Just bought a macbook - how do I use it?????

seaweasel

The G5 and Intel Macs are much faster than the G4s. What do you mean regarding the internet not being as accessible?

The new Intel Macs also let you run Windows, either by dual-booting, or you can run Windows within Mac OSX using Parallels (which is good for occasional use but not as fast as if you were booting into Windows).

neilwoods made a good summary above, although I wouldn't say that there was less software available (with the exception of games, however this is less of an issue now with dual booting). Office and most popular applications have a Mac version or equivalent

ABH_3

seaweasel wrote: »

Can we have ONE thread about Macs without starting a flame war?

I know it is. I've seen it for myself all be it in a linux forum. Anyway, this isn't a 'flame war' if it was, it would be 200 odd pages in length and confusing to follow.

macosx.com is very friendly and the tone ranges from noobs and switchers to more hardcore stuff because it covers a lot of ground. They also do free tech support (I used to be a volunteer tech there).

Oh you little kidder, I know that's not true. As 'Macs just work', I know I've seen the adverts!

As I also said, there are loads of tutorials around, have a Google.

I've been a Mac user for along time but I also use Windows and have a lot of tech savvy friends who have PCs (or both). Most of us with any experience of the two platforms know about their pros and cons, and it's very unconstructive to bash either on a forum with a lot of inexperienced computer users.

It's hardly unconstructive, PC's are criticised just as much as Mac's. I thought those that owned Macs were supposed to be 'free thinkers' and 'open to new ideas'.

I know that some people get irritated by Mac zealots, but "MACs r teh suxxx0r, get a real comp!!!!! lolzxzz" comments are just as bad. In fact considering that Windows has been getting steadily better since 2000/XP, and that the Intel Macs can run Windows as well, these arguments are getting more and more redundant.

Indeed they are, the Macs today are infact a PC in a smaller chasis. The only thing that makes them Macs is infact the small form factor, the livery and the Operating System. Some might say Mac lost and the PC won. Not me of course, as I don't want to turn this into a flame war. But some might hold that opinion. Does it make a difference? Not really IMO to each their own.

To the zealots of either platform, get a life. The OP appears to have ditched this thread but if they or anyone else need any Mac help, I'm happy to offer it, as are many other people.

I've replied to this thread as its obviously my post you had an issue with. Don't get me wrong, I've got a Mac Mini myself, I'm using it as a HTPC in the bedroom with a view to installing http://centerstageproject.com at a later date.

I've read lots of interesting discussions on various forums, particularly:

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/
http://forums.macrumors.com/
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/

I like my Mac Mini, the one thing that made me laugh was opening the outter packaging case to find a small grey box seemlessly integrated into the polystyrene surrounding the mac. Upon the box in small white writing in contrast to the overall grey colour is 'inspired by Apple in California'. It made me laugh for the simple reason that I'd not read such a pointless statement than that for quite a while. But that doesn't detract from the Mac itself, which is a very small and neat looking machine that I can use to play my media on as I drift off to sleep.

neilwoods

Some of the mainstream software is available for PC & Mac. But there is a lot of software out there for PC only, mainly the smaller applications. But as seaweasel points out, with dual booting, you can have the best of both worlds.

niccy - do you mean get an iMac or any mac to run windows. The new Intel based iMac is a seriously good piece of equipment, i use the 24 inch iMac at work. Get some good widgets for it. The remote control is good little touch, way you can just stick to side of screen. If you are looking for at an iMac, 1 thing i would say is try to get it with 2gb of memory (i know memory is cheap these days, but 1gb comes in 2 x 512mb mem and to upgrade to 2gb, you have to buy 2gb, as only 2 mem slots)

Hopefully in a few months, will be using the new mac pro (dual quad core xeon) with 16gb mem. Now thats a MAC

niccy

seaweasel wrote: »

The G5 and Intel Macs are much faster than the G4s. What do you mean regarding the internet not being as accessible?

You must appreciate it was my First mac, are all websites mac compatible ?
i just had loads of problems surfing,pages not opening completley, it must admit i could have been my fault,but it did make me rush back to a PC

seaweasel

In theory, it doesn't matter what computer you use to view a website, however you do get variations between browsers. The only platform issue you'll get is occasional sites requiring Windows only stuff such as DirectX, some other sites require Internet Explorer 6 through laziness on the developer's part. This is also a problem for Windows or Linux users browsing with anything other than Internet Explorer however.

From the little information about the problem you encountered though, it sounds more likely to have been something up with the connection rather than the browser or OS.

Sharky!

One key reason I'm using Windows is that I get it free through university But then again, I probably would use it anyway. It's pretty much what I've been brought up with, and windows itself has not crashed for me. 3rd party programs have crashed, but not windows!