[St.John]

Finally got my 12" Powerbook. I know that I lurked here before registering and placing an order, so for the benefit of any others out there I thought I'd give them an initial rundown from the perspective of a switcher.

The first impressions:

The packaging looks the business. It screams "desirable" at you; there is a white cardboard flap covering the insides of the box reading "Made by Apple in California" or somesuch, which is a nice touch. Everything is laid out very nicely; you get the impression some thought has gone into something as simple as the packaging, which bodes well.

The Powerbook itself is simply stunning. No dead pixels, slight warping of the bottom so it rocks a teeny bit on flat surfaces, but otherwise we're in major eye candy territory here. It feels satisfyingly solid, and they keyboard is wonderful; it is absolutely rigid ( flex? what flex? ) and has a great depression feel. All very clean and appealing. I like the latch mechanism for the screen; no ugly overhanging hooks here, the latch pops out of the base when the top of the screen is in range. The trackpad button has a pretty sharp edge on the outside, so be careful! I really like the trayless CD drive.

The bluetooth mouse and keyboard are so simple to install! The keyboard itself is quite heavy, but good looking. I prefer the key actions on the actual Powerbook keyboard though. The mouse feels clunky and slow, despite playing with the tracking settings, and I had trouble opening the hatch for the batteries. The jury is out on it.

Next stop, installing an extra 512Mb memory. How small do they want your screwdriver to be? Seriously, that is ridiculous. Do they make extra cash from selling these dinky screwdrivers or what? I finally found one small enough and after some major paranoia about the amount of force required to turn the screws ( I had visions of destroying the screw heads ) it was simple enough to be classed as trivial. Turn on, and there is the extra memory in the about box. Easy as pie.


On to the packaged software. They provided Panther, but didn't install it. I only noticed this when I tried to install XCode ( also present) and was told it required OSX 10.3, which came as a surprise as I thought I was running it! The installation was simplicity itself, a joy to behold. All done in about 1/2 hour. And the end result is well worth it. Panther has a very pretty GUI, and it feels FAST. Very fast. No lag on any of the operations I've tried. And as for Expose, what can I say. It's one of those improvements that you just have to experience. It's as useful as it is fabulous looking - and this is really saying something! The GUI is full of nice touches, like the fading brightness and volume meter when you use the function keys. The bouncing icons on launching a program, and the fading up and out of the icon iself on the desktop, all make for a cheery and fun seeming computer.
The dock will take a bit of getting used to if you've spent your life with Windows. I looked for XCode after installation, as it doesn't seem to place things in the dock by default. After finding it with the appropriately named "Finder", you can just drag'n'drop onto the dock, et voila. A word of warning to Linux/Microsoft users; clicking the red close button on the top left of windows does not close the program! JUST THE WINDOW! Get used to Apple key-Q!

The inbuilt text editor recognised Word format straight away, and had no problems with the lab report I've been working on. How do you maximise windows to fill the screen? Some applications do it automatically, but the editor did not, and I've had to manually resize it every time I've opened it.

I plugged the LAN cable in and bang, there was the network. Very nice. I was worried by Safari's lack of buttons ( perhaps used to info overload with the browsers I've used previously ), but it does not seem to need more than is displayed, I suppose. It worked fine with every website I looked at.

The Tucano Second Skin folder is cute, and matches the computer well. The Griffin iCurve stand is solid feeling, and set at a nice angle.

One question; on both the Powerbook and the bluetooth keyboard, WHERE IS THE HASH KEY? How am I supposed to program without a preprocessor marker?

[jcgerm]

Uh, did you check the 3 key? Hash is where it always has been. Not sure what you're talking about.

[St.John]

No, on the 3 key is a � sign.

[jcgerm]

What language keyboard is it? Every powerbook I've ever seen has a hash symbol on the 3 key. Every Mac I've seen, including the 1000's my school owns, have hash symbols on 3 keys.

[sheer]

hit alt+3 for a hash symbol ###

edit-my pb 12's the same (uk) it only has 3 and � printed on the key itself

[St.John]

Nice one sheer. Cheers pal.

[Eciton]

Jcgerm, I'm assuming our Switcher is from the UK, like me. On an IBM keyboard, the hash key is next to the return key. The three key shows the UK pound symbol, our currency. Hash is accessed by Alt-3 on the UK keyboard setting, or (I think) Shift-3 on the US setting. HTH.

Oh, and welcome

[St.John]

Originally posted by Eciton:
Jcgerm, I'm assuming our Switcher is from the UK, like me. On an IBM keyboard, the hash key is next to the return key. The three key shows the UK pound symbol, our currency. Hash is accessed by Alt-3 on the UK keyboard setting, or (I think) Shift-3 on the US setting. HTH.

