New to Mac and very confused. Getting started, how?

[rodluvan]

Hello!

 

Well the topic says it all. I've just started using Mac (iMac Alu) today and I dont really know how to get started. What I usually do when I buy or upgrade my computer is filling it with the software I want.

A good start is to download torrent software like uTorrent. How does this work on Mac's? What program should I use and are there any programs out there for me to download? Im thinking of PS and Lightroom, and Aparture.

 

Also, I've downloaded a program named Tomato Torrent, but I don't understand it. Just the thing about installing it. Is it installed somewhere on my computer just because I dubble clicked on the downloaded file or is it just that ile which executes? How do I uninstall programs?

 

More questions will follow But please help me with these ones. Thanx a bundle!

 

/Rod

[Pantalaimon]

For the torrents use Transmission.

 

And installing applications in a Mac is simple, just frag to application that you downloaded or have got o a CD to your applications folder.

[rodluvan]

For the torrents use Transmission.

 

And installing applications in a Mac is simple, just frag to application that you downloaded or have got o a CD to your applications folder.

 

 

Thank you Pantalaimon, although I'm not sure what "frag to application" menas. As of now I am running Firefox, but I just can't find where it's installed to (which folder)... I'm using "finder" to brows through the HD. Nothing in the folder "applications" as far as I can see.

 

Also, how do I add a shortcut to an application to the quickstartmeny?

 

And also, how do I add a another user/accont (right now it's just one, my girlfriends since we had to decide on something first time we started the computer)?? I've started the accounts-application in system preferences, but I just can't find the alternative "add account" or similar.

 

Where do I find codex's and what application is best to view xvid and other 'standard' coded videos? I've tried to view movies I have on CD, but quickTime Player is complaining that it lacks sufficient codec's.

 

As you can see, it's all a mess It's like being an computer-illiterate all over again, but hey, it keeps the brain on it's toes.

 

Btw, is there no delete-button to erase the character to the right of te cursor?

 

Keep on helping please!

[Dr. Evil]

Hi rodluvan,

Switching to mac takes a little getting used to, but you'll pick it up quickly, believe me.

 

As for your questions...

 

Thank you Pantalaimon, although I'm not sure what "frag to application" menas.

it's a typo, he/she means "drag". with some applications, there is an installer package, with others, you simply drag the icon to wherever you want (usally /Applications folder).

 

Also, how do I add a shortcut to an application to the quickstartmeny?

I presume you mean the dock (the bar across the bottom of the screen with icons. Just drag the icon from /Applications directly onto the dock to make a shortcut. drag it off to remove the shortcut, it won't delete the applications from it's orginal place.

 

And also, how do I add a another user/accont (right now it's just one, my girlfriends since we had to decide on something first time we started the computer)?? I've started the accounts-application in system preferences, but I just can't find the alternative "add account" or similar.

 

In accounts within system preferences, click the lock at the bottom left and you'll be prompted for your password. then click the "+" sign above that lock to add an account.

 

Where do I find codex's and what application is best to view xvid and other 'standard' coded videos? I've tried to view movies I have on CD, but quickTime Player is complaining that it lacks sufficient codec's.

VLC, or Divx Player for mac.

 

 

Btw, is there no delete-button to erase the character to the right of te cursor?

???

delete underneath the help key?

 

Try reading the Apple help pages online, or click the Help menu in an application. Mac OS X help is very good. Also try reading other websites by googling stuff, there are a lot of good pages with tips etc.

 

Hope this helps.

[rodluvan]

...

Hope this helps.

 

It sure did! Thank you Dr. Evil. As for the delete-key...heh, I guess it's a natural effect of having the tiny keybord (without those keys).

 

How is it with viruses and the need to have firewalls for Mac. I only know what I've heard (rumors) and they say there aren't any viruses.

 

Yet again, thank you very much!

[Dr. Evil]

Welcome!

 

How is it with viruses and the need to have firewalls for Mac. I only know what I've heard (rumors) and they say there aren't any viruses.

 

Mac OS X 10.4 has a built in firewall. Go to system preferences, click "Sharing", then the firewall tab. As for virus, there are anti virus programs available for mac (search this forum or google), but i personally don't have one installed.

 

Many idiots say things like "macs can't get viruses" (even ignorant sales people). this is not true. macs can get viruses, but since the market share of mac users is so small, the vast majority of viruses affect windows. recently, there was what was called by some the first mac virus (called 'Leap' something i think), which propogated via ichat. however, for a mac program to do any real damage, you will be first prompted to type your password before an application can make potentially damaging changes to your system (unlike Win XP etc), so this adds a level of security.

