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General discussion

(long read) Thinking about getting a Mac for the first time.

Mar 5, 2007 10:36AM PST

So I'm 16 (17 next month) and a junior in high school and im eventually going to have to buy a laptop for college. Now ive been using windows my entire life and i would consider myself "ok" with windows know-how. but ive noticed that windows has many problems, as im sure many of you have also noticed. The computer i use now is the latest one i bought. I bought it in May 2003 and it came with windows XP home. 4 years later, the thing lags, its slow, i get tons of different types of error messages just by booting it up, and i often run into the "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem" message, which completely freezes my taskbar. i always end up having to Ctrl-alt-del and maunally ending applications. The thing that annoys me the MOST is the fact that after you end a program through ctrl-alt-del, it asks you if you want to "send an error report to windows," giving you the FALSE hope that they will actually do anything to help you. Anyways, that was my little rant on windows.

Now, Ive been thinking about getting a macbook instead of what i initially considered, a windows laptop. But of course, with the introduction of Windows Vista, and my extreme lack of knowledge for Mac OSX, im lost on which to pick. With a new windows vista laptop, im probably going to face some new things that ive never seen before, but with a windows background, ill probably pick it up more easily. With a Mac its a different story. I have NEVER really used a Mac in my entire life. The only time i used Macs was in 3rd grade when i went to the computer lab to play reading rabbit. no one i know has a Mac, except my teachers, but i doubt theyll let me fiddle with the computer that contains all our grades. so im pretty much compeltely lost. Im just scared that ill pick a Mac, and then end up being completely lost with it in college and have to think to myself, "i shouldve stuck with windows."

*yea ok macs can run windows, im probably not going to do that anyways, so dont mention it.

But, i did read the other thread "Long time PC user thinking of switching to Mac." And based on the first page of posts that i read i learned that the mac consists of primarily 5 folders - Applications, Documents, Music, Pictures, Movies. Now on to the questions.

I guess to install a program, it would be like insert a cd and install. but how do i open it?
does it just show up in the application folder?
Where are these folders?
How do i find my files, do they all just go in one of the folders?
is there something like the C://Program files like in windows?
Does mac use the same file types?
can i transfer mac files to windows?
aiport extreme in just a fancy way of saying "802.11 wifi" right?
In windows, all open applications show up in a task bar, does mac have something like that?

i probably have more questions but i cant think of them right now. thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

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I ditched a hag named M$ and I'm now engaged to an Apple
Mar 14, 2007 9:13PM PDT

I ditched Microsoft (for the most part) about 10 months ago and got me a Mac Book Pro (sweet tool!). I use it everyday for about 90+% of my everyday needs however there are some apps I can't get for Mac that exist only for MS based systems and I also need it to hop onto MS server domains.

I installed MS Vista Business on my Mac with the use of Parallels and man it?s great. I have none of the bitching issues most people encounter since parallels emulates all the device drivers and pipes all requests out an inbound through the devices which are handled by Tiger OSX.

I have 2 Gig of Ram and Vista loads super fast and behaves quicker than the installs on brute powered PC's.

I luv my Mac and M$ can die peacefully for the crappy abomination they have unleashed at a premium on the public for essentially a Beta product namely being Vista or better still...Hasta La Vista.

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ichat
Mar 17, 2007 2:45PM PDT

does ichat only work bwtween mac users?

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I don't know but...
Mar 18, 2007 10:38AM PDT

silly for me to try to answer this since I don't have iChat on my personal iBook at home... only at work on my mac tower... but if it is the voip aspects of iChat you want, you can always use SKYPE. I have used it for over a year now to talk with relatives overseas and it is available free of charge to mac and MS users as a download.

grim

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and I use iChat occasionally with
Mar 23, 2007 11:37PM PDT

AOL users... and YahooIM folks too. But also for Yahoo IM I use the Yahoo client.

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?
Mar 24, 2007 12:52AM PDT

does that mean i can see my AIM buddy list on ichat? and use all the AIM features?

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re: does ichat only work bwtween mac users?
Mar 24, 2007 3:58PM PDT

No, is the answer. However, the real answer is does iChat work w/other IM's other than AIM/AOL and the answer is yes. I have my ichat configured to talk to my gmail, yahoo, msn and AIM friends, regardless of OS.

Here's a quick overview of what I did:

(1) I have one AIM id that uses ichat 'natively.
(2) I use my gmail account to connect to a 'jabber' server that support the yahoo and msn transports. The hardest part is finding a jabber server that supports yahoo, msn and other supports.

Check out: http://cavemonkey50.com/2006/08/add-gtalk-msn-and-yahoo-mutiple-accounts-to-ichat/

Public Jabber servers: http://www.jabber.org/user/publicservers.shtml

You can google psi to find it's download. I also used Parallel's Desktop for Mac to run Psi under Windows.

Terry

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simplicity is the key
Apr 3, 2007 12:09PM PDT

To answer some of your questions, keep one thing in mind. Simpllicity.

1. Folders. Yes, there are 5 basic folders when you first install a new system, but they aren't the one you listed. Most of the ones in your list are inside the Users folder. But you can add as many as you want, anywhere you want. Whether on the desktop itself or on within the harddrive icon (comparable to "my computer"

2. Installing files. When you put in a CD/DVD or any other media, it shows up right on your desktop. No need to go thru any menus whatsoever. It is just there! On some applications it will show up in the open form showing a folder with any arrow going to another folder with an A on it. This means drag the folder into your applications folder. No installation necessary. Even than though you are not limited to putting in your appications folder. You can put it anywhere you want. Some of these applications will access the internet the first time you launch them to install any updates or components not included in the install disk. Other applications that do require installation will have an icon that says click to intall. So click to install. Most will ask where you want to install and the default will be your applications folders. Some with have the option for simple install or custom. Custom is more for advanced users and allows you to pick and choose which components you want or don't want.

3. Mac has NEVER required a file extension, but most programs give you the option to attach or not attach it. But you really don't need them since the icon for the file will tell you what kind of file it is.

4. Mac files can be transfered to Windows and vice versa. When you install your OS it will ask if you want to intall files from another computer and walk you through it,

5. Yes Airport is Extreme is a wireless router, which also allows you to not only network your computers and access the internet wirelessly, but also your printers.

6. Open applications show up in the Dock with an arrow next to them. You can also specify which applictions stay in the dock weather open or closed. Plus there are alot or add on programs on Apples web site that allow you to custimize the dock such as adding sub lists for documents you use often.

Besides that, under the Apple is something that says "Recent Items" which will show you the most recent apps, docs, and servers you have accessed and can be customized as to how many of each it should keep track of.

Hope that helps, and I am sure you will have no troubles whatsover as long as you keep in mind that if it seems to simple, you are not missing anything. It IS that simple.

And if all else fails, load Boot Camp and Windows till you get the hang of it. (Or any other of the many programs that allow you to run windows)