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Mac OS X: new mac user... maintenance?
new mac user... maintenance?
by heck - 7/24/08 4:52 PMI've been a PC guy for years, but my school program requires me to have a Mac. With my PC, I'm regularly running programs like Disk Defragmenter, Ccleaner, Spyware Doctor or AdAware. I use Firefox to browse and I update programs when available. I've heard that Macs do not have the problems PC's get with the spyware, viruses, and constant updates. Are there any programs or tasks that should be run for maintenance or security? Is it still a good idea to use Firefox?
Welcome to the club
by mrmacfixit
- 7/24/08 5:12 PM
In reply to: new mac user... maintenance? by heck
You heard correctly, Mac's do not have the same problem with virus's (currently zero) or malware/adware.
If you really feel the need for AV software, ClamXAV is a good free piece of software that will find WIndows virus's and help stop you from sending them to your less fortunate friends.
No need for a Defragmenter but there are a couple of programs you may want to take a look at.
Yasu for maintenance, Pacifist for extracting files form installer packages, Flip4Mac for viewing WMV files in QuickTime and Little Snitch for seeing, and granting permission to, those programs that feel the urge to phone home.
Firefox is a good browser, give Safari a chance too. It's a decent, standards following, browser.
I'm sure there will be lots of other suggestions right behind these.
Good luck at school
P
thanks
by heck - 7/25/08 9:55 AM In reply to: Welcome to the club by mrmacfixit
Cool, thanks for the help.
New user
by birdy176 - 9/10/08 12:16 AM In reply to: Welcome to the club by mrmacfixit
P:
My iMac OS X, Leopard, just loped in, modem too but not installed yet. After 20 years of "marriage" to Windows, quite a change. Is the iPhoto as good - and easy - for editing and cataloging as Google's Picasa? Can it be imported? It would be the only "legacy" applet I'd want on the new machine.
I heard something about "Bootcamp" but haven't found it yet.
Contrary to what I read, my 20 inch display is great, but then I am comparing my photos to the output of a Sony CRT.
Hope to hear more from you on this and other subjects.
iPhoto
by mrmacfixit - 9/10/08 4:58 AM
In reply to: New user by birdy176
I have not used Picasa but have used iPhoto for quite a few years not.
It is easy to use and can handle thousands of photo's.
As to the import thing. If you can find export your pictures, from wherever they are, to your Mac, then iPhoto can import them.
BootCamp allows you to run Windows on your Mac. See if you can avoid doing that. You can do everything in OS X that you have been doing in Windows.
On another note.
If you create a new thread with any software questions you have, in the Mac OS Software forum, Here it will keep the clutter down on this thread
Welcome to the light
P
iPhoto vs. Picasa
by birdy176 - 9/10/08 3:25 PM In reply to: iPhoto by mrmacfixit
P: I really appreciate your response. The Mac-world is a new concept after living on the "dark side" for many years. I understand the Google people are sitting around their kitchen or folding tables, working on a Mac Picasa system. Would that iPhoto is similarly user-friendly...
Now if I could make the cursor arrow larger without stuff on the screen ending up in the next county (I reduced the res. to 1280...), I'd be a happy user. Don't know how to get a hold of the Apple genius who's willing to answer my questions for the next 85 days, according to the warranty. This forum, however, is a wonderful place to have to get help.
Thanks!
Gunther
1-800-MY APPLE
by mrmacfixit - 9/10/08 4:52 PM
In reply to: iPhoto vs. Picasa by birdy176
if you live in the US.
P
make the cursor arrow larger
by vmars956 - 9/24/08 7:10 PM In reply to: iPhoto vs. Picasa by birdy176Now if I could make the cursor arrow larger:
I'm a new MacBookPro user, only PCs since 1983.
But on PCs behalf, its easy to configure almost anything. And lots of hooks into the operating system.
Yes, please, how do I reconfig cursor size, color and tail ?
Thanks in advance!
...Vern
Making the cursor larger
by vmars956 - 9/27/08 11:12 AM In reply to: make the cursor arrow larger by vmars956I got no response on this, so I went to BestBuy, and they showed me how to do it:
Click on the UniversalAccess icon in system preferences. On next menue, click on TrackPad.
In there is a slider to change size of cursor.
Make everything larger!!!
by joeyslaptop - 9/27/08 11:40 AM In reply to: Making the cursor larger by vmars956If you have trouble seeing the arrow or reading small print, you can hold down [CTRL] and roll the scroller on your mouse to blow up the whole screen.
[CTRL] and two-finger scroll or
[CTRL] and mouse scroll
scroll up to zoom in, and scroll down to zoom out.
"Command-key and TwoFinger upward" works for me
by vmars956 - 9/27/08 4:34 PM In reply to: Make everything larger!!! by joeyslaptopI have a macBookPro
and for me its the "Command-key and TwoFinger upward"
"Control-key and TwoFinger upward" doesn't do it.
hth
Get the AppleCare disc
by joeyslaptop - 8/2/08 3:41 AM In reply to: new mac user... maintenance? by heckOn my laptop I have Symantic Antivirus that I got free from my university (it pays to be a student LOL), but it has rarely found anything. I can think of maybe a PC virus or two that had no real effect on my computer. Honestly, I've gotten by for a really long time by leaving my computer on at night sometimes so OS X can do its scheduled maintenance.
My brother's AppleCare has a good disc utility program that checks all the hardware and defragments the hard disk.
Also, I would suggest a battery backup system. It can drastically cut down on disk fragmenting and other performance issues due to power dips and spikes and stuff. I did a before and after experiment and found that the battery backup actually did my tower some good.
On of the reasons that
by mrmacfixit - 8/2/08 6:37 AM
In reply to: Get the AppleCare disc by joeyslaptop
your Symantec Antivirus has not found anything is because there are no virus's out there that attack OS X.
Unless your university specifically require you to have that resource hog installed on your Mac, I would get rid of it. It does nothing for you.
However, if you are running Windows on your Mac, then having AV software on that side makes sense.
P
Yes, there are
by santuccie - 8/2/08 11:55 AM In reply to: On of the reasons that by mrmacfixit
But they're not not drive-by downloading as far as I know. And there's only a handful of them; even less than for Linux, because Mac OS was PPC until 2006. No one knew the shell. But they all know Intel.
Just for conversation, the Mac was the first machine to get compromised in the latest PWN to OWN contest. Vista was next. I don't know if anyone ever got through the Ubuntu machine, but I'm assuming not.
That said, I agree Norton is overkill. McAfee was originally founded to deal with Mac viruses, but there are just too few to justify heavy software that you have to pay for. Use ClamXAV.
A virus is a virus
by joeyslaptop - 8/2/08 12:45 PM In reply to: Yes, there are by santuccieWell, the fact that it has caught files that I was going to turn around and eMail back out to PC people is good enough reason to me to have it. I turn it off for the most part, but run an occasional scan and sometimes have it turned on when I won't be gaming that day. I'm more worried about passing something on to people than I am about it affecting my computer.
On my PC (mostly used by my wife), I never turn it off and it catches stuff nearly every scheduled check. A few years back, my Mac got something that was enough of an annoyance to re-install my OS. I know that Macs aren't immune, but they sure do a lot better than ANY PC that I've encountered or owned.
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