Post #188,072
12/24/04 3:58:17 AM
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OReilly / Other Apple books - experience?
As I see the writing on the (inner retina) and search for some excuse to get one of these beauties.. I'd prefer to do some preparation first. (I've already noted that the cheap-Jobs bastards include *nothing* printed about OS-X, even after $2-3K spent on huge expanses of bitchin acrylic and satin-finished Dysprosium trim.)
I realize, of course, that it's BSD-in-drag, but expect I'll need little CL action for some while.. except to chortle over no Need to figure out how CUPS works, or how to set refresh numbers w/o frying a monitor. I may want to invoke that level of networking as facilitates getting data off of toy stuff - where it isn't quite as easy as dropping in the furrin HD and having OS-X detect it: Loved That, with a shiny new G-4.. the start of my seduction. Apple certainly knows how to lasso a hardware connoisseur. Intel's tackiness has always grated, on the level of all electronics experience. Reminds of Detroit cars, with rusty frames on the showroom floor. (A Ford) A modern Apple is more like Art (though hardly Tektronix-grade Art).
OReilly lists a plethora of "Missing Manual" type titles, and ones for specific aps.
While I have been surprised (each time) how easily one can fake it, on various plutocrats' Powerbooks, G-4s with those Gorgeous Monitors; I'd like to leverage present lore, as in - select something ~ "Apple after Doze Abuse" and a general OS-X/Panther intro + more detailed technical expos\ufffd next.
Ex: I'd like to find something which compares Finder operation (for just one thing) with the toy GUI, rather than 'explaining it' for a newbie to everything. File attribs there clearly are: let's Call them that, y'know? And what about the file system, defrag or never? Dunno if the word Reiserfs need ever come up -- stuff like that.
Lastly, earlier forays in search on some specific technical question re one of the non-geek owners of above - left me with impression of too bloody much touchy-feely fluff and much less meat, even when you use Apple-jargon descriptions verbatim. Might there even be a book revealing hints about cajoling Apple to show the Beef along with the dumbed-down generalities?
So then - have they written any manuals for the likes of moi / OReilly or Other?
(Yeah, some of this can be picked-up live - but I prefer to read from real books and not on some screen, at least initially.)
Gracias,
Ashton
who must also ponder if the Powerbook is really worth That much more -??- than the iBook, per Peter's cryptic quip, a while back.. especially since I'm unlikely to be editing hi-end video or gaming :-0
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Post #188,076
12/24/04 7:06:25 AM
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There are 'switchers' guides available
but I've not read any of them. The only book I've bought is The Missing Manual, which IMO is pretty good. Mind you I still haven't read it in-depth enough to figure out if it exactly meets your needs. But regarldess, it's still useful.
Two out of three people wonder where the other one is.
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Post #188,081
12/24/04 8:38:04 AM
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Second on "Missing Manual"
This is a very good series and there's one on OS X.
I know how you feel, though. Back in the day, when I switched to a Mac, I worked my way through about three of these guides to make sure I could figure out what I was doing.
Tom Sinclair
"This is a lovely party," said the Bursar to a chair, "I wish I was here."
-- The Bursar is a man under a *lot* of stress
(Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)
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Post #188,088
12/24/04 9:34:17 AM
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take a close look before you buy books
I bought a tome when I got mine, It was all oriented to teach a MacOS person how to run the GUI on OSX nothing about kernel tweaking or packagemanagement stuff I would use.
regards,
daemon
that way too many Iraqis conceived of free society as little more than a mosh pit with grenades. ANDISHEH NOURAEE
clearwater highschool marching band [link|http://www.chstornadoband.org/|http://www.chstornadoband.org/]
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Post #188,090
12/24/04 11:26:46 AM
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I haven't really needed a manual yet.
I'm a PC person. My wife's a Mac person (back from the Apple II LC days). But she just uses it and doesn't bother to worry about the technical aspects.
We bought a dual processor G5 ~ 6-9 months ago. It's a nice machine. She also has a 667 MHz 15" Ti Powerbook.
I tried adding Fink Commander to the TiBook and installing some software to play with. I was able to muddle through it with almost no understanding of *BSD or OS X. Of course, I gave up after a while because I really didn't have the time to understand the details and she didn't need the stuff anyway. If you're interested in adding OSS to your OS X, Fink Commander is probably the way to go (check out danreck's and tjsinclair's comments with Site Search). (Though recall that Todd Blanchard had trouble with Fink.)