Oh, and welcome

Sure am! Just updated that "location" thingy in the profile.

[mintcake]

Hi StJohn, I'm also a long (loooooooooong)-time Windows user on the point of switching - ordered my 12" AlBook last week, should arrive any day - so I read your first impressions with great interest! I'm actually glad to hear the jury's out on the bluetooth kb & mouse, I was very tempted to go for them straight away but decided to stick with my old MS USB kb & mouse for the time being.

Where did you get the Tucano skin by the way? I like the look of them. Did you find a grey one? The only online sellers I've located seem to stock only the black.

Oh & give us some 2nd impressions too.

[fraeone]

Well I figure I ought to add my two cents here as well, since I just bought my first Mac yesterday, and it's also a 12" PowerBook.

I agree with everything St John said, the PB is sweet, despite a slight wobble on hard surfaces. I haven't gone to work on it, but I figure I'll be able to get rid of it with some creative work.

I also do some development and I must reiterate how great the keyboard on this PB is. The screen quality is better than my 6 month old Dell Laptop that I sold to get this thing. The brightest setting is bright and I haven't needed that much, but for outdoor settings it's nice to know I can pump it up.

The most annoying thing so far has been the loud sound the disc drive makes on inserting/ejecting a disc, but that is a very minor quibble.

Thanks for everyones help as I have been contemplating this purchase for a long time, and I don't regret it at all.

[anaphora68]

If you're switching from windows I would recommend steering clear of the Apple Mouse, even as a long time apple user I am confounded as to why apple only has a one button mouse, when there is actually a right click programmed into OS X. I highly recommend the MS bluetooth mouse, it works really well with 10.3.

Just my 2 cents/pence.

[fraeone]

How is the refresh rate on that MS Bluetooth mouse? I'm like you, give me a 5 button mouse with a scroll wheel please. But I have a Logitech wireless mouse that is dreadfully jerky, it just doesn't refresh fast enough--and it drives me nuts.

[mintcake]

Originally posted by anaphora68:
I highly recommend the MS bluetooth mouse, it works really well with 10.3.

/adds to Christmas list

Cheers anaphora

[St.John]

Originally posted by mintcake:
Where did you get the Tucano skin by the way? I like the look of them. Did you find a grey one? The only online sellers I've located seem to stock only the black.

Oh & give us some 2nd impressions too.

Ahh...the black problem. Do what I did, and buy a second skin designed for the 12" iBook - it's just the right colour! I got mine from the Apple UK online shop, as I did for all the gear I bought.

Second impressions may have to wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid!

[mintcake]

Bah, I bought my PB via the Apple Store in Belgium (though presumably they're all sitting in the same call-centre in Dublin) and was told they didn't stock the Tucano 2nd skin...

[Krusty]

Hey, great to hear your impressions. Here's a few comments about what you mentioned:

clicking the red close button on the top left of windows does not close the program! JUST THE WINDOW! Get used to Apple key-Q!

... a great feature, IMHO. On MacOS (with some exceptions for system apps) "close window" = "close window". On win its "close window" = "close window ...um, unless you're on the last window in which case it mean quit program too". 1 window open ? 20 windows open? same 2 simple rules apply in MacOS. In windows, if you have 8 windows open, you typically have to go around madly clicking each one in order to "Quit". Oh wait .. now in XP, if an app has several open window they will "stack" in the taskbar and allow you to close them at once. Of course, they will stack and unstack whimsically. If you have more open programs they will stack sooner. Close a few unrelated programs, and they'll unstack on you. While it can be entertaining to watch, you really don't have any control over when certain options like "close group" are going to be available to you. Point is, though it seems odd at first, its really quite beautiful in its efficiency and sufficiency compared to the Windows way ... two simple, logical distinct concepts (quit and close) that have become unduly complex in windows ... and still don't offer anything more functionally.

How do you maximise windows to fill the screen?

ahhh, this IS one point of contention some have with Macs. The green button typically resizes your window to the exact width/size necessary to display its contents ... not "fullscreen" unless the contents require it. Clicking again will go back to your manually selected size. If you like, you can go into TextEdit's preferences and change the "new document attributes" such that the default character widths and heights are fullscreen sized. But, to my knowledge, "full screen" only exists if the contents warrant or you manually make a window fullscreen.

I was worried by Safari's lack of buttons

Look in the "view" menu ... many more buttons/status bars you can toggle on and off if you want.

Welcome to Macintosh ....

[poisonmonkey]

Congrats!

I got a 12" and I am also a long time windoze user. I'm really loving my computer right now, no real problems just the quirks you mentioned.

About the wobble, I've heard many remedies: bending, filling in the gap adding more to the feet... get creative!

To fill the screen you gotta drag the corner manually.

