New PB essential first steps

[Gidman]

I have a new 12" PB. What are the first steps you all would take to set this up without screwing it up? I need to depend on this machine for a long time and want to start off on the right foot.

Aside from what comes on the machine, what apps are indispensable? Why partition, or do you need to? What is the best way to keep this new baby up to speed, clean and free from unwanted viri and junk?

I am used to washing my PC's Internet cache and defragging, but am a new switcher and don't really know what kind of maintenance I should expect.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Gid

 

[TEG]

Welcome to the Mac Family....

1) On your Software Install Disk, there is a utility called Disk Utilities, use them whenever the machine appears slower than normal. (When the Install screen shows up, select the file menu and select "Disk Utilities"
2) Remember to clean your machine with a warm damp cloth about once a week. (Never use a cleaning solution on the machine.)
3) There are no Viruii for Mac, so don't worry untill you see something posted here about one.
4) Repair Permissions about once a month (Located in the Disk Utilities)
5) Do not partition, It helps some people, but most of the time, its a bigger hassle, when your HD begins to have a Cascaed Failure from communicating with itself (I've had it happen).

Other than that, I'd have to say, Have Fun

TEG

 

[Nipsy]

Wipe the hard drive, and install only OSX, after having read the myriad of the advice on partitioning:
macosxhints.com
xlr8yourmac.com
macrumors.com
macgurus.com

If you want the best stability, reliability, and longevity, you should spend some time setting uo a partition map, and symlinks, in order to separate the OS from the apps, and the apps from the data.

That way, no one's failure will affect the others.

Virii and junk apps are few and far between for the Mac...don't install things willy nilly (check versiontracker.com reviews) and you'll be fine.

Don't worry about drefragging, DON'T install Norton, not think in a Windows way...

 

[Chad4Mac]

I might not be most qualified to answer this; there are far more qualified users on this site. But from what I have done, it is quite simple upon recieving a new Mac.

I normally dedicate an hour to sit and set the system up (eg, answer the questions upon first start-up and fill out the regestration form). Really, though, there is not much you have to do to set the system up, unless you need partitions. I don't set multiple partitions, but if I needed to seperate certain files for, say, pleasure or work, then I would. For the speed issue, that is setting a individual partition for the OS, I'm not quite sure you need to do it any more with 10.2. I know it was an issue with 10.1, but not sure with 10.2. For the most part, the Mac with do the hard stuff, you jsut fill in the blanks; it is that easy.

Necessary Apps. I feel Office is a must -- just my personal preference. Some people get along without it, though.

From what I have read, you do not need defrags and the like, though that might be up for debate. Alot of users on this site will tell you not to use such programs. It has to do with OS X optimizing itself, or something. Just repair permissions, in Disk Utility, under the tab Disk first aid. Do this a couple times a month.

Don't worry about Viri...your on a Mac.

For the most, take the time to set the computer up by answering the questions and filling in the regestration. Oh, amke sure you are connected to the interent, makes matters a lot easier. Buy Office. And "compute" away.

You will love this Mac. I know I did after switching!

Hope this helped

Chad4Mac

 

[billyboy]

You should run Repair Permissions before and after every installation of a new Apple upgrade or application.

Get into the habit of backing up everything. Carbon Copy Cloner is a shareware that works well. to store back ups on a data partition is the only reason really to partition. Conventional wisdom says that Jaguar needs its applications on the same partition, lots of GBs of free disk space and as much RAM as you can load. External drive is the other storeage alternative to keep the internal drive uncluttered.

Unless you leave the PB running 24/7 I would install MacJanitor and use it daily, weekly and monthly to clean the machine in place of Jaguar's automatic 3am cleaning run.

Any problems download Jaguar Cache Cleaner and use a light clean only, but there is no need to use it other than when standard checks and binning System Preferences fails.

Dont get suckered into endless software troubleshoots, because sometimes macs are faulty, and minor hardware issues cause software style glitches that you will likely never solve. 3rd party USB devices and non factory installed RAM are ones to look for. Pull the USBs and run the PB 'virgin'. Add the devices back one at a time till you trace the fault. If no joy with USBs pull the extra RAM. It is easy to do. Dont get me wrong, your PB will be a beauty but in my experience Jaguar is even more reliable than the hardware.