I bought a couple of OReilly books on OS X (the Panther Pocket Guide and the Missing Manual (I think)) but have only skimmed them. I was looking for books that explained, or at least mentioned, installing OSS using Fink Commander at the time.
I've set up accounts for both of us on the G5 but haven't really done anything complicated with them. The things I need to understand better are: 1) What's really happening when I install new software? What's going on with these Disk Images and the Drag-And-Drop Installation? Where should new software be put? 2) How do I adjust the file permissions so that she and I can each modify files or use programs without dragging them to a shared folder?
Otherwise, we really don't need to think much about what's going on. It really is a turn-it-on-and-use-it type of machine for the most part. We've installed MS Office, Mozilla, and Eudora on the Powerbook and done an update to Panther, and got wireless networking working with it. On the G5 we've installed MS Office and use 100BT Ethernet. The Mail application with Panther is pretty good - it's got a pretty good spam filter and transferring Eudora's mailboxes was pretty painless as I recall. Both of the machines are easy to keep updated using Software Update. We use a Canon i550 printer with the G5. I haven't figured out how to print over the network using the Ti PowerBook yet, but haven't spent much time on it.
Some things are different than on a PC - e.g. sometimes the Backspace and Delete keys don't work the way I expect. But for the most part, using a Mac isn't too different from using a PC. Some things on OS X are very Unix-y (especially the file permissions stuff), but if you're the only user it shouldn't be much of an issue.
If you're looking for a manual, I'd browse OReilly's offerings. They're probably the best these days. Most of your questions can be answered here or on the web with time, but I understand the joy that comes from holding a good book.
I hope this bit of rambling helps a bit. Best of luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #188,097
12/24/04 12:52:33 PM
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Re: I haven't really needed a manual yet.
We bought a dual processor G5 ~ 6-9 months ago. It's a nice machine. She also has a 667 MHz 15" Ti Powerbook. Drool, envy etc. I've set up accounts for both of us on the G5 but haven't really done anything complicated with them. The things I need to understand better are: 1) What's really happening when I install new software? What's going on with these Disk Images and the Drag-And-Drop Installation? Where should new software be put? 2) How do I adjust the file permissions so that she and I can each modify files or use programs without dragging them to a shared folder? 1) Disk images are like fancy Zip archives. You put software wherever you like. I dump mine in /Applications, but if it's just something one user uses, ~Applications is fine. 2) You don't. Welcome to UNIX :)
Peter
[link|http://www.ubuntulinux.org|Ubuntu Linux]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home]
Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #188,093
12/24/04 12:11:52 PM
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Four tips and a comment
1. You need no understanding of UNIX/BSD to be incredibly productive on OS X.
2. Wait to buy for a couple months, the next release of OS X (10.4) is imminent.
3. Buy the 'Missing Manual' for the version you get.
4. Run through [link|http://www.atomiclearning.com/macosxpanther|these] free tutorials. In fact, do this now, it will answer a lot of your questions.
I'd say for you, get an iBook. Given your past postings, and your current '98-lite' system, the additional features of the powerbook will mean little to you.
Good luck!
--
Steve
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Post #188,354
12/27/04 9:12:52 PM
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"Missing Manual" good; iBook good
I found Pogue's "Missing Manual" for OS X useful and comprehensive. I'd been using the previous iterations of the Mac OS from 1984 forward at home and from 1987 forward at work, and had attained a certain fluency: I could diagnose and fix almost anything that went wrong in that comely yet—alas!—increasingly unstable environment, and reflexes born of long habit (the reason I gave up years ago attempting to convert the casual longtime Windows user: the protocols, however superior, would seem counterintuitive) made working in that environment all but effortless. The switch to OS X was something of a shock, and I'm still something of a tyro in the diagnose-and-fix department, but fortunately things don't go wrong anything like as frequently. The "Missing Manual" was a big help as I made the transition.
As to hardware, for your needs the iBook G4 will do handily. Do get additional memory (768MB should be comfortable); don't pay Apple's RAM prices. It's always a good idea to purchase in the wake of the MacWorld Expo, as last year's hot boxes are frequently available at steep discounts.
I've just concluded a deal with an [link|http://www.powermax.com|outfit in Oregon] that appears to have some fabulous deals, and will report early in the new year as to whether the experience justified my optimism. I will note that Oregon apparently lacks a sales tax. I will further note that under California law we who purchase big-ticket items from Oregon must pay a "use tax" (equal, oddly, to our state sales tax) on these auslander acquisitions. I will observe finally that of course we all report and duly tender tax on these transactions, and add, with Dorothy Parker, that I am Queen of Romania.
cordially,
Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
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Post #188,376
12/28/04 5:50:55 AM
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Oooh! Candy store
Must ponder, mull. Will be in touch.
