Questions For a New User

[Ashcrow]

Hello,

I ordered a 15" PowerBook and am awaiting it's arival. I am a programmer by trade and have generally used GNU/Linux and BSD's on ix86 hardware. I'm a bit scared about diving into a compleatle new OS and hardware set and have a few questions so I won't be to ignorant when I don't read the manual and go straight to playing .

1.) Is the 867MHz PowerPC G4 fast enough to run MacOS X without problems?
2.) I have heard that the Apple arch, unlike the PC, doesn't need as many MHz's for it's use. Is this true? If so what is a 867MHz Apple comparable to in the PC world.
3.) Are airport cards compatable with 802.11a/b?
4.) Should I imidiatly upgrade to MacOS 10.2.5?
5.) Does developer libraries come with the OS, do they need to be purchased, downloaded, etc ...
6.) Does MacOS X come with utilities like MP3/Ogg player and other things allong those lines?
7.) Is there anything else I should know about MacOS X that would be helpfull.

My two greatest worries are that I will get the PowerBook and find it lacking in power (which might be related to a the MHz myth) or it not being worth the money spent. Again, I am new to the Apple world and don't know exactly what to expect.

 

[rman]

Ashcrow @ Apr 21 2003, 02:20 PM

1.) Is the 867MHz PowerPC G4 fast enough to run MacOS X without problems?
2.) I have heard that the Apple arch, unlike the PC, doesn't need as many MHz's for it's use. Is this true? If so what is a 867MHz Apple comparable to in the PC world.
3.) Are airport cards compatable with 802.11a/b?
4.) Should I imidiatly upgrade to MacOS 10.2.5?
5.) Does developer libraries come with the OS, do they need to be purchased, downloaded, etc ...
6.) Does MacOS X come with utilities like MP3/Ogg player and other things allong those lines?
7.) Is there anything else I should know about MacOS X that would be helpfull.

1 - I am running a powerbook G4 with 500Mhz processor and 768 Megas of RAM. The OS is currently at 10.2.5 and I have had no problems. So I really don't think you will have any problems.

3 - I believe that airport is running 802.11b and airport extreme is running 802.11g. The May issue of MacAddict has an article on wireless networks.

5 - The developer option part of my 10.2 installation media.

Hopefully this is of some help.

 

[Ashcrow]

Originally posted by rman@Apr 21 2003, 09:43 PM
1 - I am running a powerbook G4 with 500Mhz processor and 768 Megas of RAM.  The OS is currently at 10.2.5 and I have had no problems.  So I really don't think you will have any problems.

3 - I believe that airport is running 802.11b and airport extreme is running 802.11g.  The May issue of MacAddict has an article on wireless networks.

5 - The developer option part of my 10.2 installation media.

Hopefully this is of some help.

Is the 768 Megs of RAM manditory to keep the OS running smoothly?

 

[rman]

Ashcrow @ Apr 21 2003, 07:57 PM

Is the 768 Megs of RAM manditory to keep the OS running smoothly?

No it is not manditory. I think it is 256 megs of RAM is, but the more RAM you have the better.

 

[Emrys]

I would max out the RAM as soon as you can. Don't buy the RAM from Apple it is too expensive. I got the RAM for my iMax at http://memoryx.net. I tried using some other company out of California, and the RAM was bad and their service sucked. I will try to put a link here when I remeber who it was

 

[Graphite]

Originally posted by Ashcrow@Apr 21 2003, 04:20 PM
Hello,

I ordered a 15" PowerBook and am awaiting it's arival. I am a programmer by trade and have generally used GNU/Linux and BSD's on ix86 hardware. I'm a bit scared about diving into a compleatle new OS and hardware set and have a few questions so I won't be to ignorant when I don't read the manual and go straight to playing .

1.) Is the 867MHz PowerPC G4 fast enough to run MacOS X without problems?
2.) I have heard that the Apple arch, unlike the PC, doesn't need as many MHz's for it's use. Is this true? If so what is a 867MHz Apple comparable to in the PC world.
3.) Are airport cards compatable with 802.11a/b?
4.) Should I imidiatly upgrade to MacOS 10.2.5?
5.) Does developer libraries come with the OS, do they need to be purchased, downloaded, etc ...
6.) Does MacOS X come with utilities like MP3/Ogg player and other things allong those lines?
7.) Is there anything else I should know about MacOS X that would be helpfull.

