Hello everyone

Hi everyone

My name is Dave and I am considering moving over to the Mac platform.

I currently use Ubuntu Linux which is very good, but my laptop is becoming very dated and is quite slow. I looked around for a new laptop but they are all much the same, and quite mediocre too. The only laptop that I really do like is the Macbook Pro and it's offered in the size that I like - the 13in version which is quite compact and easy to put in a bag without too much trouble.

I saw this object of beauty in the John Lewis department store here in the UK, and it's absolutely lovely. Not only is it fast, but it has an air of quality that I've not seen in any other machine.

However, I do have some anxieties. Much of the software that I use - Gnucash, Dropbox, etc. - is already available in Mac format, so I'm not too concerned about those. I do have some questions though. Would somebody be so kind as to offer me some advice?

My questions are:

1. I currently stream music wirelessly from my laptop to my Hi-Fi using UPNP, and this works really well. I prefer to stick with this protocol because my Hi-Fi is designed to use it. I use Asset uPnP running under Wine in Ubuntu, and this can also be done successfully in a Mac environment. What is the name of the Windows emulator in Mac, and does Asset uPnP work on Mac?

2. I do have an i-pod classic, but prefer to use my Samsung MP3 player, as I prefer the sound quality on it. Is there a way of syncing it to i-tunes? I understand that by mounting it as a USB drive, you can drag and drop tunes to the device that way. Also, are there any alternatives to i-tunes for the Mac that I can use for syncing devices?

3. I prefer to remain on the Google platform for email, web browsing and calendering and intend to download the Google Chrome browser. This is because I have an Android mobile phone, and all the data syncs automatically to that device. Is this likely to create problems with the apple ecosystem on my laptop?

4. Has anyone used Sun's Virtual Box for running other OSs? I wouldn't mind putting Ubuntu onto the VB - just in case I have a need for nostalgia!

Sorry to ask so many questions on my first post, but I don't quite know where to start and any offers of assistance would be much appreciated.

Dave

Welcome to the Forum. And, no problem with all of the questions. I don't have direct answers for any of them since Ubuntu is the only item in your listed software that I have actually used (other than Wine on Ubuntu).

Feel pretty confident, regardless that you can do everything that you have described. Suggest you tour around the Forum and use the search function. You will probably find that most of this has been asked and answered in the past.

EDIT: Just reread your post and realized I had missed the part about Virtual Box. Yes it runs quite well on Macs (haven't tried it since I updated to Lion, but haven't heard of any problems either.
Other options are Fusion VMware or Parallels

Many thanks for that, Razormac. I've ordered my machine now and am waiting for it to be delivered. I'm getting quite excited

One thing I meant to ask: does Youtube work in a mac?

Hi

Regarding your questions, not to sure of no 1 since i stream to my ps3 using medialink, nor no2 since i hate itunes.

But regarding no 3 i can definitely say you'll have no issues, since i use this same system myself, re no 4 i have run both ubuntu and XP in VB no problems

Hope that helps a little

edit just realised that medialink uses upnp so no problems with no 1 either

ursus262 said:

Many thanks for that, Razormac. I've ordered my machine now and am waiting for it to be delivered. I'm getting quite excited

One thing I meant to ask: does Youtube work in a mac?

Click to expand...

YouTube works quite well on all of my Macs

ursus262 said:

2. I do have an i-pod classic, but prefer to use my Samsung MP3 player, as I prefer the sound quality on it. Is there a way of syncing it to i-tunes? I understand that by mounting it as a USB drive, you can drag and drop tunes to the device that way. Also, are there any alternatives to i-tunes for the Mac that I can use for syncing devices

Click to expand...

manage a non-ipod mp3 player with itunes with a mac - CNET MP3 players Forums especially read the first link to another message at the top..

ursus262 said:

3. I prefer to remain on the Google platform for email, web browsing and calendering and intend to download the Google Chrome browser. This is because I have an Android mobile phone, and all the data syncs automatically to that device. Is this likely to create problems with the apple ecosystem on my laptop?

Click to expand...

It shouldn't cause problems

ursus262 said:

4. Has anyone used Sun's Virtual Box for running other OSs? I wouldn't mind putting Ubuntu onto the VB - just in case I have a need for nostalgia!
Dave

Click to expand...

Virtual Box works (I haven't tried it myself but use Parallels to use windows games, there are also a number of other virtualising for the whole OS and also Wine and Wine based programs for mac

ursus262 said:

1. I currently stream music wirelessly from my laptop to my Hi-Fi using UPNP, and this works really well. I prefer to stick with this protocol because my Hi-Fi is designed to use it. I use Asset uPnP running under Wine in Ubuntu, and this can also be done successfully in a Mac environment. What is the name of the Windows emulator in Mac, and does Asset uPnP work on Mac?

Click to expand...

