Receiving my MBA Monday, traveling Tuesday (Advice needed)

[smagdy]

Hello!

Well, its my first Mac ever, so I actually know what is Leopard just from internet screen shots/videos

I will use my MBA for Web Development, so after some searching I decided which programs that I will buy/install.

So apart from that, what should I do when I first get it as I won't have much time to do much before I travel

The problem is that I will be traveling for about 1 week and in that time, i will be joining the internet rarely, so i need to have all what i need with me... (I hoped to get it today, to have the weekend to explore it stress free)

Anyways what should I check to make sure that my MBA is working fine, what are the must must have applications to install after Leopard, etc...

Also do I need to plug it in AC before I use it first time?

So please help me with this:

1) I will re-install Leopard.
2) Install my web work software.
3) ??



Thanks in advance

 

[clayj]

After you reinstall Leopard (I assume you are using the steps I wrote?), you should definitely install 10.5.2, the Leopard Graphics update, and any other updates found by the Software Update program. It might also be a good idea to install:

Stuffit (Google "stuffit")
Adobe Reader (http://www.adobe.com)
Adobe Flash (http://www.adobe.com)

All of this work should be done with the machine plugged in to the wall for power. If you have a USB Ethernet dongle, use it; it's much faster than wireless. If you are using Microsoft Office 2004 or 2008 and Entourage, go ahead and get your e-mail set up before you leave the office, if you can.

Good luck with your trip!

 

[smagdy]

Thank you

Yes, I will follow your nice guide, but unfortunately I will be using the remote disk method!

About the email, I don't want to install office, but I want any application to allow me receive all my POP3 email accounts.. so I am wondering if Leopard built-in email client does the work good (if any)?

Thanks again!

 

[MazingerZ]

Thank you

Yes, I will follow your nice guide, but unfortunately I will be using the remote disk method!

About the email, I don't want to install office, but I want any application to allow me receive all my POP3 email accounts.. so I am wondering if Leopard built-in email client does the work good (if any)?

Thanks again!

Mail will work fine.

 

[HLdan]

Stuffit (Google "stuffit")
Adobe Reader (http://www.adobe.com)
Adobe Flash (http://www.adobe.com)

Good luck with your trip!

Do not download Adobe Reader. Firstly there's no reason to as Preview in Leopard does all Adobe Reader does and more. The Mac OS is PDF based so you don't need to download a 3rd party PDF reader. Also sometimes it conflicts with Preview. Also Preview has a built in paint-like features and it nice photo editing tools.

I would recommend to download some media apps since Quicktime can't play all codecs.

Flip4Mac. This will play your wmv files inside your browser.

VLC. This will play virtually all codecs outside the browser.

Perian. This is a great backup for when Flip4Mac has trouble playing certain codecs within the browser.

 

[smagdy]

Thanks again,

But playing videos and having all codecs won't be very important now.

I think most important thing is getting used to Leopard in first place

 

[MazingerZ]

Remote Desktop Client for MAC...from M$

 

[clayj]

Remote Desktop Client for MAC...from M$

[rolls eyes at first-ever use of "$" in "M$"]

The RDC client is actually free... no $$$ involved. You can get it from http://www.mactopia.com. I highly recommend it if you need to connect to Windows PCs, and use it often to connect to client machines that I am performing maintenance on.

 

[smagdy]

Maybe a good advice would also be:

Check all widgets on (Apple - Downloads) and install what suites you

 

[matthewHUB]

download Xslimmer (you may have to pay a small amount of find a trial version or something) and drag your entire applications folder into it. I saved about 1.7gb. It strips down the code and removes PPC support etc and extended language support. a must have for the SSD. remember to run any new install through it to save even more space!

 

[smagdy]

download Xslimmer (you may have to pay a small amount of find a trial version or something) and drag your entire applications folder into it. I saved about 1.7gb. It strips down the code and removes PPC support etc and extended language support. a must have for the SSD. remember to run any new install through it to save even more space!

I know I wont run out of space on the SSD, but does Xslimmer have any kind of slowness effect in anyways?

 

[raremage]

I'd also suggest grabbing a copy of NeoOffice. If you need to do any office-type documentation but don't want MSFT Office, this will be useful as well, and doesn't consume much space.

Alternately, get an eval copy of iWork '08 downloaded. I prefer iWork for most stuff, and it's only about $80, but there are times I dip into NeoOffice as well.