questions about Mac OS

Hi,

I am new in this community and have decided to switch to Mac. I have a few questions about the OS and its applications, so if you have time, please answer me. I have never seen Mac in person and didn`t use it so maybe I will ask stupid questions, don`t laugh.
I want to buy a MacBook when Leopard comes out.

1) Is there a video player which can play all major video files? I don`t like to use multiple players. I know about flip4mac, so can quicktime open all video files then? Or is VLC better?

2) I have seen the Leopard preview, it has that new software for viewing videos/music/photos and DVD. Do you think we will be able to open any video file through this?
EDIT: sorry, I thought it was new, but it is only updated: Front Row

3)How long does it take for Tiger alone to load completely?

4)I am little worried about writing software (until office2008 for Mac is out). Is the one included in Mac good enough? Or do you use "Pages"? I heard it doesn`t have bold/italics support and spelling check.

5)does software usually load quickly? For example photoshop..it loads slow in windows xp. And what about Quicktime, is it quick?

6) What`s up with the issue of overheating MacBooks? Does it get really that hot?

7) In Windows I can never get rid of the traces of old uninstalled software. Is MacOS "tidy"? I like when I know exactly where is what and that it`s clean of useless files from past. Is it better to use "appdelete"?

8) why does itunes make copies of music files when played, what is the point of that?

9) in which formats do you save pictures and text files on Mac? jpeg and doc or something else?


Thank you very much,

Marko

angevil said:

1) Is there a video player which can play all major video files? I don`t like to use multiple players. I know about flip4mac, so can quicktime open all video files then? Or is VLC better?

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VLC is good for playing all major files. I have Quicktime paying most files too, by installing additional codecs available on the Web. But VLC is pretty standard. Flip4Mac Free Edition is simply good for viewing WMV in a web browser. It has no other real use. WMV files are not friendly with Macs, and they are not a standard, so accept that Flip4Mac might not always doa satisfactory job, but it does it.

2) I have seen the Leopard preview, it has that new software for viewing videos/music/photos and DVD. Do you think we will be able to open any video file through this?

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What new software are you talking about? Do you have a link? I haven't heard of this. If you mean iLife, that's a different package of software.

3)How long does it take for Tiger alone to load completely?

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When booting, depending on your processor speed, hard disk speed, apps that you've set to launch at startup and Disk usage (how much free space) and disk health - anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute and a half is the healthy range. I hardly fully shut down. I find sleep mode a good option.

4)I am little worried about writing software (until office2008 for Mac is out). Is the one included in Mac good enough? Or do you use "Pages"? I heard it doesn`t have bold/italics support and spelling check.

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Office for Mac is an awesome app. It has some Mac-only features and is actually quite different from it's Windows counterpart. But still similar enough so you don't have to relearn. Office 2008 is the same as the current release excepting the major graphical overhaul. Word is fine as it is.
I personally use Pages for documents because most of the stuff I write will be seen by others. So they have to look good, and Pages is great if Layout is an issue for you. It makes beautiful documents really easily. But it lacks some of the "power features" you might find in word. I can't really think of one, because Pages has all the features I ever use and ever will use. There's a trial version preloaded on new Macs.

5)does software usually load quickly? For example photoshop..it loads slow in windows xp. And what about Quicktime, is it quick?

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Photoshop generally loads slow, on any machine, anywhere in the world, because it is a huge program that costs a thousand bucks. So it has all thos plugins that need to load.
Program load speeds depend on your processor speed (the intel core duos are pretty nice I hear) and you RAM. Get as much of it as you can afford. You can always buy it cheaper later and put it in yourself, it's quite easy.

6) What`s up with the issue of overheating MacBooks? Does it get really that hot?

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Macs get hot in your Lap. So it's not laptop. It's a notebook.

7) In Windows I can never get rid of the traces of old uninstalled software. Is MacOS "tidy"? I like when I know exactly where is what and that it`s clean of useless files from past. Is it better to use "appdelete"?

Click to expand...

Mac OS is tidy to a certain extent. Old software does leave traces, but NEVER, and I say never, noticeable. It's not like Windows where you'll have folders in the way. Apps are organized differently on Macs. You just have the App file (similar to the EXE file of a Windows App) in the Applications folder and the rest is magically invisible. To install an App, drag the file out of the disk image into the Apps folder... to uninstall, just drag to the trash. If you want to be super-clean, there's a program called AppZapper (google it) that removes programs the clean way. But I haven't noticed differences between both ways.

8) why does itunes make copies of music files when played, what is the point of that?

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iTunes stores music in it's own folder. You can turn off the option. But the point is that you should organize your music from within iTunes, not by moving around folders. Let iTunes do it for you, and delete the original file. It's simpler, easier and more enjoyable that way. The same goes for iPhoto btw. Never go meddle with the actual files unless utterly and bitterly necessary, just use the program.

9) in which formats do you save pictures and text files on Mac? jpeg and doc or something else?

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Text files are actually TXT by standard, even in Windows. You mean Word Documents. Those are DOC, yes. Images can be Jpeg, Gif, Png, Tiff whatever. These are all standard file formats supported across all computers and operating systems.

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If you still have trouble, just ask your heart out. I'm here. We're all here .

Thank you very much for a fast reply!

I thought that media software in Leopard was new, but it is only updated: Front Row


Marko

Quote:
4)I am little worried about writing software (until office2008 for Mac is out). Is the one included in Mac good enough? Or do you use "Pages"? I heard it doesn`t have bold/italics support and spelling check.

I don't know who told you that Pages has no SpellCheck and no support for Bold or Italics. I am using pages as I type this and all that is there. All proper OSX Applications have built in Spell Check System Wide.

Hope that helps. Yogi did a great job with the rest of your questions.

Missed one, Photoshop takes a while to open on any system, but I find it a lot faster loading on say my iMac G5 than my typical Intel P4 or AMD 64 PC using XP Pro. Pages loads in 2 bounces of the dock icon which is 1-2 seconds.

Front Row, ah.

Well it's standard with Leopard, true, but it's there on all new Macs, even if you buy one with Tiger on it. You just can't put it on old macs for the time being.

Front Row won't change anything software-wise that will let you play all videos, it basically uses Quicktime to play all it's files, and iTunes for Music (iPhoto for Images and DVD-Player for DVDs....) So front row isn't really new software, just a nice "mask" or what you'd call a Front-End for the digital media on your Mac.

On item 3, here is a single data point - my start up times. My PowerMac G5 goes for me pushing the power on switch to a fully functioning Mac OS X desktop in about 35 seconds. It is one of the fastest booting OS' I have seen.

On item 4, I would encourage you to also check out NeoOffice, the Mac'ified version of OpenOffice. It is very good and very free! It has excellent equivalents for Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

On item 9, you use the same graphics file formats on a Mac that you use on Windows (and Linux and Solaris and just about everthing else!). Everything is fully supported: jpg, gif, png, tiff, bmp, etc.

Take the plunge. Mac OS X is head and shoulders above Windows XP, and the honest truth is that most reviews I have read to date on Windows Vista say that it is at best a hollow echo of Mac OS X, and at worst... well, much worse.