Switched from the Dark side to the Grey side and now to the Light side...

sonoranfunsonoranfun
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Well, I got TIRED of the really bad OS last year and have been using Debian (Linux) since. I like it just fine but I've honestly tried at least 50 distros and ALWAYS have an issue. So I've decided to switch to a Mac.



Phase one! Sold the Dell I bought for $380 bargin hunting Dell's site for $600 on eBay.



Phase two! Spend a day and a half findout out there really is no way to get a GREAT deal on a new Mac Mini so I went to MacZone and bought a new one. 1.42ghz with the 512K Ram..



Phase Three! Bought a firewire enclosure for one of my 200gig HDs so I would have an external HD and USB port.



SO!! Did I do okay here or not? My use for this computer is really just to get into OSX and I will use it for my main system and mostly web browsing and email...



My questions..



1) Anything I should know about Apples as I've never used or owned one before..



2) Anything not work on Mac? Can I play Windows media and such off the net?



3) Browser, does it use firefox and thunderbird?



4) Downloading new programs off the net fairly easy?



5) Viruses, Linux is damn safe! I've found myself on a porn site by mistake already and spent an hour trying to click out of it and with Linux nothing to worry about, The other OS I would have been loaded with bugs. Where does OSX sit?



6) Anything else, tips, tricks or any other stuff I should know about?



Thanks a million everybody and I can't wait for the Mac Mini!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    Congratulations! You're gonna love it. All the best things about Linux, with none of the headaches.
    Quote:

    3) Browser, does it use firefox and thunderbird?



    You can download Firefox and/or Thunderbird for OS X, yes. If you're used to them already, might as well stick with what you like. But check out Safari and Mail, too. I use Firebox exclusively on my Linux box, but I still prefer Safari on my iBook. And I love Mail. Totally up to your preference, though.
    Quote:

    4) Downloading new programs off the net fairly easy?



    Most things that are available for Linux have an OS X port, usually native. If not, there's Terminal and X11. There's also a whole thriving ecosystem of Mac shareware that's quite different from what you'd find on the Windows side. For example, PithHelmet is a must-have for any Safari user. Ditto SubEthaEdit if you code, and GraphicsConverter if you do graphics. Check out versiontracker.com or macupdate.com.



    Installing new things is ridiculously easy. Programs usually come as disk images. You mount the image, then just drag the program to your hard drive. That's it. No installers or wizards or apt-get or emerge. Just drag-and-drop. And uninstalling is just as easy. Drag the program to the trash. OS X has an innovative application system where the "application" is actually a special folder that contains all of the files for that app. Double-clicking on the .app launches the actual program buried inside. But since it's really a folder, all the files are in one place, and installing and uninstalling are drag-and-drop. Very nice.
    Quote:

    5) Viruses, Linux is damn safe! I've found myself on a porn site by mistake already and spent an hour trying to click out of it and with Linux nothing to worry about, The other OS I would have been loaded with bugs. Where does OSX sit?



    Not a single known virus yet for OS X, and not a single web exploit in the wild. It's as safe for pr0n surfing as Lniux. I mean, I'm sure it must be. I have no idea, really. What's pr0n?



    For more prosaic worries, Safari and Firefox have built-in popup blockers, and for ads there's PithHelmet (Safari), AdBlocker (Firefox), or Privoxy (both). The latter two are probaby familiar to you from your Linux experience.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    sonoranfunsonoranfun Posts: 4member
    THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I feel really good about this. I'm a buck the system kinda guy as it sits anyway so this is great. Hell, most people offroad in Jeeps and I have Landcruisers just to be different!



    I do see there are all the ups of Linux when running OSX but I haven't heard of any downs... I'm basicly just in a spot that I'm just tired of dealing with the learning. Every time I use a different distro with Linux I find I have to almost start over again cause there's always a damn bug! While Linux is better then Windows for me they still seem to be very much so more into making things newer then working out the bugs they have. I think that's fine and will help with the rapid growth I want to see it make but too tough to run as your only OS...