[mintcake]

Point is, though it seems odd at first, its really quite beautiful in its efficiency and sufficiency compared to the Windows way ... two simple, logical distinct concepts (quit and close) that have become unduly complex in windows ... and still don't offer anything more functionally.

Preach it brother! The random stacking/unstacking thing is my most hated feature of WinXP.

If you like, you can go into TextEdit's preferences and change the "new document attributes" such that the default character widths and heights are fullscreen sized. But, to my knowledge, "full screen" only exists if the contents warrant or you manually make a window fullscreen.

This, on the other hand, sucks. I always work with all windows maxed out to full screen. I'm amazed there's no way of tweaking this. When you say you can change TextEdit's preferences, do you mean those preferences apply to all new windows or only to TextEdit windows? I'm assuming the latter but I'm a n00b so go easy.

[threestain]

but the beauty of osx is that it works better if not everything is maxed out - I used to work in the same way as you - max things when working and use the taskbar to switch. I work much better now when I have things side by side at a size I can comfortably read and use - far better and more productive in my eyes. Plus easy as pie to switch between things - even easier with expose - no hunting for windows anymore!

[nagromme]

Welcome!

Some notes:

1. You need not be too strict about quitting apps. If you use something often, leave it running. You'll find Panther can run dozens of apps at once and barely feel it. So maybe you want Cmd-Opt-H instead of Q Also, option-click a dock icon (or any window from another app, or the desktop) to switch to that app AND auto-hide the current one.

2. I recommend the Dock on the left, out of the way of scroll bars. Notice than when you click-hold (or right-click/Ctrl-click) on a Dock icon you get a menu. That lets you put folders in the Dock and access contents as hierarchical submenus. Try putting Applications and Documents there--you may rarely even need the Finder at all!. And every app has a Dock menu listing all of its windows. So you can get right to any window of any currently running app. You'll soon no longer miss the taskbar (which was originally a halfhearted copy of the NeXT dock and Apple's old Apple Menu after all). Also note that you can double-click a window title to minimize it to the Dock.

3. The green "zoom" button typically maximizes JUST ENOUGH to fit the content. It's more of a "smart resize" button, and every app has its own definition of that the "best" size is. That's not always full screen.

4. Does reseating the battery help the wobble? One of the feet is on the battery itself.

5. Look carefully through the Preferences and View menu of each app. You'll find lots os hidden power to customize your OS. (Safari's View menu lets you add/remove buttons and a Status Bar for instance.) And don't forget tabbed browsing!

[sheer]

Originally posted by St.John:
Nice one sheer. Cheers pal.

You're welcome and enjoy your new computer

[St.John]

Originally posted by sheer:
You're welcome and enjoy your new computer

I am doing sheer, believe me! It's even got a name now - "Keith"!

Somebody was interested in second thoughts. Well, here goes...

First some negatives:

The audio plug for the headphone socket is a little strange; NONE of the 3.5mm audio jacks I have ( including the headphones I use and the output to my amp ) seems to fit properly; there is always a couple of mm protrusion. Not a huge problem, just a little irritating, especially as I have the 'book on the stand, so I can see it!

Why does pressing delete on a highlighted item on the desktop not send it to the recycle bin?

Call me dumb, but I can't find an option to add folders to the iTunes library apart from the drag'n'drop into the windows, which copies the contents into the iTunes default music folder.

As criticisms go, they are quite laughable really.

Now, some general queries;

What's the standard way of installing applications? I've stuck a few extras on it, and I'm not sure whether to install into my home directory or the communal Applications folder.

How can I remove programs from the dock? I really can't see myself using iMovie or iPhoto. Not my thing.

And I've saved the good stuff for last;

I keep forgetting Expose is there, and every time I remember it's like discovering it for the first time! Just like I forget that little circular light that comes on around the power source unless it's charging! So many nice touches. Simple things like closing a group of windows belonging to one application in the dock has great little animations that don't seem intrusive or pointless like I would have imagined before seeing them in action.

The bundled software seems basic until you realise that it's so beautifully designed and functional that it really does not need to be weighed down with options and buttons immediately visible. It just sits in the background and does exactly what you want and expect it to do. This has been a very pleasant surprise.

Even Microsoft stuff looks much better on OSX; Word and Messenger look far better than they did on Windows! Crazy.

The little Union Jack signifying that I have the UK keyboard selected really cheers me up, for some reason!

The documentation provided with XCode is excellent.

Why does everything feel so fast? I also got a brand new Dell laptop a couple of weeks ago, and this little wonder leaves it eating dust. No lag in UI operations, no mind-numbing disk accesses, no iTunes skips or interruptions, even when burning CDs and downloading web pages at the same time. Frightening.

The Help functions are fast and ... well ... acually helpful! It's a shame when you're surprised that Help functions are genuinely of some assistance. Says a lot about the stuff I've used before.

