Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

emuexplosion · Nov 29, 2004, 02:55 PM

Hi guys,

I'm new.

And not just to these forums. I'm new to the whole Mac thing. I've used them before sure, just have never owned one before.

Well, I bought a Sony S270 (1.8, Gig of memory, 60gig, 9700m 64meg, 13.3 xbrite screen), kept it for a few days, and just got back from the FedEx store to ship it back. The screen was the best in the world however the fan on that thing was louder than my desktop at times. I am a gamer, and have a good deal of fans, so if that gives you an idea of how loud that little sucker was.

Anywho, out with the old....

And in with the new....

I plan on getting a 15" PowerBook with the Super drive and AppleCare, and that 160 gigstick of memory from outpost.com

So, I might be apart of the family soon..? heh.

I guess my only question is.. how long will it take me to learn the Mac OS?

I'm a pc gamer, work at Best Buy.. "Geek Squad".. shutup, and I know windows like the back of my hand. (and my extensive knowledge of how to work regedit manually to get rid of spyware, I guess I won't have to use that ) At times I think I know more about their OS than Microsoft does. And if I get this PowerBook, I want to be the same way. I want to know everything, and I guess it will take time. I just hope I won't have a really hard time, or make it harder on myself.

Anywho, just wanted to say hi. I've noticed there are a lot of Mac forums on the internet all directed towards peer to peer help, so if I have questions, I'll let them fly.

-emu

cpac · Nov 29, 2004, 03:11 PM

first of all, welcome to Macintosh!

In terms of "learning" OS X, it's a matter of degree. You can learn all the things you need or can do with the GUI relatively quickly and easily. Come here if you have questions, or look over at OS X Hints.com (I forget the exact URL).

However, beyond that, there pretty much all of Unix out there to learn - several scripting languages, CLI fun, etc. You can install and run many open-source programs via Fink, us X11 as a windowing environment, etc.

The beauty of a mac is that you don't need to know any of that stuff to get things done, but it's there if you want it.

Potentially more useful is Applescript - worth looking at a bit and learning at least the basics of. (I managed to write a plug-in for the address book to automatically format and address a letter in TextEdit via a pop-up menu in Address Book with my fairly limited Applescripting skills). Apple provides a pretty good tutorial for free from their developer site.

Welcome - enjoy!

wuzup101 · Nov 29, 2004, 03:38 PM

If you're good with PCs already then you'll pretty much figure out everything you need to know in the first day... and you'll figure out any additional stuff when you have a problem or just want to learn more. OSX is simple compared to windows. It's well organized, functional, and a joy to use (yes this is my first mac too!). Anyway, welcome to the forums and to the platform. I'm sure you will enjoy that 15" powerbook when you get it.

jstein · Nov 29, 2004, 03:57 PM

Yes cpac is right welcome to the world of Macintosh and welcome to this community. Macnn is a great community so sit back and enjoy the ride. Emuexplosion you will have no problems learning Mac OS X, the learning curve is pretty simple. We you get a chance purchase Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac. If you are a student pickup the teacher / student edition it is not too expensive or pick up the professional edition which contains a copy of Virtual PC 7. Virtual PC 7 gives you the ability to run PC programs on your Mac; with this all of your PC programs will not go to waste.

Plus if you purchase, Microsoft Office 2004, automatically you will get see the beauty of the Mac OS X system at his best compare how Office 2004 looks on the Mac platform to the PC platform.

As for as learning the OS X pick up a copy of, Mac OS X The Missing Manual one of the best books for learning Mac OS X, if you search around you may find used copy for a little or nothing. Well, I hope this helps and keep us posted��

emuexplosion · Nov 29, 2004, 09:08 PM

Well..

I just got it..

Haven't opened the box, but I wanted to thank you for welcoming me, that basicly was the thing I needed, to see a community that was willing to help others, and you are.

So.. next time I write a reply, I'll be on the other side

gbarill · Nov 30, 2004, 11:18 PM

everyone on here has good advice, but i would give you this advice: since you know windows so well, you're obviously well versed in computers - so a "learning mac os x" book would be a total waste of money for you. all of the information (and i mean ALL of it, and more) in those books is available for free on the net, if you can't figure it out yourself. plus the books get outdated as soon as a new version of mac os x comes out.
so save your money (plus those books tend to be expensive! buy software or hardware with the money instead)

emuexplosion · Nov 30, 2004, 11:23 PM

Cool,

Great advice there, I was just thinking about getting one of those too. LOL.

Well, I setup printers by myself, I was going to hunt down a tutorial but decided to try it without knowing how. And I did it. I have a print server with 2 printers on it and managed to set both of them up correctly first try.

So, I'm not totally lost

Overall my thoughts on the powerbook so far, hardware wise, WOW.. awesome, this thing is silent. like dead silent. Which is what I wanted. Software wise.. all very cool, still getting used to it, and it seems like someone used their noodle when coding this stuff

-emu

gbarill · Dec 1, 2004, 04:05 AM

also if you use bittorrent *cough*
you can get some of those books for free online as well...
*shifty eyes*

wuzup101 · Dec 1, 2004, 11:30 AM

Yeah good point on not buying the books... I personally bought one and I didn't even bother reading it. I just think I got it b/c i was so excited that my PB was comming I wanted to read up. Generally for someone who's already well versed in computers you wont have any problems. Any problems that you do have you can get help here without a problem...

Hope you're enjoying your powerbook... I'm sure you enjoyed the box... the box gets everyone... it's so sexy

jstein · Dec 1, 2004, 02:09 PM

emuexplosion, on your powerbook embrace and enjoy. Everyone I know reading books is on the decline in this day and age especially in the age group of 18 - 34. Still there is nothing wrong with a reference book for Mac OS X in your collection. If you take into consideration how many people are actually under utilizing Mac OS X a little guidebook is not such a bad idea. The whole things of a book for an operating system being outdated as soon as you buy it is overkill somewhat.

Unless you are a person who is struck with the, I have must have the latest and greatest of everything, you can get buy with one guide per operating system. The upgrades that happen from time to time are not such a vast improvement that you need a new book. Once you understand the system you understand. Yet instill having a reference book in your corner is not such a bad idea.