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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Hardware/Software - OS X tips |
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Jesper Busy, busy, busy. Level: 69  Posts: 2259/2390 EXP: 2856000 For next: 13743 Since: 03-15-04 From: Sweden. Since last post: 176 days Last activity: 79 days |
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| Considering how the Mac population on this board is quickly rising towards the double digits**, I thought I'd make a thread for some basic tips and addressing some worries. This can be worth reading even to set straight common misconceptions of OS X. ** Current Mac OS X users on the board: Jesper, The SomerZ, Tarale, Yoshi Dude, Emuz, Rydain, sharkz How do you install a program? There's basically a few ways. When you've downloaded it, it can be a number of file types. If it's a zip, sit, sitx, sea, tar, tar.gz or tgz file, you can just double click it and it will be unpacked to the current folder - StuffIt Expander, a bundled program, handles everything but the zip files, which the Finder takes care of itself. If it's a dmg file, you've stumbled upon a thing called a disk image. Double click it, and the Finder will begin making it appear as its own disk. It will open a new window when this is done. For files like rar, there are utilities available - use Google. Either way, by now you'll have either an application or a package (.pkg file). If it's an application, just drag it to the folder of your choice. Pick one from the sidebar or hover above your hard drive on the desktop for a second or two and it will pop up a folder with its contents. Continue pointing and dragging to open new folders - and back out of them to the old folder if you pointed at the wrong one - until you arrive where you want, then release. Every intermediate folder will be closed. This is called "spring-loaded folders", can be speeded up with pressing space instead of waiting, works with all files, not just programs, and is a very cool demo.  Note that a lot of programs expect to be placed in /Applications and will behave strangely if not.If, on the other hand, you have a package file (.pkg), just double click it and the Installer will run. Package files are very much like MSI packages for Windows and the Installer will look very much alike from time to time. If there's an installation program, just run that and it'll take care of itself. If you want a running program to stay in the dock - just press-hold, ctrl-click or right click on the program's icon in the dock, and choose "Stay in Dock". Waah! I'm addicted to keyboard navigation, and it doesn't seem to work in OS X! Waaah! Sure it does. Open System Preferences from the Apple menu or the dock, choose the Keyboard and Mouse panel, and tick the "Keyboard Access" checkbox on the rightmost tab. Now you can tab to almost anything. Additionally, Ctrl+F2 focuses the menu bar, Ctrl+F3 the dock, Ctrl+F4 cycles through your applications - though this isn't the best way to do that - use Cmd+Tab instead - and Ctrl+F5 focuses the toolbar. I'm a UNIX tough guy! I want some hot package action! Fink is a package manager for OS X allowing you to install almost anything that'd run on BSD or Linux. I've worked up a sizable collection of weird codecs over the years - does OS X have that? Both of the big open source projects mplayer and VLC are available for OS X and plays almost anything. In addition, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player are available in crippled versions, and there's an OGG codec available for QuickTime and iTunes. No current WMA DRM files ("PlaysForSure", Janus) will play under OS X - if you think this sucks, contact your local Redmond-based monopolist. Cmd+Tab is just an applications switcher! I want a window switcher! Window switching is possible through Cmd+` , I think it is (it's something entirely different on my swedish keyboard layout). That said, a hybrid switcher, Witch, is available. How do I defrag this beast? Recent versions of OS X defrag themselves. Any time you use a file below 20MB of size in any way, the OS automatically defrags it. I bought a laptop, and the trackpad's lack of scrolling smells! If you have either an iBook or a PowerBook without the scrolling trackpad (like me), there are several solutions. iScroll implements two-finger scrolling (hold two fingers next to each other and drag on the trackpad like usual - one finger mode is just ordinary pointing) and SideTrack enables many small things - assigning a keystroke to a tap in the corner, scrolling by dragging the edges, assigning click and right click to tap, button or none, etc. Where can I find a good program to do [basic task]? Here's the programs I'm using, but I'll add other recommendations later on based on feedback. The * means I had to pay for it. The # means that there's a light version available. Peer to peer: Tomato Torrent (BitTorrent), Acquisition* (Gnutella, I think) FTP: Transmit*# (the light version is the OS 9 version, which works just fine if you have Classic installed) Text editing: SubEthaEdit (Includes incredible collaborative tools - you can edit a file with others simultaneously. Screw IRC, this *is* multiplayer Notepad.), Smultron Web browsing: OmniWeb*, Safari (the official and default browser), Firefox, Camino (a browser based on Gecko, Mozilla's rendering engine, but using a native GUI and not XUL) Chatting: Colloquy (IRC client), Adium (IM client - based on libgaim and supports most protocols) Feed reading/RSS: NetNewsWire*#, NewsFire*, PulpFiction*# (These three all work great, but work in fundamentally different ways. Try them all out before you decide.) Again, I welcome you to contribute your favorite programs and questions. I also apologize for the lack of usable links directly to most programs above - but just Google the name and you'll find it in no time. (edited by Jesper on 03-29-05 06:38 AM) (edited by Jesper on 03-29-05 06:43 AM) (edited by Jesper on 04-01-05 08:45 AM) |
