Moving to the dark side.. a Mac Book Pro!

[Speedy3]

Just ordered a nice little package

MacBook Pro, 17-inch, Aluminium
Part Number: Z0G5
320GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm 065-8140
Accessory Kit B065-8158
iWork '09 preinstalled 065-8643
2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 065-8135
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) 065-8145
Backlit Keyboard (British) & User’s Guide (English) B065-8155
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB 065-8138
MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy Widescreen Display 065-8646

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Delivered in 7-10 days, Im excited!




Is there any worth while applications for the Mac's? Always been a Windows User prior, but making the move for the better!

Im interested in Graphic Design, Web Design and Media

Any recommendations of programs greatly appreciated

Perry
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Current bike: 2005 Triumph Speed Triple 1050 :: Previous Bikes: 2001 Kawasaki ZZR-600 E9 (Sold) 1996 Yamaha Diversion 600s (Sold),1997 Honda CB250 Nighthawk (Sold), 1988 Honda VFR 400 NC24 (Written Off), 1987 Honda CB350 S-G (Sold), Yamaha DT125 (Sold), Honda X8R-S 50cc (Stolen)

[Charlie]

Don't get word! Well at least pay for Microsoft Word, it doesn't work with spaces very well.

For programming I use MacVim, and my ftp client is cyberduck.

Learn to use the built in stuff for mac. I hardly ever view the application menu any more. Simply press space and the apple button together and this opens spotlight, finds stuff on the computer. I type in the program I want to launch (normal top hit within seconds) and press enter. Also good for find files etc.

When in finder and you want to view a document just press space and it will open in 'quick view' nice and useful.

Just play around with it and learn to get use to it. Took me a month to get use to (this is at college) and then about 3-4 months after that to like it. Two years later after my first real experience with a mac I bought myself a macbook. Love it.

If you get stuck on anything just post up as there are a few of us mac users and I am sure we will be able to help!
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere

[Speedy3]

Cheers for the offer mate, i'll let you know if i get stuck with it!
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Current bike: 2005 Triumph Speed Triple 1050 :: Previous Bikes: 2001 Kawasaki ZZR-600 E9 (Sold) 1996 Yamaha Diversion 600s (Sold),1997 Honda CB250 Nighthawk (Sold), 1988 Honda VFR 400 NC24 (Written Off), 1987 Honda CB350 S-G (Sold), Yamaha DT125 (Sold), Honda X8R-S 50cc (Stolen)

[rc211v]

congratulations! your life will never be the same.
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VFR400 (NC30)

[Dom]

Get Transmit for FTP and Coda for (whoddathunk) coding. See Panic.com for both.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Placed the order and THEN asked if there's any worthwhile software? Apple are gonna love you....


____________________
Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[G]

Using a Macbook pro to type this, unfortunately I can't install this outright myself, but I recommend you get this
https://www.powerpage.org/archives/images/microsoft/windows-xp-pro-box.jpg

[The Artist]

[JonB]

I know most Mac users recommend "iTart your ego and iPersonality configurator". I believe it is compatible with the "Superiority Complex Module" that you can get from the Apple UK site for £329, it is made of pure grade A paper.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[Dom]

God, you're all so bitter.

[G]

[Bendy]

Having lived with my new iMac for a week now... there's really not that much bloody difference between it and an XP machine.

The user interface is similar and I've managed to crash the Mac twice so that's wiped the smug look off it's face.

There might be fundamental difference in HOW they both do things but for day to day work they're virtually identical to the end user. All the 'this one's better than that one' stuff is just people being tossers.

[Dom]

[Bendy]

[Dom]

Very true, how forgetful of me.

[nowhere.elysium]

Heh. I fix Macs for a living, so it's always funny to hear the 'Hail Jobs!' brigade come out.
The MacBook Pro is a fairly nice machine, although the chassis quality isn't all that. Treat it like it's some kind of holy relic, and you won't have any major problems. Treat it like a normal plastic-shelled laptop, and it'll get covered in dings and scrapes. Trust me on this.