The use of transparencies is very pleasant. The dock and notification windows all seem to be transparent to some degree, which creates a very lightweight feel to elements that may otherwise be intrusive by commandeering screen space.

I really like the wireless keyboard now; they key action if fine, albeit not as good as the actual Powerbook keyboard. It's reassuringly solid feeling and weighty, despite its extreme minimalist look, and the ability to move around the desk space without watching for trailing wires is somehow much more satisfying. If only the mouse had two rocker switches built in; rock forwards for standard clicking, rock backwards onto your wrist for the second mouse button option.


If anybody could reccommend some good general utilities I'd be very grateful!

I'm just off to create another user purely to see the fast user switching in action!

[Ganesha]

Originally posted by St.John:
How can I remove programs from the dock? I really can't see myself using iMovie or iPhoto. Not my thing.

To remove an item from the dock, just drag it out of the dock. You get a nice POOF effect too.

[nate_02]

Originally posted by Ganesha:
To remove an item from the dock, just drag it out of the dock. You get a nice POOF effect too.

Make sure you have your speakers on for that, it makes a cool sound effect

[St.John]

Excellent work people, just done that. Can't seem to remove Finder though....

[Thorin]

Originally posted by St.John:
Excellent work people, just done that. Can't seem to remove Finder though....

Anything that's currently running appears in the dock - finder's always running .

[Krusty]

Originally posted by St.John:

Why does pressing delete on a highlighted item on the desktop not send it to the recycle bin?

Use Command+Delete. I'm guessing its so you don't accidentally delete things ?

Originally posted by St.John:
I
Call me dumb, but I can't find an option to add folders to the iTunes library apart from the drag'n'drop into the windows, which copies the contents into the iTunes default music folder.

Not sure what you mean, but look into iTunes->Preferences->Advanced. You have some options there that may interest you (such as "Copy files to ..." you can always uncheck that if you want. You can always uses "iTunes"->"File"->"Add to Library" and browse to whatever music you want.

Originally posted by St.John:

What's the standard way of installing applications? I've stuck a few extras on it, and I'm not sure whether to install into my home directory or the communal Applications folder.

Standard way is to just drag and drop in "Applications" unless it comes with an installer. You can put them whereever you want, but Applications (or subfolders thereof) is the standard place.

Originally posted by St.John:

The little Union Jack signifying that I have the UK keyboard selected really cheers me up, for some reason!

Cuz it your British ?

Originally posted by St.John:

Why does everything feel so fast?

Dunno. New installation ? Multi-tasking in OS X is great, so that probably helps. I haven't use a Win laptop in a while so I don't know how fast the new ones feel .

Originally posted by St.John:

If anybody could reccommend some good general utilities I'd be very grateful!

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?threadid=166751

[krux`]

So how did the problem of trying to get the screw's come out on trying to get that screw-driver the right size, did it come with one, or did you have to buy it seperatly

[nagromme]

I let iTunes organize everything for me--it creates folders for new artists, etc. automatically and I never need to think about it.

To make custom sets from your library--playlists, not folders--just select what you want and drag it into the iTunes left bar. Then choose a name for the playlist.

Drag and drop does a LOT on Mac, I'm always finding new things that are so much easier if I just drag! Try this: highlight some text, click and HOLD, then drag it to your desktop. Later, drag it from there into another document. I do this to store "to do" items out of emails people send me. Once done, I trash each clipping.

Remember that the Dock is just a quick-launch bar, NOT actual files. Removing an icon from the Dock doesn't delete the app itself.

Handy trick: command-click an app or folder icon in the Dock. Finder will locate the original file for you.

[St.John]

Originally posted by krux`:
So how did the problem of trying to get the screw's come out on trying to get that screw-driver the right size, did it come with one, or did you have to buy it seperatly

After asking around, I eventually found one small enough - none of my usual little computer screwdrivers was the correct size. You may have to buy one if there isn't one to hand I'm afraid!

[NemesisEG]

Hi St. John,

Well done on the purchase! I'm in the market for the 12" Powerbook, but I think I'll have to wait until January now.

Still, the 17" iMac has done me proud for 14 months now (has it really been that long?) and I'm still in love with the machine.

[gperks]

I used a #0 2.4mm screwdriver. It fit perfectly. They're not your usual screwdrivers - they look more like jewelers tools! They're easy to find in a hardware store. The screws are tiny, so you need a tiny screwdriver.

[mc786030]

I got my 12"PB a while back and I love it, my only beef is that there are NO GAMES!! well...good games at least. I guess I have to compromise sometimes.

[OMGWTFBBQ]

I finally got an account working - I had been lurking here under the account "stenz" but couldn't post - it turns out that my spam filter on my server would swallow the notices from the board, including the one that initializes your start into the board - and there doesn't seem to be a way to get that sent again if you missed the first one.