 

I also believe (correct me if i'm wrong) that MS Office documents can carry macro virus from windows across to macs which have the mac version of office installed.

 

ClamAVX is reportedly a good free antivirus, based on open source anti virus program. not sure if it has real time protection though??

 

Anyway, Google, read, learn, and make your own decision as to how much security you need. a bit of common sense goes a long way in relation to viruses/spyware etc.

[rodluvan]

Btw, can someone invite me to demonoid? They're not taking on new users without invites.

[R2k.]

you don`t need anti-viruses and firewalls ,that is past for you now .

 

 

 

 

~R

[thegodfaza]

Also, I've downloaded a program named Tomato Torrent, but I don't understand it. Just the thing about installing it. Is it installed somewhere on my computer just because I dubble clicked on the downloaded file or is it just that ile which executes? How do I uninstall programs?

 

If you want a good bit-torrent client like utorrent use Azureus aka Vuze. They have basically the same interface. Click on advanced and you will see a screen that looks familiar. Double click on a torrent to see info.

[arubinst]

Well, I would not go that far as to say that you can forget antivirus and firewalls... it could happen. But at least for the time being, you really don't need to worry about viruses, spywares, or any other kind of malware.

 

I work in Computer Security... and I don't have an anti-virus for my mac. Firewalls, o the other hand, are A MUST, for any OS.

 

Within a couple of months, you will be surprised everytime someone tells you about a PC being infected or dead slow because of adwares. After many months, your Mac will continue to perform like the very first day, even after many programs have been installed. And once you get used to the user interface, you will love it.

 

Because of my work, I was already familiar with OS X, but I never worked on a Mac for days until I got one. I can tell you that I am 300% more productive now than ever (compared to Windows AND Linux). I finally have a computer that works for me... I don't need to spend half of my time working for my computer.

 

For Codecs, you may want to check out Perian. It will allow Quicktime to read practically any file you throw at it. It also supports subtitles.

 

When you feel confident enough and you get the feeling of your new Mac, I invite you to discover Quicksilver. Once you start working with this program and you understand what it does, you will not want to go other way.

 

Good luck with your new Mac!

[rodluvan]

Welcome!

 

 

...

Anyway, Google, read, learn, and make your own decision as to how much security you need. a bit of common sense goes a long way in relation to viruses/spyware etc.

 

I certainly will google and read a lot, but when I'm this green it is more efficient to ask right out questions on forum like this. If I spent 15 minutes for ever inane question of mine (like where is my application...) I'd be an old man before I even got the basic skills. I hope you bare with me (as the questions are basic, the answers are simple I guess and doesn't require a lot of hard work).

 

I already feel much more at home with the mac than I did just 1h ago! Thank you boys and girls (if there are any). It may sound naiv, but it feels nice (-er) to be a part of the mac-community after so many years of wrestling with the PC (altough I don't know if I'll have to do the same with the mac, *fingers crossed*).

 

The things thats bothers me the most right now is the mighty mouse (feels very slow and inaccurate compared to the PC mouse) and the fact that the external HD I used with my PC is NTFS-partitioned and I can't or transfer or open my 230GB of pictures without doing some sort of roundabout which will take a lot of time and work.

 

Any thoughts?

[rollcage]

you don`t need anti-viruses and firewalls ,that is past for you now .

~R

The things thats bothers me the most right now is the mighty mouse (feels very slow and inaccurate compared to the PC mouse) and the fact that the external HD I used with my PC is NTFS-partitioned and I can't or transfer or open my 230GB of pictures without doing some sort of roundabout which will take a lot of time and work.

 

Any thoughts?

 

For the mouse: Go to System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse, hit the mouse tab and increase the tracking speed

 

As for the HD problem, OSX can read NTFS partitions, it just can't write to them. Is the HD USB/Firewire, or is it networked somehow?

[rodluvan]

For the mouse: Go to System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse, hit the mouse tab and increase the tracking speed

 

Been there done that I don't know if it has to do more with the surface it's on, although I've tried different surfaces. I guess it's just a matter of getting used to. Thanks anyway.

 

As for the HD problem, OSX can read NTFS partitions, it just can't write to them. Is the HD USB/Firewire, or is it networked somehow?

 

It's a usb connected external HD. It says it can't read it.

[arubinst]

As for the HD problem, OSX can read NTFS partitions, it just can't write to them.

Actually, it can... I do it everyday. You need Macfuse and ntfs-3d

[rodluvan]

Actually, it can... I do it everyday. You need Macfuse and ntfs-3d

 

Please elaborate.

[rodluvan]

Actually, it can... I do it everyday. You need Macfuse and ntfs-3d

 

Well, I looked around, downloaded and installed those two according to instructions.

