List of Macnoob questions

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Hello,

Recently I have been in the market for a compact laptop. I never had any intention of buying an Apple product, but when I started reading reviews and comparing price points - well heck, they really are a good value.

I purchased my brand new Macbook from the Apple store on Saturday. From another vendor I bought enough RAM to max it out and a 250GB hard drive (just couldn't justify the eye-popping expenditures Apple wanted for these upgrades).

I have a few questions. I can't wait for my Macbook to get here!

1. It has a mini-DVI plug. I have a monitor that I purchased that has DVI in. I gather that I need to buy the mini-DVI to DVI converter in order to hook it up to this monitor. Will it just work, or is there something else I need to know?

2. I've got a plain jane logitech wireless keyboard and mouse on my computer desk at home. If I plug the USB doohickey into my new Macbook's USB port, will it "just work"? Or do I need a Mac-specific wireless desktop? (I'm sure I can figure out how to remap keys and all).

3. I'd like to use my old desktop PC (unfortunately, it's infected with Vista) like an external hard drive. If they are both on the same network, will Time Machine back up to this PC automatically?

4. Similar to the last question - I'd like to share files between the two PCs in a more ad-hoc manner. Is it as simple as sharing the folder on the Windows machine and my Macbook will know what to do? I'll be able to read and write to that folder, given the right permissions?

5. Do I really need Parallels or VMware? I'm going to try to get by without it if I can. I just wondered if there were any big reasons that people felt they really had to have those.

Thanks! Look forward to hanging around here as I make myself at home in Leopard!
 
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27" iMac 2.7GHz Core i5, iPhone 6, iPad Air 2, 4th gen Apple TV
1. it should come with a DVI adapter.

2. Most peripherals I've plugged into my Mac have just worked, so I imagine a basic keyboard/mouse will work also.

3. I don't think that'll work nor is it a good idea to trust your backup to an already old HDD. You would be better off getting a cheap USB external IMHO.

4. You can set up a network between your Mac and PC to file share. I did it with mine when I first got my Mac and still had my desktop PC

5. That really depends on how you would use Windows on your Mac. For me, I have a few programs/files that I need to access frequently enough and along side Mac programs recently that made getting Fusioin was justifiable. But for over a year prior, I didn't use Windows enough to need it and just bootcamped in when necessary.
 
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12" Apple PowerBook G4 (1.5GHz)
You can't use another machine (ie, a network volume) as a Time Machine drive. You need either a real external hard drive, or a Time Capsule.
 
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about the HDD...if you format the hard drive it would be perfectly fine, but i'm not sure if Time Machine detects internal IDE or SATA drives. you could try it i guess ;)
 
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macbook/iphone/ipod nano/ipod shuffle
If you got a macbook you have to buy the mini dvi to dvi connecter
 
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Hello,
3. I'd like to use my old desktop PC (unfortunately, it's infected with Vista)

Excellent! A true Laugh-Out-Loud moment!
 

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