Anyway, I have long been a Linux/FreeBSD/Windows person and have long hated Macs. I have used them on and off all the way up until 10.3 and couldn't stand them - but I will say that they were getting better and better after OS X came along, but there were still reasons for me to not like them.
As of Panther, I now have more reasons to like them over Windows than I do to dislike them - they are my desktop OS of choice for the time being - and perhaps for a long time.

My HP laptop (which was essentially an HP branded Sager anyway) was really great for me, but the fan on the heatsink fan died once I moved here and started bringing my laptop back and forth from work to home everyday.
I decided to break down and get whatever the best quality laptop hardware was and then make a decision on the OS from there.
I only use laptops for my real work, I have them on my lap for real, and I ssh into servers around the world for various reasons to do command line stuff on programs that I have running in clusters.
I am fine with Linux, so I decided that I would give the PowerBook a shot to see if it is as great as everyone says. I liked the look of the TiBooks, and then just as I was looking, out came the AlBooks - they were faster and I had read that they were cooler (as in temp, not as in style).
That did it for me and I shelled out way more than any PC laptop would cost me.

I have had it 15 days now.

My day job is that I am a Windows network admin for a hedge fund administration firm. My side job is that I own a technical analysis firm, as well as an internet consulting firm.

Things I like:
1) Beautiful. The OS is like Movie OS, the hardware is shiny, thin, light, and sturdy feeling. The only downside is that I don't want to hurt the damn thing after paying so much for it.

2) Expose is great.

3) I like how easy it is to install things (although I seem to be unable to get Fink working properly). I like that if something isn't normally on the dock, you can start the program, and then drag the icon off of the dock and then back onto it and that seems to do the trick - once you close out, it is there - nifty (I've noticed that I've said nifty more times now that I have this machine than I have ever said before).

4) The power supply has the flip out things that allow me to easily wrap the cord around. Also the tip of it lights up to let me know its status (charging or not).

5) The networking is very low maintenance - the wireless and ethernet just works (at work I have ethernet, at home wireless).

6) The desktop pictures changing - a little thing and you can easily do it on Windows too - but for whatever reason I like it better on the Mac.

7) Many of the keyboard shortcuts, especially apple-L in Safari are very nice.

8) The terminal.app allows me to do apple-c and v and that doesn't conflict with what Unix cares about - very nice. I can also jump around with the cursor and the mouse - very nearly xemacs functionality. Got emacs to do syntax hilighting on code, but I don't have color ls, and my ssh sessions are likely not sending the proper terminal client info over since I have no color there either.

9) I like that Panther is less candy coated in appearance - I used duller colors in the appearance menu and it is nice.

There are likely very many more things that I like, but I usually don't think of them all of the time and are instead things I stumble upon and then say "oh, that's nice".


Things I dislike:
1) They are already pricey, then the fact that I live in Bermuda now makes it that much moreso. I had to order it as if I lived in NYC, have it shipped there, and then brought here. If I went through a dealer here, my laptop would have been about $5K.

2) Safari. I like, even love, much about it. But there are major huge things I don't like. I wish that there were a real Google Toolbar for it. One that has the words from the search on the bar with it - so then when you are on a page, you can click on the word and it shows where in the page that word is. And I want buttons so that I can search on either the images, the web, or the newsgroups. I want the button to go up a directory.
I also wish there were iSpell with the automatic red underlines in the textboxes of Safari.
But worst of all - Safari and Java applets are awful. If I load a crossword puzzle off of games.yahoo.com, I can rest assured that it will die after a few mins - and even if I close that page - it will slow all of Safari down soon. then if I do an apple-q, it will do the rainbow spinner on me for a few minutes until I go to the app manager and force quit the program.
And then finally, if I am typing something in a text box and make a mistake - in Windows I could just do an undo and it would... undo it. In the Mac world it just acts as if I am insane - it is like "undo what?" Also, Safari just freezes up at times. If I am just reading a web page, I don't care if Safari freezes up - no biggie. But i I am trading and watching stocks during trading hours - to have to stop the process and then start it up again takes enough time that I could miss a trade - this is not at all a good thing and nearly a deal breaker. The other option is to use a front end into the brokerages that works on Macs - those are all Java applets - and we have already discussed that Mac sucks with those.

3) The keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard is a love hate for me. I like the look, I like the backlight. But I type very quickly and all day long on this thing. It leaves my fingers feeling weird and if a nail scrapes the keys, it feels like dragging your fingers over a chalkboard. I never got that on my old laptop's plastic keys. I *HATE* the trackpad. Accelaration is always turn on - that isn't good. The button is too soft, and it doesn't respond equally depending on where you press. When I tell other Mac lovers this, they just tell me to get the Bluetooth mouse. Sure, I would love to - except that I use the laptop on my lap 75% of the time. I do not want to carry extra stuff around and then seek out a surface for the mouse in order to get work done.

