Woo Hoo!

[sqlrob]

I am posting this from Eris, my new computer which showed up several days early. Thank god I redid my old computer early, to be a mail server, file server, and soon to be a network evaluator, running intrusion attempts on everything on the LAN.

Boy, is it going to take some getting used to. It's different than anything I've used before. I like the Unix base and it still blows my mind opening a command line and typing "emacs" and have it work on a Mac. If you told me a couple of years ago that I'd get a Mac of my own free will, I would've tried to have you checked into Bellvue. There was no way I was going to buy a Windows box (working computer security does that to you), and I really didn't feel like spending the time figuring out what parts I needed, piecing them together and installing the OS. jenbooks egged me on a little to much at the Apple store :D.

The difference in mindset between OSX and Windows is incredible. I thought it interesting that the games that come with XP were solitare and Pinball, but the ones that come with OSX are Chess and some 3D games. The security is completely different too. Default install, with slight changes to require login and lock the screensaver, and a port scan showed diddleysquat, taking more than 10 minutes to run and finding nothing, contrast to the numerous ports open on a default XP install.

Dev tools, Firefox and Thunderbird are all installed now, and it's time to just wander around the system to see what's there.

Comments

[silar31.livejournal.com]

Yay Rob! Trust me, you'll never go back to WinBlows exclusively once you've had the iMac for a while. I {heart} my iBook. I did have to break down and install Virtual PC and WinXP for some of the software for school, and it's boggy as hell on a G4 because XP has all of the typical resource-hogging characteristics of a WinOS, but it'd probably scream along better on the G5. Especially if you maximize the memory.

Keep me posted on how you like the iMac design and stuff, eh? My folks are talking about getting a PC and I'm thinking to try to talk them around to the iMac. They need the stability and stamina of a Mac, because they are *not* computer savvy and I don't feel like having to drive an hour out there every time a PC has a Microsoft Moment (tm). BTW, xJournal rocks as a LJ client. http://www.speirs.org/xjournal/

[sqlrob.livejournal.com]

I went the cheaper (both meanings of the word intended) way with my parents, and got them a Linux box. I haven't had to do much adminning since Dad doesn't know who or what root is. I can simply ssh in and fix stuff up as needed, really only patches.

I got the memory, this box is up to a Gig. I really don't understand why Apple's default is only 256 MB. I was doing standard stuff last night and my memory footprint was 286 MB. No problem with a Gig, but a recipe for swap on a default config.

A simple Mac question that was driving me buggy last night. Is there an equivalent to "Shift-End" to select from cursor to the end of the line? I was trying it last night in FireFox (and I think Safari) and it wasn't working. I tried Option and Apple as well, and it didn't seem to do anything.

Is there a good book for people that are not computer novices in the slightes t (more than two decades experience) but are Mac novices?

[(Anonymous)]

Command+arrow selects to the end of the line, so Shift-Command-Arrow is your key combo of choice.