[CS-FSLUG] Mac OS

[Scott Parks]

On Sep 7, 2006, at 1:33 AM, Nathan T. wrote:

> 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

I use both Linux and a Mac Power Book.  What is the best (IMHO) feature
is the integration of FreeBSD on the back-end.  Open a terminal window,
ssh to your Linux boxes and you are running in no time.

At my office we use Power Books to manage our Linux servers and they
work together very well - simple things like copy and paste between term
windows just works the way it should.  You will find a lot of Linux  
people
using Power Books because of FreeBSD back-end and the ease in which
they talk to each other.  There is far more to just the term windows,  
but
in my job I am more concerned with keeping my network of Linux servers
running, I can't be worried about the machine I use to connect to them
and if it is configured.  I open the lid on my PB and in 2 seconds I  
have a
login prompt and I am ready to connect - it just works and when you are
down that is very important.

> 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
> 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 .

What will you be doing on your Mini?  If you expect to be running  
iTunes,
IPhoto, iMovie, Open Office, Mail, Firefox and have about 20 term  
windows
open then no, 512 is not enough.  I have a Mini with 256 and it gets  
by, but
I only use it for iTunes and terminal windows.  Consider going for a  
gig of
ram if possible.

-Scott