2 things I need addressed

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Hey everyone.
I am a new student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. As part of my graphic design major, I was obligated to purchace a Macintosh G4 Powerbook. Needless to say, I love it.
I have some things I need brought to my attention, though. On the PC, I knew how to do all the maintenance things (Cookes, defragmenting, etc)..But I am clueless how to do this on the Mac
I have download 'Cocktail'... But I am just wondering which are the most important tasks that I need to run out of this program... and are there any that I SHOULDN'T run.

Also, a more advanced question...
There are some Windows programs that I absolutely need here at school, and the only way I would be able to run them is if I get Virtual PC and then install Windows XP Pro. on my system (G4 1.33 GHz powerbook 512 ram)
Does anyone have any experience with Virtual PC, and know how much of the hard drive to devote to it so that it optimally runs? (I am also considering buying an external 80 gig HD, so if that plays in somewhere, please include it.. i.e. installing Windows on the external HS)

Sorry for the lengthy message and thanks in advance
-Kevin
 
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repair permissions. After every software update, and about every 2 weeks: close all apps and log totally off. Log on, go in Finder, Applications. Utilities, Disk Utility. After the message -getting disk information- select volume (below the hard drive name -upper left corner). Just highlight it. Now look to the lower two things are there near the middle, verify permissions, repair permissions. Click repair permissions Also make sure you run cron tasks or use Mac Janitor, Finder, Applications. Utilities Terminal type (switching to root - superuser) sudo sh /etc/daily > this needs to be done /weekly (instead of daily) and monthly. again with all apps closed. VPC is very sluggish - I don't recommend it. Running an external hard drive is easy by firewire or USB2. Easy to mount and unmount in finder
 

rman


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If you use the current version of VPC (virtual PC) with XP, you will not be happy with the performance. XP is a dog when using VPC. You would be better off using either 2000 or 98 in VPC. The next version should be out soon. You might check the M$ site.

What are the PC software that you must have?
 
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Also make sure you run cron tasks or use Mac Janitor, Finder, Applications. Utilities Terminal type (switching to root - superuser) sudo sh /etc/daily > this needs to be done /weekly (instead of daily) and monthly. again with all apps closed


???

I'm going to need a little more information on how to do the cron stuff. TOTALLY new to me.

About VPC... I will be using the most up to date version of that, and the newest version of XP Professional. Even if you devote over 20 gigs of space to VPC and XP-Pro, it will still be sluggish? The art department here at the school uses it to run Autocad2005 and they say when they devoted 15 gigs to WinXP that it ran pretty well..

TIA
-Kevin
 
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Just download something like Onyx which can be found by going to this site http://www.macupdate.com/ and searching for it. It'll have all the stuff you are looking for and you don't have to worry about cron's at all. Wait until you are a more advanced user before getting into the terminal stuff and no need to worry when they have GUI tools that will do it for you and is exactly the same.
 
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MoltenLava

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Do NOT repair permission very two weeks. Bad advice. It's like asking people to replace the tires on their car every two months. It's silly.

Believe it or not, rebooting really helps to bring back the speed of bogged down machine. You should reboot every two weeks, not repair permission.
 
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Buy Virtual PC 7, it's supposed to be 30% faster.
 
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Matt

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I haven't heard any good things about it. Try see if you can find some reviews on the net.
 
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They like *JUST* started shipping it, mere hours ago.
 
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PinkPhishDoors

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Virtual PC is now owned by Microsoft. < just a fact
There are usually many alternatives to PC programs, try googling it.
 
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anarkhy said:
Virtual PC is now owned by Microsoft. < just a fact
That will not affect the quality of the product.
 
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PinkPhishDoors

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Absolute Zero said:
That will not affect the quality of the product.

First of all, i said it was a fact nothing more.
Second of all it could affect the product, do you really want Virtual PC to turn out like other Microcrap products ie: Office XP (which is the WORST program i have ever used)
 
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anarkhy said:
First of all, i said it was a fact nothing more.
Second of all it could affect the product, do you really want Virtual PC to turn out like other Microcrap products ie: Office XP (which is the WORST program i have ever used)
...it is a fact that has already been stated and did not need repeating.

Second, c'mon, Microcrap? How original.

And, Office XP beats Office 2004:mac any day, its faster and easier to use.

Just drop it, mmk?
 
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PinkPhishDoors

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I don't use Office:mac, but I (personally) think office XP sucks, i think it is the most confusing/buggy program out there. could it possibly be more confusing? I didn't see microsoft owning it already be stated. And, yeah the microcrap is a little weak.
 
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anarkhy said:
I don't use Office:mac, but I (personally) think office XP sucks, i think it is the most confusing/buggy program out there. could it possibly be more confusing? I didn't see microsoft owning it already be stated. And, yeah the microcrap is a little weak.

Well, obviously you never tried OpenOffice on the Mac...THAT really is crap. Even Apple Works seems to be better than OO.
 
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PinkPhishDoors

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I have not tried open office on a mac but i do use it on SuSE linux ALL THE TIME, and it is great. I think that once you get the hang of it, and you are familiar with the KDE interface, it is fantastic!
 
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I personally think Office:mac 2004 is a great program. Completely compatible and better to use than its Windows brothers.

BTW MUMacUser, welcome to the board and congrats on picking an awesome school to attend. Half my family went there starting with my great aunt about 70 years ago. I had an uncle who was dean of admissions there for awhile. :)
 
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When you get VPC, make sure you get version 7.. It's supposed to be (as someone previously mentioned) 30% faster, and it supports native 3d video cards...So...Get VPC 7
 
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anarkhy said:
I have not tried open office on a mac but i do use it on SuSE linux ALL THE TIME, and it is great. I think that once you get the hang of it, and you are familiar with the KDE interface, it is fantastic!

I agree with you, it's great on Linux... But on Mac OS X it just simply sucks. It doesn't even run under Aqua, but needs X11 to run.
 

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