First Day Observations & Questions

Ok, so finally, I am typing this on my new Macbook!

I LOVE it so far. Took it out of the box and it looked just like new (it was a refurb). Immediatly I installed 10.49 and all the updates it suggested.

Next I uninstalled word, garageband, some idea organizing thing, imoviehd and thats it so far. I have 62.89 GB free of 80GB on my hard drive. The 1GB memory isnt slowing me down in the least.

I am AMAZED at how quiet the Macbook is, not a peep out of it. The isight has suprisingly good image quality. The only thing I noticed is that when i put in dvd, its a little noisy, although I hear this is normal.

I plan to run delocalizer and get rid of the languages I dont need, install main menu, install open office, install adium, get some widgets, and hopefully some more things if any of you have reccomendations =)

I dont mind safari, but I much prefer firefox. Also, I noticed there it no "maxamize", I can make the window big, but I can still see the dock at the bottom. Is that as big as it gets? Can I remove safari from the dock so I dont have to look at it? Also, what programs do you guys reccomend that I uninstall?

Anyone thinking of buying a refurb, I'd be all for it, this thing is georgeous, looks brand new. Thanks for reading and I look foward to everyone's responses!

Welcome to the fold, XMARLTONX.
There is no "maximize" like you're accustomed to in Windows.
Drag the window to the size you want, using the right bottom corner. Next time you open it, it should remember that setting (after that, the 'maximize' button WILL make it to the max size).
As far as programs to uninstall, really don't uninstall anything - the only exceptions I made were with Garageband - as you did - (it's of no use to me, I'm no recording artist, podcaster, etc etc) and the game/MS Office demos.
You can remove any app from the dock simply by dragging it to the desktop. Watch it "poof" away, as we call it, in a little cloud of smoke
You can place an app IN the dock the same way..drag it from Finder to the dock.
Monolingual, Onyx and The Unarchiver (much better than the built in functionality) are must haves for me.

Cool thanks for the tips. I am running delocalizer right now.

Is your DVD drive a little noisy when you first put a disc in?

Congrats on the new Mac, XMARLTONX!

On the noisy DVD, yes mine is noisy in comparison with other machines I've had. It works fine otherwise.

I would recommend that you hold off on loading a lot of software, and spend a few weeks "forcing you to use apple's default software like safari. I did this and I found that after a short learning curve it actually prefer alot of apples apps.

Yeah, my DVD is a little noisey at first, loading up the DVD info etc. But so is my DVD player hooked up to my TV as it loads up and reads the disc...

Welcome to Mac-Forums and congrats on the the new Mac! I'm waiting in huge anticipation for a used (practically brand new) iBook I bought off a fellow forumite. And by brand new, I mean his mom used it, so it's like buying a car off some one's grandma. lol

I personally think Safari is the best browser out there. No other "does it" like Safari does. The only thing I didn't like about it was the lack of plug-ins, specifically a "session saver." I would rather have my browser open with the last pages I was viewing. This is why I used Firefox. Except, however, since v2.0 was released, I've had nothing but problems with it on both OS X and WinXp.

I can't wait! Reading posts like this one makes me wanta mine even more and I get jealous of people like you. I just can't wait to get it!

Congrats on your purchase. Looks like you definitely did your homework before buying the Macbook. You seem to be a step ahead of every other switcher, and that's definitely a good thing

Sachsr1 said:

I would recommend that you hold off on loading a lot of software, and spend a few weeks "forcing you to use apple's default software like safari. I did this and I found that after a short learning curve it actually prefer alot of apples apps.

Click to expand...

The only default Apple apps that have better alternatives are Safari and Mail. To be honest, I much rather prefer Firefox and Thunderbird. Just get appropriate Mac themes and they'll fit right in. :black:

I find some apps better, but I think it's important to atleast learn how to use them

You'll probably need StuffIt Expander sooner or later so you might as well get it now. It's free but there's other versions too. It's sorta like winzip.

EDIT...looks like unarchiver might be a better alternative to StuffIt Expander, which is news to me .

Oh yeah you may want to get windows media player if you like watching videos off the web

Some other apps which I find indispensible:

VLC (plays videos)
QTAmateur (also plays videos, but is more like quicktime and you can run fullscreen unlike non-pro quicktime)
Cyberduck (FTP client if you do that sort of thing...I do)

I find that most of the default Apple apps are pretty good; I use Mail and Safari rather then Thunderbird/Firefox and I come from a Linux background. Other apps I find not so good, at least for my purposes. Preview is a good all-around default picture/pdf viewer, iPhoto is a pretty okay picture manager, but I like to take full control so I use Photoshop with it's file manager. Then again, Photoshop is a commercial app that I know fairly well.

iPhoto is good for doing stuff with pics I take with the iSight camera though since it's so integrated with Photobooth.

I find iChat perfectly suited to my chatting needs (especially video iChatting with other friends/relatives who have Macbooks, the number of which is increasing) but many will prefer Adium. Haven't really gotten into Adium except for times when I need to use, say, its Sametime connectivity which is pretty rare.

Handbrake (google what that does)
Azureus (google what that does too)

Let's see, what else is lurking about the Applications folder...

Google Earth for Mac is kind of fun, and I've actually found it useful for stuff like finding proximity of my destination to train stations and such.
NeoOffice if you need an office suite and don't want to pay for one. (It's free.)

iSquint (converts movies for iPod use if you have a video capable iPod)

That's all I can think of for now. I use pretty much the other Apple apps, such as iMovie, DVD Player, iDVD etc., iCal for my calendar, and oodles of Widgets in Dashboard. Some apps for what I do I've bought but they have mostly to do with audio manipulation and such which you've already stated you won't be doing.

HEY GUYS, i too just got my refurbished macbook. i echo everything the OP said. i only have one question guys. how do i set up my hotmail and road runner account to the mail app? thanks guys. i love my new mac. tonight i am putting on a shieldzone skin on it.!!

Kash said:

Congrats on your purchase. Looks like you definitely did your homework before buying the Macbook. You seem to be a step ahead of every other switcher, and that's definitely a good thing




The only default Apple apps that have better alternatives are Safari and Mail. To be honest, I much rather prefer Firefox and Thunderbird. Just get appropriate Mac themes and they'll fit right in. :black:

Click to expand...

Thanks! I hung out here for about a month and read and read and read lol 100posts BEFORE I got the mac lol We had them in high school, which is I am sad to say 4 years ago for me, so I am not a total stranger to the mac and its interface.

I LOVE Firefox. Safari isn't bad, but it isnt Firefox, so I will definatly be installing that. I definatly need stuff it, flip4mac, adium, maine menu, open office (I like the interface more as it reiminds me of classic ms office). I'm sure I'll think of more soon!

Get DragThing. In my opinion, it should be part of the OS!!

Transmit for FTP.
NaviCat for MySQL.
iBiz for project management and invoicing.
VLC and Flip4Mac for videos.
Bits on Wheels for bittorrent.
hmmm i think that about covers the normal stuff.

don't forget these:

renamer4mac - great mass file renamer program. easier to use than automator for renaming multiple files.

Xee - nice, easy to use picture viewer, will remind many switchers of the windows picture and fax viewer.

unison - great newsreader/binary downloader if you need that sort of thing.
(not freeware)

audion - itunes alternative if you end up struggling against iTunes, free, much more basic interface.

seashore, gimp, chocoflop - paint/photo editor alternatives.