    THANKS ALL AND I'M EXCITED TO BE HERE!!
  • Reply 3 of 15
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    OS X is what something like Mandrake or Suse should be but aren't, and will likely never be. You'll notice, among other things, that OS X has a very low interrupt latency. In other words, you can click all the apps in your dock real fast and they'll all instantiate right away. This characteristic works out in other areas of the OS as well, which is cool. No fucking hourglasses or mysterious pauses.



    Using OS X makes you realise just how bad the other desktop OSes really are.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    newnew Posts: 3,244member
    You will have some trouble with windows media.
  • Reply 5 of 15
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by New

    You will have some trouble with windows media.



    Flip4Mac is a possible alternative...

    to play windows media on your mac



    the trial version will play half of the video so you can see if it is worth it for the windows media stuff you wanna see



    http://www.flip4mac.com/
  • Reply 6 of 15
    newnew Posts: 3,244member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    Flip4Mac is a possible alternative...

    to play windows media on your mac



    the trial version will play half of the video so you can see if it is worth it for the windows media stuff you wanna see



    http://www.flip4mac.com/



    great. Will it play wmf 10?
  • Reply 7 of 15
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    1) Anything I should know about Apples as I've never used or owned one before..



    --->the Journey is the most fun part





    2) Anything not work on Mac? Can I play Windows media and such off the net?



    --->forgiveness is the journey here ....





    3) Browser, does it use firefox and thunderbird?



    --->Safari is nice, otherwise you can use FireFox. or Both







    4) Downloading new programs off the net fairly easy?

    --->much better. you will see that mac developers are somehow, well, you'll see....







    5) Viruses, Linux is damn safe! I've found myself on a porn site by mistake already and spent an hour trying to click out of it and with Linux nothing to worry about, The other OS I would have been loaded with bugs. Where does OSX sit?



    ---> no viruses, no porn site hijacking your machine if you get onto one 'by mistake' you can "force quit" any application that is misbehaving or that is taking too long to load quite easily without compromising all the other stuff the computer is doing





    6) Anything else, tips, tricks or any other stuff I should know about?



    ---> hang out on appleInsider, or other mac forums you enjoy, welcome
  • Reply 8 of 15
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SonoranFun

    Well, I got TIRED of the really bad OS last year ....

    Phase one! Sold the Dell I bought for $380 bargin hunting Dell's site for $600 on eBay...... The other OS I would have been loaded with bugs. .....



    are you so traumatised that you can't even mention the word 'windows' in your post?? sorry to hear that buddy
  • Reply 9 of 15
    keotkeot Posts: 116member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by New

    great. Will it play wmf 10?



    Nope. The latest Windows Media Player on OS X is version nine.



    Think of OS X as a Linux distribution with the best window manager in existence* coupled with good third-party support.



    * in my opinion
  • Reply 10 of 15
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by New

    great. Will it play wmf 10?



    it was able to play wmv hd 720p alright... mmm not sure about wmf 10 i must admit i have to go and read up now wtf wmf10 is exactly... i was mainly interested in watching pr0n clips and wmv hd.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    newnew Posts: 3,244member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by keot

    Nope. The latest Windows Media Player on OS X is version nine.



    Think of OS X as a Linux distribution with the best window manager in existence* coupled with good third-party support.



    * in my opinion



    I was talking about the flip4mac plugin.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    sonoranfunsonoranfun Posts: 4member
    Quote:

    are you so traumatised that you can't even mention the word 'windows' in your post?? sorry to hear that buddy



    Well, it's sort of like the Landcruiser 4x4 thing... We don't call them Jeeps we call them Heeps... In this case uh, yeah I dislike Window$ so I try to just not mention them or Micro$oft just cause it's fun and I think they suck!
  • Reply 13 of 15
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by New

    You will have some trouble with windows media.



    I wouldn't say so. And there's always VLC as a backup. (search versiontracker for it)
  • Reply 14 of 15
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    are you so traumatised that you can't even mention the word 'windows' in your post?? sorry to hear that buddy





    good point
  • Reply 15 of 15
    newnew Posts: 3,244member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    I wouldn't say so. And there's always VLC as a backup. (search versiontracker for it)



    VLC does not always work.
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