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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Desktop Hardware
Many questions from xperienced Windows user just got a Mac :)
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<blockquote data-quote="Fedorov" data-source="post: 182018"><p>Hi all (1st post),</p><p></p><p>Brief intro before I ask all you mac guru's a lot of simple questions if you don't mind...</p><p></p><p>Been wanting to get a media centre PC in my living room so I could watch divx/xvid epsidoes of my fave programs on my nice big 42" plasma tv, having looked around for months I just cannot justify the money needed to get something reasonable in a SMALL/QUIET box.</p><p></p><p>Figured the lovely Mac Mini (superdrive) model could do all that I wanted so I went out yesterday and bought one!!! I am very very pleased with it so far, configuration was easy, on the internet with my PC's wifi router in minutes, I installed VLC Media Player and can already play all movie formats I need, stream radio via iTunes and surf the net, love the interface already, not read any manuals, I'm a tecchy who just loves to work all this stuff out, so far no problems.</p><p></p><p>Questions please...</p><p></p><p>1) I'm behind a NAT router, currently use the excellent OutPost firewall on my PC, do I need a firewall on the mac? How do I control what programs are connected outbound etc??? Recommendations?</p><p></p><p>2) I'll be using my PC for emails, just pure surfing on the mac, again do I need an Anti-Virus? Recommendations please, no Symantec tho! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>3) Do I need to defrag the drive at all on the mac? If so, again please recommend a good tool for this, I know nothing about the mac tools compared to knowing almost every PC tool around! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>4) I'm using the bluetooth wireless keyboard/mouse, if I click the bluetooth icon on the desktop and turn "discoverable" to OFF will I lose my keyboard/mouse connection - for security I want it off.</p><p></p><p>5) I use Mozilla Firefox on my PC with lots of excellent extensions, I presume I can install the mac version of Firefox and will all my .xpi extensions just work the same?</p><p></p><p>6) Does the mac use a dreaded Registry like WindowsXP or is everything in nice prefs files (I suspect)?</p><p></p><p>7) I tweak every inch of my WindowsXP to get the best performance out of it, would I benefit at all with my mac mini if I was to partition the drive or change the size of the paging file or anything? Any good tweaks that help squeeze a bit more out of it?</p><p></p><p>Thanks all, I've probably got a lot more questions the more I use it, these are the ones I can think of for now <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>Regards,</p><p></p><p>Fedorov.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fedorov, post: 182018"] Hi all (1st post), Brief intro before I ask all you mac guru's a lot of simple questions if you don't mind... Been wanting to get a media centre PC in my living room so I could watch divx/xvid epsidoes of my fave programs on my nice big 42" plasma tv, having looked around for months I just cannot justify the money needed to get something reasonable in a SMALL/QUIET box. Figured the lovely Mac Mini (superdrive) model could do all that I wanted so I went out yesterday and bought one!!! I am very very pleased with it so far, configuration was easy, on the internet with my PC's wifi router in minutes, I installed VLC Media Player and can already play all movie formats I need, stream radio via iTunes and surf the net, love the interface already, not read any manuals, I'm a tecchy who just loves to work all this stuff out, so far no problems. Questions please... 1) I'm behind a NAT router, currently use the excellent OutPost firewall on my PC, do I need a firewall on the mac? How do I control what programs are connected outbound etc??? Recommendations? 2) I'll be using my PC for emails, just pure surfing on the mac, again do I need an Anti-Virus? Recommendations please, no Symantec tho! ;) 3) Do I need to defrag the drive at all on the mac? If so, again please recommend a good tool for this, I know nothing about the mac tools compared to knowing almost every PC tool around! :) 4) I'm using the bluetooth wireless keyboard/mouse, if I click the bluetooth icon on the desktop and turn "discoverable" to OFF will I lose my keyboard/mouse connection - for security I want it off. 5) I use Mozilla Firefox on my PC with lots of excellent extensions, I presume I can install the mac version of Firefox and will all my .xpi extensions just work the same? 6) Does the mac use a dreaded Registry like WindowsXP or is everything in nice prefs files (I suspect)? 7) I tweak every inch of my WindowsXP to get the best performance out of it, would I benefit at all with my mac mini if I was to partition the drive or change the size of the paging file or anything? Any good tweaks that help squeeze a bit more out of it? Thanks all, I've probably got a lot more questions the more I use it, these are the ones I can think of for now ;) Regards, Fedorov. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Desktop Hardware
Many questions from xperienced Windows user just got a Mac :)
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