New to Mac? Tips for the Mac Newbie
I’m going to start an ongoing series here
for all of you Windoze users who have decided to switch over to the land free of the blue screen of death: the
Mac. These will be quick mini tips to go along with your new Mac mini (or honestly whatever Mac you choose as
your dearest new computer friend). Most Mac users have been liberated from Windows for so long that we overlook all the
little differences between the two platforms which can drive a fresh switcher just a little batty.
My first bit of advice:
1. Don’t ever touch anything inside your Library or System folder (unless of course you happen to be
a 1337 Linux user and find OS X to be oddly familiar; if you don’t know what 1337 means, then just don’t touch these
two folders. Okay?)
2. Keeping in mind rule number one, don’t be afraid to tinker around. OS X is highly tweakable to your personal tastes
and there are tons of free pieces of software out there to enhance your experience on a Mac. Don’t be afraid of
the blue screen of death. We don’t have that on the Mac. Maybe once every six months to a year, you might get a
kernel panic where the screen goes sort of sepia-shaded and asks you to reboot. After you reboot and to avoid
this problem, get Cocktail ($15 shareware) and run it on autopilot about
once a month. Cocktail performs all the regular maintenance to keep your Mac running smooth and fast. That’s it.
Enjoy!
More tips to come soon…
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Amb said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Guys,
Thanks for all the mac for new users and mini mac stuff you are going to do. After twelve years on Windows (3.X, 95, 98, 2000, NT, XP home and pro), and getting tired of cleaning up the computer every three months, I switched to the mac mini (at home at least), and plan to convert to Apple laptops over the next two year.
Yes, it can be frustrating. As much as I hate Windows, I know how to fix things (you have to know, or you are screwed) and the Mac is a huge switch.
I love it though, already, and can't wait till my HP laptop goes and dies so I can justify buying a power book.
Just a quick difference, I got the Airport Express, and installed my new HP printer on the mini to wirelessly print in fifteen minutes. Took me three hours to do the same on the XP laptop.
Anyway, being new to Mac OS, all these tips, and this and other Mac sites are welcome.
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Chris K said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I haven't had any kernel panics, but my Mac has hard-locked three times in a little over two months now. All it took last time was iTunes ripping a scratched CD.
So far my Mac mini has been the least stable computer I have used since my Win98 and System 7 computers. It's disappointing, but workable. The nicer interface is worth the loss of stability.
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C.K. Sample, III said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Chris, that is odd. I'd recommend repairing your permissions, either by launching Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/) or downloading a program like Cocktail, which I mention above. Run Repair Disk Permissions in Disk Utility or the autopilot option in Cocktail. Close out all other programs and walk away from the computer while they work their magic, then reboot once they are complete. Hopefully, this will magically make the lock-ups you are experiencing disappear.
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Oliver said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I switched to Mac in 2001 when i bought a 450mhz iMac. I'm still using that machine with 10.3.8 today and i have only ever had 1 kernel panic (i unplugged my iPod without un-mounting it first). Otherwise, i have never had any major crashes, never really had to shut down or restart.
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fishpatrol said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I've seen some ugliness in iTunes with unclean (UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!) discs as well. Holding Command-Option and hitting Escape brings up a list of running applications and lets you force-quit an app. Not sure why my little iBook reacts so badly on these occassions. Let Apple know about it: http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html
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Tony said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I would love to hear tips for sharing a printer that is connected to a desktop PC with my new iBook.
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Randy said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
So I gotta ask... how is a sephia screen of death better than a blue one? :D
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Jeff said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I switched back in 10/2004 and have been loving it! The only problems I have involve the occassional need to reinstall my HP All-in-one printer/scanner/copier drivers. Sometimes, the scanner portion of this all-in-one device can't be found by OS X.
Aside from that one, small inconvenience, I absolutely LOVE my iMac G5!
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Chris K said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I've repaired permissions quite frequently, actually. Rarely is anything wrong, but since I run the system 24/7, I make sure to keep up on the permissions. Hopefully Apple will make permissions maintenance a scheduled task in Tiger.
Cmd-Option-Esc didn't work in this case... I'm glad OSX is more friendly about not corrupting stuff when power cycling than System 7 was!
FWIW, the other lock happened when installing an app off a DMG living on an SMB file share.
I'd leave feedback for Apple, but I really don't WANT to reproduce this problem! :) Eventually cycling power will cause SOMETHING to flake out, what with write caching and all. I don't want that trashed file to be my iTunes XML library file!
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Dan said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Tony,
check out this thread on Mac OS X Hints (http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-16978.html) and the program one participant ends up recommending (http://iharder.sourceforge.net/macosx/winmacprinter/).
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Mike Christianson said 4:21PM on 6-24-2005
I'm a switcher, as of two weeks ago... (though, I really wish there were a different term than switcher, it just seems harsh)... and I would really love to read an explanation as to why disk permissions need to be repaired.
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C.K. Sample, III said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Mike, to answer your question: Because. ;-)
Seriously, though, the most basic reason is because it keeps things running smoothly. What happens is when programs are installed on OS X, often they change the permissions during installation, because they need to (that's the whole prompt for your administrator password), but sometimes fail to switch these permissions back after installation is done, or switch them back improperly. This can cause problems and as a result repairing permissions is one of the most common troubleshooting magic incantations.
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JJ said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
If Microsoft is so bad, what do you guys use for a word processor?
I switched at home primarilly to do video editing but some of my more mundane tasks came with out of necissity. The Appleworks that shiped with the machine is a joke, and I've tried both OpenOffice and Abiword (OO has lame X11 interface, clumsy integration with OSX, Abiword is unstable). I'd rather not go Microsoft Office but I'm running out of ideas...
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C.K. Sample, III said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Good question, JJ. I'm writing up an answer to your question as a post that will appear shortly on the main page. Stay tuned.
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Mark said 4:26PM on 7-08-2005
I echo the comments made by the first poster. After 24 years in the IT biz I am sick and tired of constantly fixing my PC. So I bought a mac mini two weeks ago. After 1 week of running both PC and mac the PC destroyed itself in a fit of jealousy! So now I am using the mac full time. A G5 will be ordered shortly. However I do love my mac mini. I know it will cost a fortune to switch, it will be frustrating at times, at times I will curse this new machine but I also know it will be exciting!
I look forward to reading more hints for switchers!
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