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Rydain Ropa Blaze Phoenix Runs With the Dragon Within Level: 42  Posts: 529/738 EXP: 490056 For next: 31306 Since: 03-15-04 From: State College, PA Since last post: 6 days Last activity: 8 hours |
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| Everything I'm linking to here is free. I'm a cheapskate, so when I can find nice applications that don't cost me anything, it makes me happy. Plus, I want to start saving so I can buy Digital Performer if I someday find GarageBand too limiting. It's a fantastic audio package, but it costs about as much as Photoshop. I've been using Xjournal for my LiveJournal client. I like the interface and its integration with other applications in my system. It gets your music choice from iTunes and can display some sort of alert when your friends page updates and then open the page in your chosen browser. Meteo displays weather data in your menu bar. Cyberduck is a FTP client that comes highly recommended. I haven't had much of a chance to play with it yet, but it seems pretty spiffy. If you're looking for a simple image editor, try Seashore. It doesn't have GIMP's full feature set, so you'll want to get GIMP running under X11 if you need that, but it's a decent utility to have available. What browser does everyone prefer? I was using Firefox until I started working more with keyboard navigation, and then its inconsistent mishmash of Windows and Mac-style shortcuts (and lack of shortcuts for such basic functions as Back and Forward) began to irritate me. Camino is my current favorite. Also, is there any way I can download the Windows Media codec that decodes WMV3 video and make it available to mplayer or VLC? I can find the full set of Win32 DLL's on mplayer's site (and, therefore, I could watch any Windows Media I wanted to under Linux on an x86 machine), but I haven't found any of the OS X WMV codecs anywhere. I've heard that the official Windows Media Player for OS X is a half-assed port, and I'm afraid to install it because it uses an installer and I worry that said installer will fling crap into the darkest corners of my nice shiny file system. What exactly goes where? Is it easily removed if you decide to get rid of WMP9? Rando offered to convert the unviewable WMV files we have to a more platform-agnostic format for me, but in the long run, I think it would be best to be able to view them directly. |
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Jesper Busy, busy, busy. Level: 69 Posts: 2261/2390 EXP: 2856000 For next: 13743 Since: 03-15-04 From: Sweden. Since last post: 176 days Last activity: 79 days |
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| WMP, while crap, isn't crap*ware*. If you're concerned about which files it installs, read this excellent tutorial on the fs_usage command line utility to wire something up. I use OmniWeb, which costs but is well worth the money. The features are just that great. Download the trial and try it out. Oh, and if you want to go into any application looking for stuff hidden in it, right click and pick "View Package Contents". Lots of stuff's hidden (including WMA and OGG icons in iTunes!) |
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Kitten Yiffer Purple wand Furry moderator Vivent l'exp����¯�¿�½������©rience de signalisation d'amusement, ou bien ! Level: 135 Posts: 8968/11162 EXP: 28824106 For next: 510899 Since: 03-15-04 From: Sweden Since last post: 3 hours Last activity: 4 min. |
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Originally posted by JesperI can't see myself getting Mac OS X anytime soon, since i'm so dependant on Windows/Linux software. I can run things with WINE in Linux and I can see myself switching to Linux but not Mac OS X soon... althought I maybe buy a small Mac mini computer someday, especially when i'm quite impressed. Anyway, is  Sure Windows does it somewhat automatically, but I still have to do a manual defrag now and then.And we should so have a similar FAQ for other OS's that intrest seems to rise in, expect for Windows obviously. :/ And I so need to ask a Linux zealot a few questions... xD (edited by Kitten Yiffer on 03-30-05 02:34 PM) |
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Jesper Busy, busy, busy. Level: 69 Posts: 2266/2390 EXP: 2856000 For next: 13743 Since: 03-15-04 From: Sweden. Since last post: 176 days Last activity: 79 days |
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| Mac OS X uses HFS+ (Hierarchal File System, the + meaning Extended/Plus depending on phase of the moon and the whim of Caesar) and UFS natively. HFS+ is Apple's own file system and can handle the four byte Creator and Type codes for all the files directly inside the file system which is important for backward compatibility with OS 9 and Classic. In OS 9 you didn't add .txt, you set the Type code to TEXT instead, and the Creator code to your program's own code. This way you could actually find files that you created using a special program, and it also dictated which program would open the file. If you would like a similar thread for any other OSes, just start it. |
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SUP3RS4J1NSMWH4X0RL0L Micro-Goomba Spam, abuse of pictures Level: 7 Posts: 11/16 EXP: 937 For next: 511 Since: 04-02-05 From: DRAGON BALL LOL Since last post: 214 days Last activity: 214 days |
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