[nylug-talk] My PC laptop dies. I am having to use a Mac.

[Henning Follmann]

On Mon, Oct 22, 2007 at 11:27:19AM -0400, Ajai Khattri wrote:
> On Sat, 20 Oct 2007, Brandorr wrote:
> 
> > - Fusion or Parallels?
> 
> In the past, Ive liked Parallels quite a lot but Fusion is much better.
> (If you want free, try VirtualBox).
> 
I second that. Fusion is actually _much_ better.

> > - How do you do system administration of the underlying OS?
> 
> Depends. Its a BSD derivative (more or less). You can use the command-line 
> (sudo in a Terminal) to edit files but generally I dont mess with it too 
> much because updates could overwrite your changes. Also, Apple have their 
> own tools for certain things that you dont find in "classic" UNIX.
>

Here again, I had very strange results after updates when I managed
certain things the "unix way".
If you want to administer a mac you better learn how to do it the "apple
way". I found out that actually almost everything can be set with
defaults and then it works quite good.
But I use it just now as a pretty desktop and don't mess with it at all.
I have development environments running in virtual boxes (all running
debian or freeBSD) or developmachines I ssh into.
I actually moved away from Mac OS X Server back to linux again.
I still think it is a good product if you stay with what apple provides
you with, but if you want to do anything above the ordinary you are
better using a linux distro.

> > - What is the best browser? Opera, Safari, Ffox, or Camino
> 
> Firefox is generally very very good.
> 
> > - Are there any good IMAP clients that index your stores for fast searching?
> 
> Dont know - I use Thunderbird (but mainly because I dont like Apple Mail 
> much), but Apple Mail has Spotlight searching...

I have the same problem. I actually like mutt but the integration into
spotlight is actually a great feature.
I hate the threading from Mail.app. If you read mailinglist a lot don't
use it.


> 
> > - Is fink the way to go for Opensource apps?
> 
> I think so (though Ive been using Prefix Portage for this at work).
> 

Darwin ports or manual compile/install here



[...]
> 
> > - What is supposed to be so good about Mac OS X?
> 
well it is a nice bundle of applications for the average user.
For me it's that it's a freeBSD under the hood and I like iTunes. That
sums it up.

[...]
> 
> > - Are there any "must have" apps I should go download?
> 
> For playing Windows media, look at Flip4Mac (adds WM to QuickTime Player).
> 
> GUI tweaks, grab TinkerTool2.
> 
> I have a lot of Mac versions of open source apps installed.
> 
> For Open Office, find and install NeoOffice.

no, I hate it, but that said I hate {*}office in general. They all suck!

> 
> I have GIMP (needs X11) and Audacity installed.

OK Gimp seems to be loved by the OSS folks and ok it's the best you can
get but it still is not that great.
One reason I still use Mac OS is that certain programs just don't
compete with some comercial ones and GIMP is one of them.
There is also no decent replacement for Aperture or Lightroom.

> 
> (For X11, you can get that from the install/developer CDs that come with 
> the machine).
> 
> For torrents, I use Tomato Torrent.
> 
> Grab VLC and ffmpegX for video playback and conversion. I also have 
> mplayer for OS X.
> 

get Handbrake too. 

> I use Desktop Manager for virtual desktops (though the next release of OS 
> X will maybe remove the need for it).
> 
> I use synergy to share my mouse+keyboard across Mac and Linux at home 
> (there is a GUI tool for Mac too but Ive never used it).
> 
> I have all the developer tools installed, which are on the CDs that come 
> with the machine.
> 

Download the most current from the apple developer page. The one on the
disk are always very outdated.



Henning

-- 
Henning Follmann           | hfollmann at itcfollmann.com
it consultant              | www.itcfollmann.com