My two greatest worries are that I will get the PowerBook and find it lacking in power (which might be related to a the MHz myth) or it not being worth the money spent. Again, I am new to the Apple world and don't know exactly what to expect.

Congrats with the new mac!

1. Yes more than fast enuf.
2. 867mhz comparable to..
<img src='http://a772.g.akamai.net/7/772/51/febef2d9ab7a1c/www.apple.com/powermac/images/chartphotoshop01282003.gif[/img]
www.apple.com/g4 (browse those sub catagories and get more info.)
3.
4. Shur why not.
5. Im pretty shur, Ive got all the developer tools released on cd, and all of the ones possible to download.(macosx is made for the developer )
6. yeah it does. iTunes. (i recommend going to www.versiontracker.com/macosx and downloading VLC)
7. You can burn a cd or dvd by just putting the media in, putting files in it and draging it to where the trash would be. There is nothing macosx cant do . I am a Mac OSX Developer. Enjoy the mac world!

 

[Ashcrow]

Originally posted by Graphite@Apr 22 2003, 11:34 AM
Congrats with the new mac!

I am a Mac OSX Developer. Enjoy the mac world!

Thanks! I can't wait to play with my new Mac . What do you develop?

 

[Graphite]

I develop for FireStorm but, we've kinda taken a break for a while, atleast until summer when I don't have classes to worry about.

you?

 

[Ashcrow]

I did development on some of the security enchanced dev tools for Linux/Unix and also wrote LSI which is a simple standard GUI installer for any modern *nix system. Obviously, I'm now interested in Mac dev since I have that Powerbook comming .

Here is another question. I noticed that there is antivirus software for MacOS X. Is it really needed?

 

[rman]

During the many years that I have been working with UNIX (Irix, AIX, Solaris...),
I have not seen an UNIX virus. Most of the problems, with UNIX is of the attack
nature. IMHO, I don't think so, at least not at this time.

 

[Graphite]

Nahh, theres really no need for it. I play it safe and have two firewalls up to block against hackers (hardware and software).. and I dont download really suspicious looking files.
(course im not to worried ive got my HD backed up in DVDs)

I have been on an apple since birth, and on the internet since 93, not one virus yet. i could just be lucky tho.

 

[Ashcrow]

Ok I just wanted to make sure. I had the same experience in the Linux/Unix community as well and just wanted to play it safe before I subject this puppy to the net.

 

[Ashcrow]

Here is yet another question . I read that OSX.3 will be released sometime in the realitivly near future. Does Apple have free updates available for users to upgrade to the newest version of OS X or do you have to pay the 129$ for each OS X.x release?

 

[Graphite]

They have special deals, like last year for 10.2 I bought a imac with 10.1.5 and they had 19.99 S&H for the update, because I bought it with in a certain time period before the release.

 

[Ashcrow]

Thats not so bad then.

 

[Graphite]

Yeah its actually really nice compared to Xp.

 

[Ashcrow]

How do I uninstall software? I really need to get Internet Explorer off of here!! And how do I make stuff transparent? This is great!! :lol:

 

[Graphite]

mm transparency is a great feature... but unless you feel like tearing up apps, theres not much of a way to do it, unless programs have it built in.

uninstall .. hmm ...
step 1 - find file you wish to get rid of
step 2 - click on it.
step 3 - (tricky part) drag it to trash can
step 4 - move cursor over trash can
step 5 - press control
step 6 - click mouse while control is being pressed
step 7 - select empty trash
step 8 - question why there were so many steps.

 

[Ashcrow]

Originally posted by Graphite@Apr 26 2003, 02:07 AM
mm transparency is a great feature... but unless you feel like tearing up apps, theres not much of a way to do it, unless programs have it built in.

uninstall .. hmm ...
step 1 - find file you wish to get rid of
step 2 - click on it.
step 3 - (tricky part) drag it to trash can
step 4 - move cursor over trash can
step 5 - press control
step 6 - click mouse while control is being pressed
step 7 - select empty trash
step 8 - question why there were so many steps.

That applies for applications as well? (drag to trash)

 

[schweb]

Yep 99.5% of the time, it's as simple as that. Some have an uninstall program, like MS Office, but usually just a simple drag to the trash is all that it takes. When I first moved from Windows a few months back, I found that hard to believe, but it's true