. Quicksilver is awesome, one of my favorite programs for Mac.

spudd4242 · Feb 20, 2007

What exactly is this quicksilver

CerealKiller · Feb 20, 2007

I think Quicksilver is Katapult's equivalent? (KDE Tool)

baggss · Feb 20, 2007

CerealKiller said:
Oh yeah, one more specific question, what kind of shell does Mac run? How do I access it? Thanks.

UNIX. You can access the terminal from the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder inside your hard drive. If you're UNIX savvy, you'll be right at home.

Amen-Moses · Feb 20, 2007

CerealKiller said:
Oh yeah, one more specific question, what kind of shell does Mac run? How do I access it? Thanks.

So you want to get down and dirty straight away eh?

Bash shell by default, accessed by using the Terminal app which lives in Applications->Utilities folder.

You will find the directory structure a wee bit different from other *nix systems but it should all be reasonably familiar.

Applications on OS X keep their settings in files that have the .plist extension, mostly these are XML style files rather than the normal plain text variety of older *nix OSs. But (and boy is it a big but) for the most part you never need to edit them directly, everything is graphical on this baby!

The first thing you'll want to do is install X11 from the disc supplied as it is not there by default, second - if you want to do any development - install XCode from the same disc.

XCode will install graphical development tools to /Developer, explore and enjoy, secondly and most importantly, it will also install all the Libraries (which live in the Library folders scattered around, there is a system one plus one for each user), gcc, make etc etc.

Then you may like to spend a few days playing with all the goodies, iLife etc, before downloading and installing:

http://www.macports.org/

This will give you access to a simple method of installing a huge library of Linux stuff.

Oh, welcome btw.

Amen-Moses

RiDE · Feb 20, 2007

spudd4242 said:
What exactly is this quicksilver

It's really hard to describe... you'll have to check it out.

It's kind of a Spotlight (OS X) on Steroids.. HGH even

and a launcher all wrapped in one.

You can find anything on the system with it, and then do anything with what is found...

For example (in overly simple terms, as it can be as complex or as simple as you want it) I have it set to open when I press F1... then to launch say Dictionary, I start typing.. D... I... It pulls up Dictionary.. I can then press enter to launch it...

Or.. I take a screenshot to post on the forums... the image is auto saved to my desktop as "picture1.jpg"... I open Quicksilver.. type P I C ... It pulls up pitcture1.jpg... I press TAB to get to the actions... I type U.. P... it pulls up "Upload to Flickr".. I press Enter.. 2 seconds later the image is uploaded to Flickr... ready for me to post a screenshot...

It really is amzing all the things I use it for.. and I am just scratching the surface.

http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

Highly customizable...

CerealKiller · Feb 20, 2007

Amen-Moses said:
So you want to get down and dirty straight away eh?

Bash shell by default, accessed by using the Terminal app which lives in Applications->Utilities folder.

You will find the directory structure a wee bit different from other *nix systems but it should all be reasonably familiar.

Applications on OS X keep their settings in files that have the .plist extension, mostly these are XML style files rather than the normal plain text variety of older *nix OSs. But (and boy is it a big but) for the most part you never need to edit them directly, everything is graphical on this baby!

The first thing you'll want to do is install X11 from the disc supplied as it is not there by default, second - if you want to do any development - install XCode from the same disc.

XCode will install graphical development tools to /Developer, explore and enjoy, secondly and most importantly, it will also install all the Libraries (which live in the Library folders scattered around, there is a system one plus one for each user), gcc, make etc etc.

Then you may like to spend a few days playing with all the goodies, iLife etc, before downloading and installing:

http://www.macports.org/

This will give you access to a simple method of installing a huge library of Linux stuff.

Oh, welcome btw.

Amen-Moses

Thank you so much for all of that, its exactly the kind of response I was looking for! One question, does XCode support Perl? Thanks for the great responses guys, I get more excited about my system with each response!