I would also create a new folder for applications, and one for utilities, and drag them into the dock. As you get into using the Mac, make aliases of the most regularly used apps and utilities and drag them into the respective folders. That way you have instant access to your most used tools and the mighty dock does not get filled up with your favourites.

I reckon you might find it seems slower than a PC, but behind the scenes it is rock solid and despite my early toothing troubles due to faulty RAM, Jaguar has never crashed. Applications need to be shut down sometimes, but it is very easy and if the box says an app has quit with no effect on the system, you can believe it and carry on working. Enjoy.

 

[Kwyjibo]

I'm a fan of paritions personally. I've had two experiences with my iBook 800 where my jaguar didn'twork right but i was able to boot off of a ext drive and save newere data that hadn't been backuped yet. Which leads me to my say if you decide not use partitions I suggest an external drive for backup or regular cd backup (kinda of a pain imO thats why i have a drive)

 

[Kwyjibo]

Originally posted by Nipsy
Wipe the hard drive, and install only OSX, after having read the myriad of the advice on partitioning:
macosxhints.com
xlr8yourmac.com
macrumors.com
macgurus.com

If you want the best stability, reliability, and longevity, you should spend some time setting uo a partition map, and symlinks, in order to separate the OS from the apps, and the apps from the data.

That way, no one's failure will affect the others.

Virii and junk apps are few and far between for the Mac...don't install things willy nilly (check versiontracker.com reviews) and you'll be fine.

Don't worry about drefragging, DON'T install Norton, not think in a Windows way...

i've read that in osx you signifiacntly slow down your machine by seperating your apps and system files. I understand the lgoci and former sucess of this process but i've also read of signicant speed improvements upon having thme on the same partition.

 

[Megaquad]

Originally posted by Kwyjibo
i've read that in osx you signifiacntly slow down your machine by seperating your apps and system files. I understand the lgoci and former sucess of this process but i've also read of signicant speed improvements upon having thme on the same partition.

I must comfirm that too.. Apps will launch sloooower and things will be slower if you do that.. I have my Main partition (around 110 GB in my case) and 3 gig partition which is used as my "Emergency" partition if something goes wrong..

 

[Nipsy]

Originally posted by Kwyjibo
i've read that in osx you signifiacntly slow down your machine by seperating your apps and system files. I understand the lgoci and former sucess of this process but i've also read of signicant speed improvements upon having thme on the same partition.

This is true if you use the 'Mac' style of partitions, but untrue if you set up the disk like a unix disk, using symlinks.

This is not for the average user, but has saved my ass again and again when rolled out on a large corporate install.

The key is to have the machine treat the differect partitions as one logical drive, by adjusting the way things mount (eg. Users is a partition, which mounts as a folder, inside of the boot partition).

This way, the OS thinks it is using one partition, when it is actually using many.

If this is beyond what you want to do, do OS & apps, but put your docs on their own partition.

 

[Kwyjibo]

I get what your saying but I'm not enough of a unix geek to try it. what your saying does make sense tho.....but its probably a bit advanced for the average user.

 

[gbojim]

The only thing I would add to this is regarding the virus issue. If you communicate with Windows users, it is easy to pass along a virus that does not affect your Mac. As a result, I use a virus scanner mostly to avoid that.

Also, if you decide to use MS Office, there is basically a run-time VB engine included so you could get stung by a Macro virus if someone sends you one.

 

[bellis1]

Suggestions

I am a new 12" PB user as well. I am not going to partition because I had a nightmare partitioning previously with an old G3 and OS9/OSX. The only program I would not ever put on another machine would be norton. I have had some dreadful accidents with that program. The other suggestion that is useful for myself is having an external firewire drive. I don't always use it but it is a great place to store backups and files that arent normally used. Transfer speeds back and forth are also very reasonable; even damn fast! Then in terms of software besides the obvious like Offic which I have found essential have been Xing or Synergy so you can set up macros but to switch between songs on itunes just using the keyboard or function keys. And I love the program stickybrain. It is a great program to store all kinds of different information. You can also quickly search through everything. Give that program a try. And just as a comment someone mentioned to wipe down the computer once a week. I'm not a filthy but you should see what my machine would look like if it did not get wiped down. The warm HD under your palm sucks the grease/sweat and gods knows what else off your hand and onto the computer.