Newbie mac questions...

unklerosco

My GF is gettin an imac(20") from santa this year... She's used macs before in college for photo/vid editing so she knows the basics of using them..

As for me i know nothing...

On first use is it just plug in and turn on n OSx is ready to go??

Is there any software that anyone would recommend as a must have?

She uses microsoft office allot, how do i get my pc version to run on the mac?? I've heard there's emmulating software that allows u to run XP software... speed isnt important cause its only for word n excel..

What internet explorer comes bundled with the mac os?? She's been using IE7 for a while now, she did use firefox but for some reason it always went dodge on her laptop...

Installed mac ram, I read here that they fill both slots.. The imac has 1gig.. is it just std DDR2 ram?? or is it mac specific? Is it easy to upgrade the imacs, ie. installing new ram, bigger HD??

Cheers

unklerosco

Cheers, couldnt find the imac on the "I Fix It" site...

I'll try that NeoOffice, used openoffice before but didnt like it..

Sad Professor

unklerosco wrote:

Installed mac ram, I read here that they fill both slots.. The imac has 1gig.. is it just std DDR2 ram?? or is it mac specific? Is it easy to upgrade the imacs, ie. installing new ram, bigger HD??

Yes, as I recently discovered, they do indeed fill both slots. So if the imac comes with 1gig that means there are 2 x512MB chips installed. So if you want to add more RAM you'll have to remove the existing chips.

I've heard there's emmulating software that allows u to run XP software... speed isnt important cause its only for word n excel..

You can use Bootcamp which installs xp on another partition which can be booted into when need. There's also Parallels which runs xp from a window within OSX. Just get the mac version of Office, but wait till the intel version is out.

uncle_sam_ie

unklerosco wrote:

Cheers, couldnt find the imac on the "I Fix It" site...

I'll try that NeoOffice, used openoffice before but didnt like it..

I agree, I don't like Neooffice much either.
There is too much good software to list, so have a look at this site http://www.versiontracker.com It's the best place to look for Mac software. I use Safari as my browser, but there're many to choose from like Opera and Firefox. MS office for OS X is nice on the Mac, but there is newer version coming next year. So, you would be mad to buy it now. You might be interested in this app if you want to run windows http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/ In most cases the Mac will have an alternative to your windows apps. I bet after time you will find the Mac alternatives to be much better then the windows ones. My advice is to go cold turkey with the windows apps and try to find the Mac alternative. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

SouperComputer

She uses microsoft office allot, how do i get my pc version to run on the mac?? I've heard there's emmulating software that allows u to run XP software... speed isnt important cause its only for word n excel..

If santa is bringing an intel mac, the you want parallels

Installed mac ram, I read here that they fill both slots.. The imac has 1gig.. is it just std DDR2 ram?? or is it mac specific? Is it easy to upgrade the imacs, ie. installing new ram, bigger HD??

Easier now than ever. I have been switching Mac\PC parts for years. 1Gb is sufficient though, unless she he working with whopper photoshop images.

What internet explorer comes bundled with the mac os?? She's been using IE7 for a while now, she did use firefox but for some reason it always went dodge on her laptop...

It comes with safari, which is an adaptation of netscape. You can get firefox, try a Mac optimised Firefox build, IE from MS hasnt been supported on Mac in a long time, you can however download it for those nasty router config pages that refuse to work properly with Firefox or Safari.


HTH

unklerosco

Cheers for the help lads... Really wanna stick with mac apps, will see if there's any cheap mac office's on ebay if not i'll hold off till next year, if worst comes to worst i'll use parallels for the time being...

Gonna be a bit of crack getting used to the mac, it'll be like getting into pcs all over again..

pa

SouperComputer wrote:

It comes with safari, which is an adaptation of netscape.

Safari is not an adaptation of Netscape. The core rendering engine of Safari is Webkit, which is a branch of the KHMTL codebase used for the Konqueror browser in KDE desktops. It is not related to Netscape.

Urban Weigl

If you are a student, you can get Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac for about €100. No proof required. Also check out NeoOffice and iWorks (Keynote is a lot better than PowerPoint, and Pages is a good replacement for Word, with more emphasis on design).

Anyhow, I definitely recommend downloading NeoOffice. It's free, and actually quite good, so it could save you a few bob. I personally use Nisus Writer as my word processor. It's not free, but shareware and quite affordable. You can find out more at www.nisus.com

Regarding running Windows on a Mac, either through Boot Camp (inconvenient reboot required), or Parallels, I don't recommend it. Don't get me wrong, both solutions are great and there are no problems at all, it's just that it isn't worth the hassle of running Windows unless you have a very specific need for it, for example an application for which there is no Mac equivalent that you need for work.

SouperComputer

pa wrote:

Safari is not an adaptation of Netscape. The core rendering engine of Safari is Webkit, which is a branch of the KHMTL codebase used for the Konqueror browser in KDE desktops. It is not related to Netscape.

I sit corrected! Not often I am wrong, but it would appear that this in one of those rare cases

ZENER

OpenOffice.org is highly recommended. A much better product nowadays compared to a couple of years ago. Also as mentioned Macs come with iWork, Keynote is brilliant and Pages is a more than capable WP all that's missing is an Excel equivalent. Open Office needs X11 installed though.

SouperComputer wrote:

It comes with safari. . . . IE from MS hasnt been supported on Mac in a long time,. . .

Yeah Safari has worked 99.99% of the time for me. Most of the problems after that are usually to do with media links like video or sound clips not working, get and install Flip4Mac and most of these should be sorted. Eircoms page always renders wrong in Safari for me = 0.01% !

you can however download it for those nasty router config pages that refuse to work properly with Firefox or Safari.

Aside:- Interesting you mention that, had this recently with a Panther iMac G4 and Linksys WAP/Router, installing Tiger sorted it right out !

ZEN

SouperComputer

Aside:- Interesting you mention that, had this recently with a Panther iMac G4 and Linksys WAP/Router, installing Tiger sorted it right out !

When I had a consulting\servicing company back home I used my Powerbook as my roadwarrior laptop. It had OS9, 10.3 and 10.4 running and it used to drive me nuts that some of the config pages would not work properly. Somtimes they would display wrong, or a submit button would not work. Really annoying!