I've noticed a difference; OS X does no longer complain about the external HD, but it does not recognize it either (it just dosn't show up anywhere). Maybe this has something to do with my mac-inexperiance, I don't know (I don't know where to look or invoke an externat drive). I figgured it would pop up spontaneously as everything else put into the computer.

 

Any thoughts?

[Snerler]

Been there done that I don't know if it has to do more with the surface it's on, although I've tried different surfaces. I guess it's just a matter of getting used to. Thanks anyway.

It's a usb connected external HD. It says it can't read it.

 

 

Try something like iMousefix for the mouse to feel less sluggish. The NTFS hard drive should work just fine with no driver, only no write support.

[rollcage]

Actually, it can... I do it everyday. You need Macfuse and ntfs-3d

 

I jsut meant out-of-box, OSX can't write to NTFS.

 

rodluvan, probably won't work, but hook up the drive, then go into Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility

 

Do you see the drive in the left hand column? If so select it and click the top button named "mount"

 

And while your in there select your mac HD and click "repair disk permissions" (something you should do every once in a while )

[Colonel Ingus]

Many idiots say things like "macs can't get viruses" macs can get viruses, but since the market share of mac users is so small, the vast majority of viruses affect windows.

Speaking of idiots...

 

Of course anyone with a high school diploma and a little bit of common sense knows that this is not true, yet this distorted, exaggerated, and sensationalized rhetoric about 'market share' gets repeated over and over again by misinformed computer users, and is now officially an urban myth. The main reason why Macs aren't susceptible to viruses has NOTHING to do with their market share I've already covered in this forum why Macs aren't susceptible to getting viruses so I won't continue to repeat myself, but I will ask you a couple of simple questions to prove that it has NOTHING to do with market share, but first a little history;

• There was a thriving virus scene for DOS in the 1980s & early 1990s, even though there was only a small fraction as many people using DOS as people using windows today. How could this be? It certainly had NOTHING to do with the small size of the DOS community back in the 80's.
  
• Mac Systems had roughly 1/10th of the PC market in the 1980s - which means a fraction of the number of installed Mac's of today, and a vanishingly small number compared to the Windows computers today - Yet viruses still came out for Mac Systems back then. Why? It certainly had NOTHING to do with the small size of the Mac Systems community back in the 80's.
  
• Virus writers are still writing the occasional virus for AmigaDOS! Now ask yourself, how many people do you know that use AmigaDOS today? Yet viruses are still being released for it. With such a insignificantly minuscule small market share of the AmigaDOS, why would there still be viruses written for it if 'market share' was of any importants? It isn't, and it certainly has NOTHING to do with the small size of the AmigaDOS community.
  

There are many more examples of where OS's with small market size were getting plenty of viruses - so obviously the market share argument isn't all it's cracked up to be! Consider this, Virus writers write viruses that exploit ANY vulnerability that they can find, regardless of the popularity or size of the platform. For example, the "whizzer worm" is a complex and sophisticated virus designed to infect a computer by exploiting an obscure flaw in one particular version - of one particular company's software firewall program. The total number of people in the whole entire world who used this version of this program was ONLY around 50,000. Yet the virus writers still took the time, found and exploited that flaw. Why? Well... because they could!

 

I think we can all agree that infinitesimally 50,000 users is a far, far smaller number than the number of people who buy a Mac every month for the last several years. The point is that virus writers write WHERE-EVER they can find a vulnerability. They do not care about it's market share. They do not care about the platform. They do not care about it's size. They only care about the vulnerabilities that they know they can exploit. Rule number one: an operating system can only be as secure as it's framework allows it to be. Apple understood this from the beginning. Microsoft does not.

[rodluvan]

Ok, since the MacFuse-stuff didn't pan put I'm going hardcore; trying to connect the two computers via a network-cable- Problem is, I don't know anything about networks. Either on PC or Mac. My friend told me this is a quite straightforward tast, but he couldn't help me this evening, so I'm passing the question on to you guys; How do U do it?

 

As of now, the two computers are connected via a network cable, nothing else. He said something about establishing IP-addresses and assigning ports. This is very much like Greek to me. Help please!

[Colonel Ingus]

A quick google found this and many other links explaining how to do this.

[rodluvan]

A quick google found this and many other links explaining how to do this.

 

Just so I dont get it wrong, is it ok to ask questions here other than "can someone direct me to another source of information" or is this a place just for discussion? I'm asking this 'cos I'm quite aware that there are gazillions of pages dedicated to setting up networks, and I am also pretty confident that you know I know this, hence why do you direct me to one of them?

