[CS-FSLUG] Mac OS

[Timothy Butler]

Hi Nathan,
> First off I wanted to get an idea of what OS X was like. I'm not
> referring to one of Apple's guided tours, but rather screenshots of
> what dialogs look like, the things that Apple doesn't seem to make
> readily available. For example I know that the button ordering in OS X
> is different, "No" comes before "Yes" in confirmation dialogs from
> what I've heard, but where do others fit in? I had a look on Google
> and I didn't see anything beyond normal configuration dialogs and
> pictures of standard applications, I was really hoping to see some
> save dialogs and confirmation dialogs as well as other components of
> the OS.

	Precisely what all do you want to see? I could post a few photos.  
Posting photos of the whole OS would take forever, though. I was  
hired to do that once for KDE -- yikes! -- I never thought I'd get done.

>
> Another thing that's on my mind is how well OS X runs with 512 MB of
> ram. I have had a look around and I can readily get a Mac Mini locally
> that has a Core Solo processor and 512 MB of ram. The only thing I'm

	Unless it is reduced in price, don't buy a Core Solo system. As of  
this week, all Mac minis, including the $599 model, come with Core  
Duo processors. (Incidentally, the $999 17" iMac comes with a Core 2  
Duo processor now.)

> unsure about is whether that is enough ram for OS X, especially
> considering that the Mac Mini line has a video card sharing the system
> ram. Would 512 be enough to multitask while still getting decent
> performance? By decent performance I mean more than just having a
> small handful of apps up at time, at work I am frequently reminded to
> close applications if there's more than three or four running so the
> windows machines don't become too unstable :-P .

	Well, it really just depends what you mean by more than a few apps.  
On my PowerBook, I got away for quite a while using just 256 megs of  
ram. I'd usually have three or five apps open. I now have it boasted  
to 1.25 GB. My iMac G3 has a mere 128 megs of ram and runs OK. On the  
other hand, on my desktop, I have Mail, Safari, iTunes, Terminal,  
Word, Adobe Photoshop, TextWrangler, Firefox and Preview open, so  
even 1.5 GB of ram seems a little... tight. I'm hoping to go to 2.5  
or 3.5 GB sooner rather than later.

	Don't expect anything miraculous, but I'd say OS X is happy in about  
the same amount of RAM as GNU/Linux running a modern DE.

> I am curious as well, the Mac keyboards have F-keys going up past 12.
> I doubt I could readily get a Mac keyboard up here, I haven't seen any
> in stores, in which case would I be stuck without the functionality
> provided by the extra F-keys?

	For the most part, they don't do that much. F14 and F15 adjust the  
LCD brightness of supported screens (such as the Cinema Display),  
generally. The big issue is that you loose the handy audio volume  
controls and eject button. F12 becomes eject, which means the key  
does double duty between Dashboard and Eject, depending on how long  
you hold down the key.

	Not a big deal, but go with a Mac keyboard if possible. It makes it  
easier, since the Option (Alt) and Apple (Command) keys are labeled  
correctly and in the right places. On a Windows keyboard, the Windows  
(Apple) and Alt (Option) keys reverse and it just seems messier.

> How well do Mac Mini's handle being on KVMs? I already realize they
> don't have PS/2 ports any more, so I'm thinking a normal USB and VGA
> KVM will do.

	Macs never had PS/2 ports. :-) You can use a PS/2 to USB adapter if  
you wish. I've never tried a mini, but most Macs seem to work fine  
under a KVM. The big problem is that the KVM typically will not allow  
you to access OpenFirmware commands. You can't tell the system to  
boot from the CD-ROM drive, for instance, while using a KVM. I've  
never been able to confirm why, but it seems switch doesn't  
initialize fast enough. You can always plug in the keyboard directly  
when you need such functionality.

> One last question I can think of for the night is what kinds of free
> software is available for Macs, and how that software is installed. I
> would want OO.o, but as far as I can the closest thing to a native
> port is several versions behind and uses Java in the porting process.
> Does that even run at a reasonable speed (thinking of the java
> components here), and then what kinds of other useful applications are
> free for OS X?

	NeoOffice is OK. You could also run the real OO.o via X11. Other  
free stuff? TextWrangler, jEdit, AbiWord, Google Earth and  
Meteorologist are among some of those I use. I also have various  
nifty Dashboard widgets and a few system utilities you might want to  
consider -- such as Cocktail (shareware).

	If you want a well integrated word processor, though, you'll  
probably want to consider buying either Apple iWork or Microsoft  
Office:mac 2004 (which is actually quite nice and works better than  
Office 2003 in my experience).

> I'm looking forward to some answers, in two weeks time I get another
> pay-check and I think I may have enough to get a Mac Mini without
> leaving myself short on cash. I am really having a hard time wrestling
> over whether trying something I may not like at all would be worth the
> expense.

	It's a regular PC if you want it to be. Assuming you like the specs,  
it is a pretty low risk trial.

	-Tim




---
Timothy R. Butler | "Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher
tbutler at ofb.biz   | is bound in  his  way to  be a lover of myths  and
www.uninet.info   | poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in
timothybutler.us  | being big with wonder."
                                                      -- Thomas Aquinas