4) I have the white spots in the screen. Worse yet, I can't do anything about it, regardless of what Apple says that they will do. Unless they change their stand on Bermuda. Plus, this is my computer - I can in no way live without it for any period of tiime - so I can't jjust send it out to be fixed, and they don't fix them here. Oh well.

5) I wish the screen was a higher resolution - that said, I don't have any burnt out pixels yet.

6) The "fn" key in the lower left. That is THE worst place that they could put it. I use the "fn" key only a few times a day - that means that I would much prefer that the eject key in the top right of the keyboard (which I have not used at all yet) were replaced with the "fn" key - or the enter key on the lower right - I have not touched that at all. The "fn" current placement is where the ctrl key is on Intel laptops, which means that is what I have used for years when using Unix commands. Much in the same way that some want the CapsLock key to be the strl - I don't want to have to dodge the fn key in order to get to the ctrl - I can never do it right and the only saving grace is that thankfully the fn key plus the keyboard keys I tend to hit hasn't yet resulted in any unwanted behavior aside from the lack of my intended keystroke.
It also slows me down in Unix, which is really really really annoying considering how fast I normally type.

7) I got to really like Active State's Komodo when I was on Windows. They don't have it for OS X - I miss it. I have tried out BBEdit and don't like it, and XCode seems to be pretty good, but not for Perl (it will do syntax coloring).

8) XCode and I a few editors that I have toyed with tab in a way that is not normal to me. In Windows I can hi-lite several lines, hit Tab, and it will indent those lines. In Mac I do the same and it erases those lines. Does that mean I have to indent each line individually? Good lord I hope not.

9) The standard frustration that all of the software I had to buy for my PC is now useless and I have to buy all of the same stuff over again for the Mac. Fortunately there is the free software world, and I will likely try to write some stuff for myself as well.

I have hated Macs for so long that I feel so dirty now that I love them so much. I rationalize it all in that I was an art major, so I can appreciate the beauty and design quality, and I am an engineer, so I can appreciate the Unix side of things.
I essentially think it as the best windowing system on top of Unix.

I love it - I have even decided to get a new phone to work with it - my current phone (Nokia 8890) currently has a nice look with it (I think it too is aluminum), but it doesn't have Bluetooth - so I am going to wait until the T630 is out and then get that.
Also, in a few years I will be back in the States while my wife gets her PhD, and in that time, I think I will have a home office with dual LCDs and maybe even a desktop system.

I have noticed a total lack of the software that I use all of the time in my various job positions, and I have noticed that Xcode is great and seems to have some good documentation - so I might even start porting equivalent programs over to Mac OS X as a new job role.

In the end, I'm a long winded Mac convert - hold me, it feels so wrong.

[zpaine]

As far as iTunes, I assume that you are looking for more organization since you say that you don't want song just to be dumped into the "main library".

The left pane of the window is used for looking at your music in different ways (ie. playlists) rather than organization.

If you want to see your music in a more separated manner (genre, artist, album), trying clicking the "Browse" button in the upper right hand corner of the window.

[neilw]

Originally posted by OMGWTFBBQ:
I like that if something isn't normally on the dock, you can start the program, and then drag the icon off of the dock and then back onto it and that seems to do the trick - once you close out, it is there - nifty

You actually don't have to drag it off then on again; just drag it to a new location on the dock and it'll stay there afterwards.

5) The networking is very low maintenance - the wireless and ethernet just works (at work I have ethernet, at home wireless).

This is one area where I have found that OSX just kicks the crap out of Windows. It is *so* easy to change locations with hardly any fuss.

I also wish there were iSpell with the automatic red underlines in the textboxes of Safari.

You can enable this: Edit -> Spelling -> Check Spelling as you type

3) I *HATE* the trackpad. Accelaration is always turn on - that isn't good. The button is too soft, and it doesn't respond equally depending on where you press.

Interesting. I'm not a huge fan of trackpads in general, but I find the PowerBook pad to be OK. I have the speed set right in the middle.

As for the button, I hardly ever use it, having instead enabled tapping the trackpad for button click.

6) The "fn" key in the lower left. That is THE worst place that they could put it.

Unfortunately, uControl *used* to have the ability to remap the "fn" key, but no more. Maybe you should email the developers and see if there's any hope of getting that function back.

I do, however, use the function key plenty, mostly in combination with the arrow keys for page up and page down. I also have uControl's trackpad scrolling enabled, using the "fn" key as the modifier.

Since you can't currently get rid of the fn key, maybe you can find a way to make more use out of it.