Take a look here to see if something gets the job done for you.

ursus262 said:

2. I do have an i-pod classic, but prefer to use my Samsung MP3 player, as I prefer the sound quality on it. Is there a way of syncing it to i-tunes? I understand that by mounting it as a USB drive, you can drag and drop tunes to the device that way. Also, are there any alternatives to i-tunes for the Mac that I can use for syncing devices?

Click to expand...

I suppose this depends how you sync content to it. If it shows up as a mass storage device, it will do so in OS X as well. If you want to use an app, look into Songbird which may have support.

ursus262 said:

3. I prefer to remain on the Google platform for email, web browsing and calendering and intend to download the Google Chrome browser. This is because I have an Android mobile phone, and all the data syncs automatically to that device. Is this likely to create problems with the apple ecosystem on my laptop?

Click to expand...

Chrome is the same application across platforms.

ursus262 said:

4. Has anyone used Sun's Virtual Box for running other OSs? I wouldn't mind putting Ubuntu onto the VB - just in case I have a need for nostalgia!

Click to expand...

I use VB extensively here without issue. The only issue you might run into is the lack of decent 3D support. As such, you'll either have issues running 3D interfaces (such as Unity 3D or GNOME 3) or they'll be really sluggish.

ursus262 said:

1. I currently stream music wirelessly from my laptop to my Hi-Fi using UPNP, and this works really well. I prefer to stick with this protocol because my Hi-Fi is designed to use it. I use Asset uPnP running under Wine in Ubuntu, and this can also be done successfully in a Mac environment. What is the name of the Windows emulator in Mac, and does Asset uPnP work on Mac?

Click to expand...

There is more than one port of WINE to OS X. I have no experience with "Asset uPnP", but I'd imagine if it works in WINE on Windows, it shouldn't be any different on OS X. Since OS X is BSD-based, most *NIX software ports easily. So, pretty much anything you ran in Linux can either be found already compiled or you can do it yourself.

2. I do have an i-pod classic, but prefer to use my Samsung MP3 player, as I prefer the sound quality on it. Is there a way of syncing it to i-tunes?

Click to expand...

Not directly, although DoubleTwist was designed to help with this.

I understand that by mounting it as a USB drive, you can drag and drop tunes to the device that way. Also, are there any alternatives to i-tunes for the Mac that I can use for syncing devices?

Click to expand...

That sync with non-Apple music players? Not sure, but there are some great alternatives to iTunes that you should check out, most namely, Songbird.

3. I prefer to remain on the Google platform for email, web browsing and calendering and intend to download the Google Chrome browser. This is because I have an Android mobile phone, and all the data syncs automatically to that device. Is this likely to create problems with the apple ecosystem on my laptop?

Click to expand...

No, although you should be aware that Chrome consumes battery power a lot quicker than Safari. Although I prefer Chrome, I generally use Safari because my battery runtime is a LOT longer.

4. Has anyone used Sun's Virtual Box for running other OSs? I wouldn't mind putting Ubuntu onto the VB - just in case I have a need for nostalgia!

Click to expand...

I use VMWare's Fusion. But from what I understand, yes, VirtualBox works quite well on OS X too.

Sorry to ask so many questions on my first post, but I don't quite know where to start and any offers of assistance would be much appreciated.

Dave

Click to expand...

No worries, we were all new once! Welcome to Mac-Forums.com

cwa107 said:

No, although you should be aware that Chrome consumes battery power a lot quicker than Safari. Although I prefer Chrome, I generally use Safari because my battery runtime is a LOT longer.

Click to expand...

Are you still noticing this with GPU acceleration disabled? I'm curious to know how acceleration affects battery life.

vansmith said:

Are you still noticing this with GPU acceleration disabled? I'm curious to know how acceleration affects battery life.

Click to expand...

Absolutely. Even with GfxCardStatus forcing the GPU setting to integrated-only, it still cuts about 2 hours out of my typical 6-7 hours of runtime. I also notice a great deal of heat generation that isn't the norm for my machine.

Wow, that's quite significant. I can only speculate that this is caused by Chrome's elaborate process framework but even if it is, that's terrible. I'll have to experiment with that.

Thank you all so much for your advice and kind support. I'm very pleased with my MacBook Pro, and it works extremely well. I've installed the following:

Google Chrome
PdaNet, for USB tethering to my Android phone when I'm travelling
Dropbox for Mac
Libre Office
Evernote
Picasa
Wunderlist
Yazsoft Playback upnp server (which works perfectly and is highly recommended)

Incidentally, I haven't noticed any excessive battery drain using Google Chrome, and I tend to get the full seven hours of battery life. Just my feedback as I know some of you mentioned above that using this may drain the battery more quickly.

Once again, thanks for your help

Great!
Enjoy your new Mac and welcome to the family.