[UltimaLaw]

Hey all, long time mac user (had a Ti 500 Mhz powerbook then a 12" 867 Mhz then a 17" 1Ghz then a 1Ghz 12" and made a mistake recently by switching to a Sony Laptop, well over the past month i have gone through mac withdrawls and sold it to settle for a 1.5Ghz 15" powerbook totally tricked out. i need some advice from all you mac user reminding me on what to do first when i receive it tomorrow at 3:00 pm via fedex. What should i do first? what programs should i install, delete and what settings should i change? It's been almost a years since my time with a Mac so any and all recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Help a brother out, im back to the faithful mac club and here to stay!

-Eric
ultimalaw@gmail.com

[Randman]

Enjoy the experience. Do all of the updates, repair permissions. Make sure you have enough ram.
Check Energy Saver for performance settings. Use Delocalizer or the like to clean out any language packs you don't need.
If you have a Firewire external HD, you can use it to copy files over to the new PB with the Update Program.

[UltimaLaw]

it has 1 gig of ram, should be enough, also has virtual pc installed, superdrive, and the backlit keyboard....thanks for the advice bud, it has been used for about 8 hours, can i make a new admin account and delete his without formatting? if so how do i go about it and are there any negatives to doing so? also should i use firefox or safari? what are the plus and minuses of both? what mail program should i use as well as what finance program?

eric

[Randman]

Under preferences, accounts, you should be able to set yourself up as the admin and delete the other account. If you have time, doing a clean install isn't a bad idea but not 100% needed.
Safari is solid (especially with some third-party apps to enhance things). On the Mac, I prefer it over FF, but give both a try (and remember that Safari 2.0 will be even better come Tiger early next year).
As far as mail and finance, check some other threads as they've been covered before.

[UltimaLaw]

hey all, got the new pb up and running and i love it. keep the suggestions coming (any great ical calendars you recommend?). also i need a software app that will help me orgainze, loan and keep up with my collection of dvds, not music or tapes just dvd's, thanks in advance,,,,

-eric

[UnixMac]

I just got my new 1.5 a week ago, and I've basically forgotten about my PM

I downloaded Onyx for free from Version Tracker, it does a great job of doing the housekeeping on your Mac, and if you run it every couple of days or so with the Automated tasks, plus do the occasional "disk repair" from your boot CD's that came with the PB, you should have a smooth run for years to come.

I am weary of VPC, as I've heard it can cause havoc on your mac, but that's up to you.

[mjames]

Since I just got my PB back from repair (similar specs as yours) and had to start fresh, I'll tell you what I did. I reformatted and the first thing I do is go through the system preferences to adjust the dock, energy settings, expose, etc.

I would then grab the software updates and transfer your data over. Finally, install and configure your software. The software I always use is: Firefox, Office, NetNewsWire, Transmit, Taco HTML Edit, SpamSieve, Photoshop CS, iPodder, Launchbar, Bittorrent, WeatherMenu, etc...