Originally posted by St.John:
The little Union Jack signifying that I have the UK keyboard selected really cheers me up, for some reason!

If you get tired of looking at it, you can turn it off in the International system preferences, using the checkbox at the bottom left of the "input menu" tab.

Why does everything feel so fast?

I have found that, rather than "fast", I would describe it as "fluid". Everything feels very smooth under OSX, and Panther has certainly made things smoother.

[Montanan]

Originally posted by OMGWTFBBQ:
Safari. I like, even love, much about it. But there are major huge things I don't like. I wish that there were a real Google Toolbar for it. One that has the words from the search on the bar with it - so then when you are on a page, you can click on the word and it shows where in the page that word is. And I want buttons so that I can search on either the images, the web, or the newsgroups. I want the button to go up a directory.
I also wish there were iSpell with the automatic red underlines in the textboxes of Safari.

Welcome to the Mac world! I switched from Windows a couple of years ago, myself, and I never looked back.

I agree with a lot of your judgments, pro and con, but here are suggestions for a couple of your Safari issues:

1. Go to the Edit / Spelling menu, and turn on "Check spelling as you type." That'll give you the red underlines you're looking for.

2. As a substitute for the Google toolbar, take a look at a Safari plugin called Sogudi -- after a little customization, you'll find it to be a far more powerful substitute.

Though Safari's SnapBack feature is really better in some ways, I miss the toolbar's ability to go up one directory level, too. (I never remember to mark a page for SnapBack when I should ...)

[johnpg]

Originally posted by OMGWTFBBQ:
Fink working properly

There were some issues with the first Fink for 10.3. Do yourself a favor and remove /sw, download the latest Fink and go from there.

8) The terminal.app allows me to do apple-c and v and that doesn't conflict with what Unix cares about - very nice. I can also jump around with the cursor and the mouse - very nearly xemacs functionality. Got emacs to do syntax hilighting on code, but I don't have color ls, and my ssh sessions are likely not sending the proper terminal client info over since I have no color there either.

Panther now includes a color capable ls. See the man page, or have a look at macosxhints.com. I know there was a hint about enabling that at some point.

Cheers,
John

[OMGWTFBBQ]

Oh - I had noticed the "Check Spelling As You Type" thing before - but it was grayed out - I didn't think to look again while actually typing something.
*smacks forehead*

I have been using the "fn" key with the arrow keys for paging down - but I could use that equally well where the eject key is.
I will try e-mailing the uConnect people to see if there is an issue with moving in Panther and that is why it isn't there.

Installing apps on this is incredibly easy. I love it - when I was in college I wanted to flaunt my geek cred by showing that I could do all of the Linux stuff - but lately all I want to do is get work done and I want as little issues along the way.
Mac OS X sure seems like the perfect option right now. Expensive, but I guess worth it for me.
(I will say that it still bugs me when I see the switch ads where they seemed to be targeting people too dumb to use anything else - that to me seems a bad way to go - but what do I know)

Anyway - thanks everyone! Hopefully I can learn more quickly and get caught up - especially in terms of writing software for the Mac.

[OMGWTFBBQ]

Also for those that say that it is so much faster - I don't see the speed difference over anything else I have used.

And in terms of what I actually do - one of my Perl scripts which I use to benchmark my systems runs much slower on my new AlBook (1.25Ghz G4).
The script runs in 2 seconds on my HP laptop with WinXP Home and an Athlon 4 1Ghz, 1 second on a server with FreeBSD and an Athlon XP 2200+, and 4 seconds on my AlBook.

But I don't do much on the laptop that requires it to be fast - it is surely fast enough for what I need to do and surely must have areas in which it is optimized (which is obviously not an area that my Perl script uses) - I just wish it would run even cooler in terms of temp (I keep the thing on my laptop with my feet up while I sit in the couch at home).

[Shaddim]

Originally posted by St.John:
After asking around, I eventually found one small enough - none of my usual little computer screwdrivers was the correct size. You may have to buy one if there isn't one to hand I'm afraid!

Those little screwdrivers that have a philips on one end, a standard on the other, and a pocket clip set into a solid plastic tube work perfectly for this (and tons of places give them away as a form of advertising). I always have one in my shirt pocket for just such situations... not that I'm a computer geek or anything. I AM an Apple tech by trade, s'pose it's an occupational hazard.

[wy4tt]

first off, this has been a great thread for me, as i'm a switcher also. the more time i spend with this pb (1.25) the more i like/prefer it. several of the issues i've noticed have been addressed here, but still have a few questions.
1. is there a way to speed up the delete/backspace action? when holding delete down to remove text, it's pretty slow.
2. is there a way to set icons (thumbnails) quickly for different folders?
3. is it true that i can now take over the world with this computer?