 

The page you linked to said in concussion:

 

"Use the Network pane of System Preferences to enter your connection information, such as connection method, TCP/IP settings, account name, and password."

 

Which translates to: If you want to set up a network then set up a network! I.e. it prepositions that I now all about setting up a network in the first place. As I said; I don't know the first thing about "connection information", or TCP/IP-settings and I don't really care much for looking around the entire internet for every inane question of mine when they could much easier get answered here by someone who knows in a probably much shorter and concise way.

[Colonel Ingus]

why do you direct me to one of them?

This is what you said, and I quote;

 

I'm passing the question on to you guys; How do U do it?

 

 

So we posted a link directly from Apple showing you HOW to do it. If you didn't want to learn HOW to do it, then why did you ask?

 

Of course you can disuss things here BUT that implies that you already know something about networking, which you already told us that you don't, so how exactly were you going to disuss a topic that you know nothing about? Having a discussion, and asking questions are two different things. Having said that, you're not going to have a problem with hooking up a Mac network. You are going to have a problem hooking up the PC side of it. I'm not sure how many people at a dedicated Mac site like this one are going to be able to answer your PC networking problems. I understand your frustration but you're essentially asking PC questions on a Mac site. Do you have Bluetooth? If so that is a MUCH easier way to connect a Mac to a PC. If you were hooking up a Mac to a Mac there wouldn't be an issue. If you don't have Bluetooth then you basically have two options; wait and see if someone on a Mac site knows how to specifically hook one up to a PC network, or do a google for the answer. Sorry we couldn't answer your question in one or two little sentences but setting up a networking on a PC is a nightmare. Been there. Done that. Don't want the T-shirt See if this 'Mac to PC' page helps you. Good luck

[rodluvan]

When trying to download a torrent the torrent managet Transmission says "Error: insufficient permissions". Is this maybe some feature in Mac which denies programs from writing to disk without specific permission?

So we posted a link directly from Apple showing you HOW to do it. If you didn't want to learn HOW to do it, then why did you ask?

Not sure I'm following here. The problem is, that page didn't describe how to do it, it just said "do it". Well, never mind.

Of course you can disuss things here BUT that implies that you already know something about networking, which you already told us that you don't, so how exactly were you going to disuss a topic that you know nothing about? Having a discussion, and asking questions are two different things.

That's my point. I was asking you if it was ok for me _just_ to ask questions or if this place is _just_ for discussions (in which I can't participate due to the reason you gave; I don't know anything).

Having said that, you're not going to have a problem with hooking up a Mac network.

Then please tell me how.

You are going to have a problem hooking up the PC side of it.

As it's a Ethernet network I figgure the principle's the same. Also, I can get help from people who uses PC in my vicinity when I come to that. MAc is, more of a problem for me.

Do you have Bluetooth? If so that is a MUCH easier way to connect a Mac to a PC. If you were hooking up a Mac to a Mac there wouldn't be an issue.

I do have bluetooth, but I'm talking about transferring about 230GB.

Good luck

Thank you!

[Colonel Ingus]

The problem is, that page didn't describe how to do it, it just said "do it".

No, it also said:

 

Search Mac Help for additional topics that walk you through setting up your connection depending on how you connect (DSL, dial-up PPP, or cable modem, for example).

 

If you're not sure what settings to use, check the information you got from your Internet service provider (ISP)when you signed up for your account, or talk to your network administrator.

 

You see the point is, and the reason why they are so confusing to set up, is that there are many different types of networks and each has it's own way

 

 

I was asking you if it was ok for me _just_ to ask questions or if this place is _just_ for discussions

Of course you can ask, BUT you'll have better luck with your PC networking questions on a PC site. I don't really think of this site as a tech/questions kind of site. It's not really set up that way but your questions will probably get answered sooner or later. You'll have better luck with tech/how-to questions on a site like this They still however may not be able to help you with your PC questions.

 

I do have bluetooth

If the computers are close enough to each other to use it, I would just use that. By the time you find all of the inforation that you're looking for you could already be done. For example, this and this and this page explain how to set up networks, but as you can see there is a LOT to know. For someone like yourself who doesn't understand these things you could be there for weeks/months trying to get everything working, and developing an ulcer in the mean time. Unfortunately setting up a network is not just something that you can just 'click here' and you're done. There are whole books written on the subject. Speaking of which, if you're by a library I would get the book called "OS X - The missing manual". It explains Mac networks in a very detailed step by step process. Unfortunately one of my customers is using my copy so I can't tell you what it says, but it's the book that we used to set up our network before we switched over to Bluetooth. If you're new to Macs then I highly recommend that you buy a copy of it (unless you're going to be upgrading to Leopard, in which case get Leopard - The Missing Manual).