Stepping into the light..

[laptopsandspares]

Ok, so I finally took the plunge at a personal level, harvested my childrens kidneys and stepped out of the dark and into the light! I bought my first MacBook Pro yesterday (Impulse purchase on lunch break!) It was quite a religuos experience, I felt I needed some ceremony turning it on for the first time so after putting the kids in ice baths until the dialysis machine turns up from eBay, I washed my hands, lit some candles and opened the box!!

 

So learned EduMac Geekers, who wants to give me the top 10 "You can tell he's a Windows idiot" frequently asked questions I'm going to find myself asking? (and of course the soltions )

 

Anyone have experience of Aperture vs Lightroom? (I'm a 'tog in my spare time)

Where's the delete key? Or won't I need one to reboot my machine any more?

Just how many finger gestures are there for the touchpad? My old Dell just had a single two finger option that I would wave at the screen!

 

Looking forward to hearing from you, my new enlightened kin.

 

Best

David

[achedgy]

I can answer one question, press fn and the backspace for delete (always thought Mac's were daft for that, i use delete far more than backspace)

[laptopsandspares]

I can answer one question, press fn and the backspace for delete (always thought Mac's were daft for that, i use delete far more than backspace)

 

Thanks I tried CMD and backspace and it deleted the whole line!!

[Little-Miss]

That actually made LOL! Thanks!

[achedgy]

I do like my mac book, but i have to admit i rarely boot into osx, i have upgraded to Lion to have a play, just always seems hard work doing anything.. Runs nicely with Windows 7 on, with perhaps the exception of the battery life being hit massively.

[laptopsandspares]

I do like my mac book, but i have to admit i rarely boot into osx, i have upgraded to Lion to have a play, just always seems hard work doing anything.. Runs nicely with Windows 7 on, with perhaps the exception of the battery life being hit massively.

I'd not even thought about dual boot os's but then to be honest for me that would defeat the object of buying the Mac. I've a perfectly good PC sat there, I had to tell the misses that Windows really wasnt designed for someone with my (lack of) creative flair.

 

I think the reason lion is so power concious is it likes to turn the screen off every 60 seconds Made trying to watch the online "so this is your first Mac" video on the apple site quite a chore!!

 

OS is a very different logic but the biggest stumbling block for me last night was that you can never be sure if the feature your after is there and you can't find it, or if Mr Jobs decided you wouldn't need it!

[achedgy]

I bought it was one of schools was looking into getting some mac's, helps if the techie knows how to deal with them! They then turned into an acadamy and employed a full time techie. So it was a bit of a waste as none of the other schools i look after are even remotely interested in such an expensive proposition (they're trying to make IT cheaper,not spend even more money per unit) Can't be beat on pure quality of the hardware, it is lovely, just wish another manufacturer would step up and make something better. I know when i do replace it i'll be comparing it.. Can't really justify buying another just to run Windows on!

 

I did try using vm fusion at first so i had outlook 'proper' running and my accounts software (another windows only) but found it really dragged.

[HodgeHi]

1. Print to PDF. If you ever want to create a PDF from anything, just click print and then save as PDF button.

2. System Preferences. This is your control panel. The Energy Preference is where you tell OS X to stop dimming the screen every 10 seconds

3. cmd+shift+ 1 - 4. Depending on the number you choose will give you a different option of capturing the screen. Num 4 gives you crosshairs for screen selections. Can also use Image Capture

4. Holding down the C key will boot form CD (although Lion doesn't have one )

5. Holding down D key will boot into the Diagnostic mode where you can check hardware.

6. You can right-click the user in the list of users in system preferences to bring up an advanced option. This allows you to change the shortname, move user dir etc.

7. Lion doesn't come with Flash player. Download it at your own risk!

8. Lion doesn't come with java installed. Also needs downloading. If anything requires Java you will be prompted to download it and it will go off to Apple's servers.

9. Most common printer drivers are updated from Apple's software update.

10. Download remote desktop for mac to allow connection to your PC or even a VNC and use screen sharing.

 

Just a few simple ones.

 

You could check out the Macrumors forum for detailed comparison of Aperture vs Lightroom.

Edited September 30, 2011 by HodgeHi

[laptopsandspares]

Legend, thank you HodgeHi.