[jendmb34]

i can't wait to get my 15" pb in a few weeks. i too am a switcher. i'll have to bookmark this thread.

[OMGWTFBBQ]

Originally posted by wy4tt:
first off, this has been a great thread for me, as i'm a switcher also. the more time i spend with this pb (1.25) the more i like/prefer it. several of the issues i've noticed have been addressed here, but still have a few questions.
1. is there a way to speed up the delete/backspace action? when holding delete down to remove text, it's pretty slow.
2. is there a way to set icons (thumbnails) quickly for different folders?
3. is it true that i can now take over the world with this computer?

On my computers I always set the keyboard repeat rate as high as possible - so the answer to number 1 there I know is found in the system settings under the keyboard stuff.

The highest setting and the next notch down are a big difference - the highest setting is just about right for me, but slightly too fast - the next notch down is useless again.

I like having the repeat rate high for when doing code and I want to draw lines in comments.

As for 2, I recognize those words, but I have no idea what they mean when all together, so I'll just skip that part.

As for taking over the world, if there is anything I have learned from movies - you should at least be able to give alien spaceships a virus with this thing.

[Krusty]

Originally posted by wy4tt:

2. is there a way to set icons (thumbnails) quickly for different folders?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean ... but maybe this option from Finder-->View-->Show View Options: check the box that says "Show Icon Preview". Up top there is a slider that let's you make Icons anywhere from 16 to 128 pixels in size and an option button that lets you apply the settings to "this folder" or "all folders"

*Note: you will need to do this from an actual finder window with a sidebar in order to get all of the options above. There are slightly fewer settings available if you're accessing view options for the desktop only.

[wy4tt]

thanks to you both. you've answered my questions (except the taking over the world part, but i can think about that later). now if i hadn't found the "spots" i'd be perfectly happy. i just don't want to have to be without this thing during repairs! thanks again!

[wy4tt]

Originally posted by Krusty:
I'm not sure exactly what you mean ... but maybe this option from Finder-->View-->Show View Options: check the box that says "Show Icon Preview". Up top there is a slider that let's you make Icons anywhere from 16 to 128 pixels in size and an option button that lets you apply the settings to "this folder" or "all folders"

*Note: you will need to do this from an actual finder window with a sidebar in order to get all of the options above. There are slightly fewer settings available if you're accessing view options for the desktop only.

guess i don't quite understand something. when i have a folder with a lot of jpg's, the icons aren't thumbnails of the actual pic, just an icon. is there a way to view them as actual thumbnails in an ordinary folder? for instance, in xp if you have a folder containing pics, you can have a thumbnails view that shows tiny pics of the actual pic. hope that made sense.

[workerbee]

Originally posted by St.John:
If anybody could reccommend some good general utilities I'd be very grateful!

To quote VMPaul in the thread mentioned above:

LaunchBar
LaunchBar and
LaunchBar
Thoth
Hotapp

Did I mention LaunchBar?

Just making sure you don't miss it

[Krusty]

Originally posted by wy4tt:
guess i don't quite understand something. when i have a folder with a lot of jpg's, the icons aren't thumbnails of the actual pic, just an icon. is there a way to view them as actual thumbnails in an ordinary folder? for instance, in xp if you have a folder containing pics, you can have a thumbnails view that shows tiny pics of the actual pic. hope that made sense.

I thought that is what I answered above .. Finder-->View -->Show View Options --> Check the box that says "Show Icon Preview" ---> watch jpgs magically become thumbnailed pics. If you are in any finder window other than the desktop you will also have the option to select "this window only" or "all windows". NOW .. having said that, there is some goofiness with the finder's ability to show the thumbnails .. it doesn't work with pdfs and it fails to work occasionally with some files. To remedy this permanently ... download
Pic2Icon . It will force thumbnails on all graphics types including pdfs.

[wy4tt]

Originally posted by Krusty:
I thought that is what I answered above .. Finder-->View -->Show View Options --> Check the box that says "Show Icon Preview" ---> watch jpgs magically become thumbnailed pics. If you are in any finder window other than the desktop you will also have the option to select "this window only" or "all windows". NOW .. having said that, there is some goofiness with the finder's ability to show the thumbnails .. it doesn't work with pdfs and it fails to work occasionally with some files. To remedy this permanently ... download
Pic2Icon . It will force thumbnails on all graphics types including pdfs.

i know it's what you answered, and maybe i'm just an idiot (quite possible) but the "Show Icon Preview" doesn't show up in some folders. for example, older folders that i move jpg's to, will not show the preview option. it lists "Date Modified, Date Created" etc. but not preview. maybe that's what you were referring to when you said it fails with some files. it does work on new folders that i drag jpg's into. anyway, i'll get it figured out. thanks again for the help, and thanks for the link. i'm installing that app now.