Before my mac comes..

I have ordered my mac, but i have a few questions.

When i ordered my mac they asked me if i wanted to be "office compatable" i said no but what exactly does this mean and should i have said yes?

I remember a post on here about how best to use the battry to keep it working longer with out burning it out. i have had a search but i couldent find it. could someone link me to the post or tell me, is it better to always keep the AC plugged in, take it out when its fully charged or drain the battery fully then recharge etc...?


Also im going to be installing bootcamp because i am a previous windows user and i think it may be usefull for me. i have 160gb hdd space, but how much should i give windows? also should i install xp or vista? im thinking xp just because its more compatable at the moment.

When installing windows using bootcamp, does it give me the option to format that partition in fat32? if so should i do this or not for the windows instilation?

I also have read that there is a very usefull program for uninstalling unwanted applications. what is this program called?

If you have any extra newbie mac tips or suggested applications and tool i would be greatfull!

I just have to wait 2 weeks now for it to come! cant wait.

if u select a 32gb partitoin and install xp you will get a fat 32 partiton unless you tell it otherwise.

vista wont install on fat32 so it automatically makes it NTFS which sucks becuase mac cant write to that unless you install macfuse and ntfs3g

i would go with XP unless you really want vista xp will do just fine and wont kill your battery as fast.


ps mac can both read and write to the fat partition windows will be on if you go with XP. so i would go with xp and fat 32

i didn't know that xp used up less battery. Being able to transfer files to and from the windows partition sounds useful so i think i will go with XP.

Is it possible to use bootcamp to install xp, then use parallels to access this same instillation of xp or do i have to install a separate on in parallels?

I have a MB and installed XP on a 24GB partition in Bootcamp and also use Parallels to access that installation. It works sweet and you only need to install it once in Bootcamp. When you install Parallels, read the documentation which will tell you specifically how to config the XP (Bootcamp) as your virtual machine image. Very simple "next, next, next" type installation. BTW FAT32 and XP are the way I went so I could share files between the two OS's. Don't forget to install antivirus, etc on XP as it will still be vulnerable when online. Hope that helps!
-Dave

once i have installed XP with a 32gb partition with bootcamp, will i still be able to change this partition in the future just in case i want to resize the partition or install vista on it?

you will be able to install vista on it.

there is a program that will allow you to change the size of the parition
not sure what its called tho

the reason i said xp would use less battery generally got longer out of XP then i did Vista.


thats just personal tho.

I'd suggest XP until the actual release of Bootcamp comes out with Leopard. One can always upgrade from XP to Vista later down the road. I believe that currently, Bootcamp 1.4 is still technically a beta. There may be more/better Vista support in the final version, IMHO.
-Dave

sorry just to clarify, If i use bootcamp to install xp or vista will it be possible to just delete this installation and get rid of bootcamp if i find that i am always using OSX and never bootcamp?

i think u reformat the whole HD but im not sure.

No you can just delete your windows partition. Your OS X partition is untouched except for the fact that it grows bigger. I had Vista Ultimate on my macbook and deleted it for exactly that reason. It just wasn't fun to use!

Bootcamp has the ability to delete the windows partiton, and it can also make it bigger or smaller without affecting the data inside. You jut move a little slider to the left or right to change it's size.

SLC

Hi, I do suggest installing Windows XP on a fat32 formatted volume so that you have access to it without any third party programs unless you are a savvy guy and don't mind a little more work...because if you are you can use macfuse and ntfs 3g like someone mentioned above to access your ntfs formatted bootcamp volume (and XP runs faster on a ntfs formatted partition). If you install windows Xp via Boot Camp may I suggest two applications that will be kind of handy?
First one is Boot Champ...this one is extremely useful.
Second one is my own little app for Macfuse and ntfs 3g called iMountIt...if you are a switcher I assume you have a few external HDs around that are formatted in ntfs? If yes this could be kind of useful for you.

As for little utilities that I would suggest to switchers: definately get an uninstaller application...there is Appzapper which probably is the most known (but shareware) or uApp, cleanapp and much more (just use macupdate.com or versiontracker and type uninstaller) that should give you a few nice apps you can choose from.

Now I hope you survive the time you have to wait till your mac arrives
for me the wait was the worse...

Kuchiki

its been 3 days... im getting impatient already