Just a hello from a soon to be new Mac user

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I thought I'd say hi. I hope this is an appropriate place to post since i couldn't see a specific welcome thread. I have recently ordered myself a refurbished Macbook Unibody (late 2009) as a device to play with to learn Mac OSX try it out for coding etc.

It will be my first Apple product ever. My husband has a Macbook pro and also uses both Mac and Windows devices and laptops and he enjoys having the best of both worlds. On the rare occasions I've tried to use his Mac I haven't a clue what I'm doing so I'm sure there'll be a few silly questions until I get used to it. I'm currently fairly heavily embedded in the Windows Ecosystem both at work and home and I don't plan to switch totally from PC's/Windows (I LOVE my Surface Pro 3 and the Macbook could not replace the functions I use it for) but to use them both for their strengths which can't be a bad thing. :)

I work as a scientist and information manager, between bioinformaticians who run Linux, avoid windows if at all possible and run it it on a Mac or dual booted on a linux PC if they have to, and lab scientists who only have access to Windows 7 PC's. I try to make tools that work on Windows for the lab scientists to use, so the Mac is to help me with that (coding in Python since that's really what I'm starting to get familiar with) to help me understand the other side of the argument so to speak..! And also I'm just curious anyway as Macs are interesting... and now, soon I will have one to learn about and looking forward to it.
 
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Welcome to the forum! Come back you have any questions! You might want to read this thread for some very good advice on making that move.
 
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Welcome to the forum! Come back you have any questions! You might want to read this thread for some very good advice on making that move.

Cheers. Some good advice in that thread, I'm not about to load windows straight on the mac as that's not the reason I got it, so I'm planning to try using it as it is straight out of the box so I can see what it's like the way Apple intended just like that thread suggests. Then I can be more objective in Mac Vs Windows arguments lol. I'm reasonably technical so I'm fine with tinkering if i have to which is probably why I'm OK with Windows but I'm hoping that the Mac will be a foray into a new world. :)
I'll have to get an Apple ID now.. a first for me.

Well... I'll have to wait for the Mac to arrive first - I definitely wouldn't be this excited about a 2009 Windows laptop that's for sure...lol
 

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Welcome aboard. Bring on the silly questions. There are days like today when I think those are the only questions I'm qualified to answer. :Evil:
 
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Yes Welcome MacMoon!

And there are no silly questions - just moments of comic relief! We have all been there and done that .... some of us still are...me included at times. :D

All humor aside, this is a great place to learn. Feel free to search the forum and then ask away.

Lisa
 
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Well I got my MacBook, I was happy to see that I was upgraded to a 2010 2.4Ghz model rather than the 2009 2.26 I actually ordered. It's running 8GB RAM and a 250GB harddrive which is probably the original one, as is the battery probably original. I updated it to El Capitan as well from Yosemite.

This is the report on the battery. It looks rarely used, but probably original. Using it yesterday it seemed to offer around 4 hours of life which I didn't think was too bad runnign the screen at about 70% brightness and websurfing mostly.
1934389_10154520053578957_5144859447236809441_n.jpg

So as a noob to MacOS I have a lot to learn, especially what seems like millions of keyboard shortcuts lol. I kept pressing eject expecting it to be a delete button lol. Also it's going to take a while to get used to looking right at the top of the screen for the app options even when something is not full screen rather than at the window itself. Took me a while to figure out how to add accounts on email/ calendar because of that lol I totally forgot that the options where elsewhere to where the window was displaying!

So far I'm about 50:50. Some things I like and some things will take some getting used to. I'm expecting to be agnostic about Windows vs Mac and to play both for their strengths to get the best of both worlds, like i said I'm not expecting to switch but likely I'll prefer using the Macbook for some things... just not sure what yet :)
 
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Well, you can save battery by turning the screen brightness down while on battery. Let it be as low as you can stand. The backlight eats up a lot of power. Also, if you are on battery and not using BT or WiFi, you can turn them off, too. Obviously, if you need them, use them. At almost six years old, your battery is in pretty good condition. All batteries with Lithium Ion chemistry start to decay two years after manufacture, slowly at first, then at a faster rate later. You may want to start saving pennies for the replacement battery if you plan to keep this Mac running a couple of years from now. From the report the previous owner was gentle with it, with only 199 cycles over that 6 years, so it's been on mains power most of the time.

Welcome to the Mac world. The learning curve can be steep at times, but in the end, you'll probably be happy you made the change.
 
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Thanks Jake. Well I guess we'll see :) Bearing in mind it's age this MacBook is running pretty well I just have to give it time to open things as it's a lot slower than my other computers which are SSD based ( and of course also at least 3 years newer so I won't count that against it). I haven't tried running anything especially hard on it. I have an Adobe CC subscription so presumably I can download Lightroom and Photoshop. I think it's OK on multiple devices as long as I don't try to use it in two places at once (it's already installed on my desktop PC and Surface Pro tablet).
 
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Welcome to the Mac side. I've made money from both Windows and Mac and so prefer the Mac OS. Now, Apple's design, especially of their laptops, is pissing me off, but I digress.

