iBook newbie seeks installation advice...Should I install OS X?

F

fischman

Registered
Hello All,
I am a very newbie mac user. I have not purchased my future computer yet, but I am in the process of shopping one. I think I have settled on the iBook DV. I am very computer literate. I have been a wintel user for 15 or so years, and a unix/linux user for 5 years. I have used Macs before, but this was back in 92, and I'm sure alot has changed. My question is, would I have any difficulty in installing OS X? Would anybody caution me against it at this time? I have wanted a mac for a while, but I have been holding off until OS X is released. I don't think I can wait any longer. OS X looks like the sexiest thing to hit computers since I've started using them. Does anyone have any advice for me?
 
Sure, go for it! I'm running OS X on a partition on an older iBook SE and it works splendidly! Running older apps under the Classic Environment works exceptionally well, except for some games, and you'll be able to use your Unix skills in X's Terminal app.

I believe you'll get AppleWorks 6 with your iBook, and it's carbonized, too.

Good luck!
 
Words of advice: partition, partition, partition.

I didn't do this at first. I also stupidly didn't do a backup. Luckily I didn't lose all that much. You're also fortunate in that you will be starting from a fresh computer. OSX didn't seem to want to share with OS9 for some reason when they were on the same drive. I had a great deal of trouble going from OS to OS. It would freeze up when I told it to restart. After many three-finger salutes, manual resettings of the PRAM, and a shot of tequila for good measure, I took my cousin's advice and partitioned my hard drive. Now things are running fine.

Given your stated experience with computers, installing should be a breeze. You'll wonder what crack wintel users are smoking ;)

MikE
 
In some ways I envy the original poster's position. You have a virgin system configuration. Probably zero personal files and records that you have diligently organized and structured. You basically have a clean slate to start from.

If you are buying the machine specifically because of Mac OS X then I wouldn't hesitate to put it on the machine. From what I hear installation is a breeze for the supported machines.

I might caution you to lower your expectations a bit about the OS. It is beta so there will be some rough edges. But if you want to experiment, this certainly seems like the time to do it :)

Good luck.
 
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