If you need software/someone to help sort hardware/OS problems out, give me a shout.
I'd also recommend that when it's delivered, you re-install the OS immediately, without any of the bloated crap like GarageBand, iMovie HD or such bollocks installed. The installation procedure is easy as you like, but, as I say, I'm game to offer a hand if needed. It'll run a bit faster, and you'll redeem a fair bit of HD space, too. You can do this by selecting 'Customize' when you're using the discs to re-install. Gimme a shout and I'll do a walkthrough, if you like.
Office-wise, Office 08 is ok, as is Openoffice. I've never bothered with iLife, purely because I think that series of software is iArse.

Also, turn Time Machine off. It's crap, of the highest order. It's a really poor attempt at making something consumer-grade that isn't necessary, just like having RAID controls in the old G4 series was.
Obviously, I won't take it personally if you refute/ignore my advice here, but it is something I know a fair bit about.

Recommending Vim as a text editor's a bit on the vicious side, isn't it ds55? I know it does near enough everything, but the learning curve's a bit sharp... Having said that, I'm a bit of a puritan; I tend to use nano for coding.

Incidentally, a decent software list could be:

VLC for video playback - many, many more codecs covered than Quickshite,
Transmission for your torrential needs,
Firefox, because it's a bit more standards-compliant than Safari, or Opera of speed is your thing,
GimpShop if you want a free/legal alternative to Photoshop. It doesn't have proper CMYK support, though, and its RAW support is a bit flaky, too
OpenOffice is fairly good; it's stable, and it'll read a shedload of older formats that Microsoft's doing its best to forget about. It doesn't like .docx though,
and
Last.fm, because it's awesome; free music and all that.

Hope that's of some use.


edit: FWIW, I use Linux by preference, although I'll happily fix Macs and Windows PCs as well. Computer de-borking of all varieties has been my profession for nearly ten years now.
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'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project

[The Artist]

They are too user friendly, I like to fiddle with stuff, not settings but just be able to have more control over my computer. Thats why im going to Linux very shortly.

Macs are too shiny and glossy. Yeah they look stylish but I would still prefer xp anyday, even if it does annnoy the tits off me.

[nowhere.elysium]

Oddly enough, you can get under the skin a lot more readily with OS X than you can with Windows XP. There's still a lot of hidden material where they decidedly ravaged the original BSD core, but much of it's editable through manipulating the .plist files: they're an xml-formatted text file, and they control OS/application/userspace preferences. Unfortunately, Apple decided to disable many of the .conf files that made UNIX so much fun.
I know what you mean, though. They're a bit slick; give me a copy of Debian running Blackbox any day...
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'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project

[G]

As above, there is still a decent amount of more in depth stuff you can do with a Mac, it's just that for anything that isn't really simple it's down to technical *nix stuff. Where on Windows all the more in-depth stuff is controlled by a bit more user friendly means.

[Charlie]

[Speedy3]

I have to say, i'm thoroughly pleased with my purchase

arrived today, been setting it up and fiddling with it for last few hours

i have this next to my current laptop, and this out performs it in every way!

I love the fact that instead of taking 30secs to load up windows etc, this takes 4seconds to do a full restart

Its amazing!


Just a quick question - Where can i download a good torrent program for it - I could do with some music
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Current bike: 2005 Triumph Speed Triple 1050 :: Previous Bikes: 2001 Kawasaki ZZR-600 E9 (Sold) 1996 Yamaha Diversion 600s (Sold),1997 Honda CB250 Nighthawk (Sold), 1988 Honda VFR 400 NC24 (Written Off), 1987 Honda CB350 S-G (Sold), Yamaha DT125 (Sold), Honda X8R-S 50cc (Stolen)

[Dom]

https://www.transmissionbt.com/

[Speedy3]

Cheers Dom, thats brill!
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Current bike: 2005 Triumph Speed Triple 1050 :: Previous Bikes: 2001 Kawasaki ZZR-600 E9 (Sold) 1996 Yamaha Diversion 600s (Sold),1997 Honda CB250 Nighthawk (Sold), 1988 Honda VFR 400 NC24 (Written Off), 1987 Honda CB350 S-G (Sold), Yamaha DT125 (Sold), Honda X8R-S 50cc (Stolen)