First Mac and Power Book shipped today! Any Tips?

I am not a recent switcher, but I was a switcher nonetheless. I was a heavy Windows power user a few years ago, and I still dabble in it for work reasons, but I still love my Mac.

Here are a few tips that I can offer though. Depending on the kind of user you were in Windows, your first start up can vary quite a bit. If you are the typical computer user, you will probably be fine with everything that is bundled. Everything is going to be laid out for you. Explore iPhoto. I am still amazed by the way iPhoto organizes things. It is no substitute for Photoshop, but it does a great job of organization.

Familiarize yourself with Appleworks, and see if you can use it for your Word Processing needs. I know you said you don't have much cash, but if you are a student at certain universities, you can pick up a copy of Office 2004 for as low as $7. I know at UT Arlington, I can get most MS Software for as little as $7, and as high as $60. The highest I've ever paid was $60 for the very high end Visual Studio Suite.

If you are a power user, go to websites like www.macosxhints.com. If you are comfortable with unix, and are comfortable tweaking in the terminal, you can do just about anything you want with that site. Also, if PC Compatibility is a must, you can also pick up Virtual PC at your campus bookstore too if you are a student. I think Virtual PC costs like $14 where I go to school, and thats with a legal copy of Windows XP Upgrade.

Oh, and the Powerbook likes it when you make her breakfast in the morning. Usually a couple of eggs, no bacon, with some Cheerio's. Plain Cheerio's, she gets angry with that Honey Nut garbage. Oh, and bring the paper to her as well.
 
My suggestions are less Mac-specific, more general, but they apply for everyone:

1) Be smart about your software purchases. Research the alternatives, and don't just buy what you see on the shelft at CompUSA. There is almost always a better and cheaper alternative shareware product somewhere. Just Google around.

2) Get a good backup plan if you have important documents and emails that you want to save if anything would happen. You can order very cheap FireWire external hard drives at pricewatch.com and then download the excellent freeware Carbon Copy Cloner to automate the process.

3) If you're going to have a LAN and/or wireless LAN, keep it secure! Password protect your router and each computer. Do not let guess access, do not enable FTP (disabled by default), do not enable SSH (disabled by default), do not enable root -- unless you know what you're doing. But don't worry too much about this, your Mac is very secure out of the box.
 
FrgMstr,

1.) Learn the OS X keyboard shortcuts. I personally did that by buying _Mac OS X: The Missing Manual_ by David Pogue (back at 10.1!). Learned a LOT. OS X was much more comfortable after I learned them. I imagine you could find the keyboard shortcuts in Help and/or online. You might still consider the book. It's very well written.

2.) If you want to dive head first into the hard-core Unixy side, look at _Mac OS X: Unleashed_ by John Ray and William C. Ray. (Large) Parts of it go a bit over my head. Still, it's fascinating. Huge book. Amazon appears to have the best prices.

3.) Don't believe anything any non-Mac user says about the Mac until you've verified it. People are so 1995 when it comes to Macs. Just ask them how long they've used OS X and ask them to explain a bit about the underlying architecture.

4.) Finally, there's PUHlenty of software out there--high-end, consumer, bargain, abandonware, shareware, freeware, bundled-ware, open-source. For instance, check out OmniGraffle included with your PowerBook if you haven't already. If you have to brave U.S. Income Tax code, both Turbo Tax and TaxCut are available. You may have to order your commercial software online or over the phone.

Enjoy your Mac. I've been WinPC free since early 2002 (what an inspiration! <sniff>).
Doug
 
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