Gracias -
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Post #188,374
12/28/04 5:36:24 AM
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Thanks all
After all these years of diminishing expectations, it's a treat to see so many ++s, especially in this crowd.
Nothing out there which has put such a pretty face on a million man-hour OS. Another incentive; I can later celebrate brain reorientation via the latest umm Ubuntu sleek install. (Sounds a lot like Un\ufffdmbut\ufffd, one of the Gods ID'd by Jos. Campbell - as a Genesis counterpoint) For this Intel box. It's not enough to just wipe Doze; one must humiliate, avenge all those killed fixing hours. A 6-D Thorn/\ufffd in the tawdry astral body of a Gawdawful-class prevaricator.
Jobs is a charlatan of sorts, too - but at least he knows how to make things that actually Work, while also not looking like rusty erector sets. Why... some might want one of these, even if it didn't work; beats a Rolex.
Thanks, Steve for Atomic Learning .. even on dial-up, the clips are reasonably sized. Time to peddle a Tektronix -
moi
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Post #188,537
12/30/04 12:23:30 AM
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Re: Thanks all
Ashton,
Don't sweat the "training". You have more than enough grey (or is it gray?) matter to not need a "stinking manual". I think you'll find that the intuition is there to find in a very short time. I echo remarks from rcaragea as a longtimer who had to switch from OS9 to OSX. It actually easier if you know little or nothing about Mac OS versions prior to X.
When you get on board, you'll find a quick perusal of sites like:
[link|http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/|http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/]
or [link|http://www.osxfaq.com/|http://www.osxfaq.com/] or the CUPS issue you spoke of [link|http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3|http://gimp-print.so...e.net/MacOSX.php3] ... Google is your friend :-) Sourceforge has been extremely active. Apple's X11 is very stable (now) and one of the better implementations I've seen.
Check this out:
[link|http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/|http://www.apple.com...unix_open_source/]
A simple Google search with "OS X" and "Open Source" will give you a good idea of the breadth of stuff available.
By the way, Happy Holidays to you et al. I've been extremely busy at work and home (after standing up the VMWare ESX boxen and the Citrix farm they made me techical lead on an HP Openview implementation -OVOUX/OVOWIN with the agents and spi's, yadayadayada) I'm now working on a product called Axios Assyst (MFAC alert - the leading ITIL based unifying solution)
It wouldn't be right if I didn't do my perfunctory rant in a post so here it is... ITIL - the ISO 9000 of the modern age. The total quality management system for the rest of us if we only work as a team using LIFO and FIFO methodologies. I must have been asleep at the wheel but when did the MFAC's come up with this ITIL happy horseshit? Am I just getting too old and cynical or is this latest management fad getting legs for folks who have titles without knowledge? Etc...
Enjoy your new computer and if you need any assistance get me here or at work and I'll be happy to help (if I can)
Just a few thoughts,
Danno
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Post #188,662
12/31/04 7:05:08 AM
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Nice hints.
Thanks, Dan Reassuring that, in this case.. logic just may be enough :-\ufffd I do see a whole new list of TLAs I shall have to adsorb, but at least I can be selective. The info itself already seems better organized than I'm used to; this batch should help further. As to ITIL... whenever I see ~ IT Service Management is a top-down, business driven approach to the management of IT that specifically addresses the strategic business value generated by the IT organisation and the need to deliver a high quality IT service. IT Service Management is designed to focus on the people, processes and technology issues that IT organisations face. I'm reminded that the Principia damn near killed Bertie Russell - was it ~pp 142 that he finally got to a proof for "1 + 1 = 2"? Anyway I sympathize with being involved with any project whose goal is to Fully Organize Everything. 'Course I know nothing about the company (UK?) and it's er Misson - but sure sounds like another Grail Quest: Meta-Information / Information-about-Info. Recursion is such fun, but mix -$$- with that and soon it's cha cha cha "Strategic Business Value" eh.. (Yeah, you may be getting old, but relax.. occasionally that does mean wiser - if not quite as frequently as we hoped. And it is Wise to despise bafflegab. I say that didactically as, it be unarguable, that. ;-) Cheers, moi
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