I have had many occasions to offer the following so keep it handy:

David A Cox youtube videos / start with?
https://www.youtube.com/user/TechTalkAmerica

from Apple support itself On Windows I did ______. On Mac do ________.
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT2514

simple, lengthy chart: in Windows ______ / in Mac _______
http://www.macworld.com/article/2039343/switch-to-mac-translating-windows-to-os-x.html

another Win>Mac
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quick-guide-using-mac-windows-users

comparing uses in a bit more in-depth
http://allthingsd.com/20080702/some-general-tips-for-switch-to-mac-from-windows/

probably too basic for you, but in case not ...
http://www.wikihow.com/Switch-from-Windows-to-Mac-OS-X

from lynda.com - one of the best sources for video training on just about anything. this is free and just a snip, but the text has some very good stuff
http://www.lynda.com/articles/how-to-switch-from-windows-to-mac

basic terminology comparisons (translations)
http://www.imore.com/switching-mac-converting-windows-terminology-mac
 
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Thanks for this. I already found a few took me a while to find the screenshot one, I'm a heavy user of the excellent snipping tool in Win 7+ but found grab which is pretty good, it is annoying that it doesn't save as anything other than a tiff though and you have to go to Preview to change it to something else. Is there another tool that does a similar job ?

Now I've enabled tap to click on the trackpad it's better as well, though as the swipe gestures are so sensitive I often have stuff flying all over the screen inadvertently lol. I've only actually tried to touch the screen (as I'm used to on my Surface pro) once though so I guess that's a plus!

I am finding I use the Mac when just sat on the Sofa for surfing etc. I haven't got much on it to do anything else. I don't want to invest heavily in software unless I feel I will actually use it. I have to say I'm keen on the direction MSFT is taking Win 10 and it's devices (like I said I'm a Surface fan), but as I'm a techy geek really I'm wanting to find out about other systems so that's why I got the mac to learn about it and see if I can find a niche for it in my world (I have PC, xbox, surface and Windows phone which all fit nicely together so the Mac is a bit the odd one out being from an ecosystem i never set foot in before - I just wanted to give it a go, and keep an open mind)
 
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Thanks for this. I already found a few took me a while to find the screenshot one, I'm a heavy user of the excellent snipping tool in Win 7+ but found grab which is pretty good, it is annoying that it doesn't save as anything other than a tiff though and you have to go to Preview to change it to something else. Is there another tool that does a similar job ?

Shift-Command-3 will take an image (in PNG format by default -- this can be changed if you prefer something else) of the entire screen (or both if you have more than one monitor)

Shift-Command-4 lets you select an area of the screen, and again saves it to a folder you have specified (that can be changed) in PNG format.

Shift-Command-4 and then the spacebar takes a PNG shot of the selected window.
 
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Thanks Chas. I had found out about shiift command 4 but it took me a while to find what it did with the screenshot, is there a way to change the save location? I eventually discovered it on the desktop!
 

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There is a very good, free, general maintenance program called Onyx. Which can be found here. Make sure to download the version for El Capitan. After launch, it will verify the hard drive for errors then present a number of options. Select Parameters and make sure the General ​tab is selected. One of the options there is to change the save location for screenshots.
 
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Thanks for that I've downloaded it. The way of installing non-app store software confused me at first I couldn't understand why "Skype" was appearing as a drive until someone explained that that's how they're installed on Macs, like a disc ISO on Windows would appear. I get it now I think, I just have to drag the app into the applications folder then eject the "drive".

Currently installing some Python Modules using MacPort which was a bit of a mission of downloading and installing various bits it needed - It's still installing a module as I type this. This poor Mac is probably wondering what hit it as I doubt it got used for anything much before judging by it's condition!
 

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I probably should have mentioned the installation method. It is common although there are programs that have installers similar to the ones that are used in Windows. When you have a moment you may find this thread on installing software helpful. The first three posts are especially helpful.

When you run Onyx it will ask for the admin password and start verifying the disk. Then you will see a help screen with the options behind it.
 
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Thanks for that. I will get used to it, it's just some things are similar and some things are VERY different lol.

I'll leave the disk verifying until the installation that is currently running has finished, this poor thing is struggling a little with everything I'm throwing at it. (3x Safari tabs, Terminal window running python installation, and I've been flicking through an external HDD looking at stuff too. She's getting a little hot under the collar now I can feel it under my left hand, however the fan is still silent... which is a MASSIVE improvement over my 2010 Dell studio i5 laptop, mind you that one was a bad one for fan noise, my hubby had a slightly older Dell Core 2 duo like this one and his laptop was always much quieter than mine, the Mac still beats it though.
 

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Sounds like you have things well in hand. you can cancel the verification in Onyx if you like. I usually don't since I usually only run it when the machine is misbehaving a bit.

The next time I have to use Terminal you get to to talk me off the ledge:). Despite the best efforts of certain forum denizens around here I still dislike Terminal and can't talk myself into using it regularly.
 
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Sounds like you have things well in hand. you can cancel the verification in Onyx if you like. I usually don't since I usually only run it when the machine is misbehaving a bit.

The next time I have to use Terminal you get to to talk me off the ledge:). Despite the best efforts of certain forum denizens around here I still dislike Terminal and can't talk myself into using it regularly.

TBH I don't really know what I'm doing with it (I only know a few commands even in the Windows DOS prompt terminal) but I wanted to see if some scripts I wrote in python which work on Windows will also work on Mac OSX so I'm trying to install the bits I need to do it (flying by the seat of my pants really and googling everything!) THis is one big reason I bought the Mac, to learn about these things in this environment as well as Windows, since people seemed to be telling me that coding was easier on MAc... I'm not so sure It was way easier to install WinPython and the module I needed on Windows 7 - but that's probably because the WinPYthon installer developers did a brilliant job and that distribution contained nearly everything I needed, to code what I need to do.
 

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