CerealKiller · Feb 20, 2007

RIDE said:
It's really hard to describe... you'll have to check it out.

It's kind of a Spotlight (OS X) on Steroids.. HGH even and a launcher all wrapped in one.

You can find anything on the system with it, and then do anything with what is found...

For example (in overly simple terms, as it can be as complex or as simple as you want it) I have it set to open when I press F1... then to launch say Dictionary, I start typing.. D... I... It pulls up Dictionary.. I can then press enter to launch it...

Or.. I take a screenshot to post on the forums... the image is auto saved to my desktop as "picture1.jpg"... I open Quicksilver.. type P I C ... It pulls up pitcture1.jpg... I press TAB to get to the actions... I type U.. P... it pulls up "Upload to Flickr".. I press Enter.. 2 seconds later the image is uploaded to Flickr... ready for me to post a screenshot...

It really is amzing all the things I use it for.. and I am just scratching the surface.

That is exactly like katapult, and I love it! Thanks!

mac57 · Feb 20, 2007

CerealKiller, you may wish to see my Linux to Mac Switcher's Guide, which is targeted at folks just like you. Lots of Linux centric switcher's info, in language you already understand, plus lots of info on critical apps and the like. See:

http://www.campbell-tx.net/MacOSX/Linux2Mac/linux2mac.html

Let me know if you have any comments, questions, etc.

CerealKiller · Feb 20, 2007

mac57 said:
CerealKiller, you may wish to see my Linux to Mac Switcher's Guide, which is targeted at folks just like you. Lots of Linux centric switcher's info, in language you already understand, plus lots of info on critical apps and the like. See:

http://www.campbell-tx.net/MacOSX/Linux2Mac/linux2mac.html

Let me know if you have any comments, questions, etc.

Awesome! I like you Mac folks already. You're good folk, I don't care what everyone else says about ya

Amen-Moses · Feb 20, 2007

CerealKiller said:
Thank you so much for all of that, its exactly the kind of response I was looking for! One question, does XCode support Perl? Thanks for the great responses guys, I get more excited about my system with each response!

OS X comes with Perl v5.8.6 installed.

I'm not sure what you mean by XCode "supporting" Perl as XCode as delivered is basically Java/C++ based although you can install other language support (I've used XCode with Ada before!).

You may want to Google on XCode and Perl to see what comes up.

Amen-Moses

walkerj · Feb 20, 2007

I seem to recall having to install perl with the Xcode stuff, but don't hold me to that. If you install Xcode you will definitely have perl (and I'm pretty sure most of the libs).

I have a couple of scripts that rely on perl, as well as some that rely on certain darwin ports.

vi and emacs are already there in the shell (funny how I edit the vast majority of my text files with vi, but there is one, little thing that I use TextEdit for, and one little thing for which I use emacs.) There's all the usual stuff (tar, zip, ls) and even some extras that I use all the time, like lam, and some that I haven't really found a use for yet, like open. Just about every bash script I've written on Linux came right over to the Mac and worked without modification.

walkerj · Feb 20, 2007

Server croaked, and made me double post. Anyway, let's see what else. Oh yeah, get the Missing Manual book for Mac OS X. There's thousands of little tips and tricks plus it covers the UNIX side.

CerealKiller · Feb 20, 2007

walkerj said:
Server croaked, and made me double post. Anyway, let's see what else. Oh yeah, get the Missing Manual book for Mac OS X. There's thousands of little tips and tricks plus it covers the UNIX side.

A few people have suggested that actually. I looked into it, but I think I am going to attempt to learn what I can on my own, and wait for Leopard to get the missing manual. I appreciate all of the suggestions guys, keep em coming!

coach_z · Feb 21, 2007

cerealkiller....did you get your username from the movie "hackers"? it sounds really familiar
-chris

CerealKiller · Feb 21, 2007

coach_z said:
cerealkiller....did you get your username from the movie "hackers"? it sounds really familiar
-chris

Yessir.