First Mac; First Impressions

[Siplus]

I ordered a 12" Powerbook G4 (w/ superdrive) On wednesday, and it was delivered this afternoon!

needless to say, I have lost a few hours today playing with my new machine.

As a Linux user obsessed with trying everything, I rip through operating systems religeously. I have gain an ability to adjust to linux operating systems within a very short time. (adjusting to their default settings/ WM. i know all linux is pretty much the same). I have also recently installed Solaris10, and used it for a day or so.


I must say, Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" is a bit overwhelming with the features. The keyboard on this very well made laptop is a bit strange for this previous pure x86 user. It will take a lot of getting used to.


The interface is one of the most origninal i have ever used. I have only scratched the surface of it, but I will eventally make it my own. I, of course, installed Firefox, and soon will install OOo, Gimp, and i'm still deciding about Gaim. iChat wll take a lot of getting used to, but I might just jump back to the comfort of gaim.

One thing: Safari. Isn't it supposed to have tabbed browsing?? I can't figure out how to use tabs with it for the life of me. Firefox is my primary browser, unless safari sprouts mouse gestures. Oh, and firefox still renders better than safari :-/ (Also... the default FF icon theme is better in linux than it is on OS  X... these icons look bland. i'll need to theme it up)


the Mail program is alright. I wish i could set up filters instead of just Smartboxes. I also miss fullscreen mode. I use fullscreen in a lot of applications (Firefox being among the most common for me use use fullscreen).

I can't decide if i want to the clutterbar to autohide or not..


I like the auto-wifi, auto-bluetooth configurations. Like ubuntu, everything was waiting ready for me when i booted up for the first time. No messing with it necessary.

Perhaps one of the things i dislike most about the Pbook G4 is the utter LACK of keys i find important. I'm assuming that mac users have a way or doing this, but i do not know the keycombo's yet.

There is no home/end button. even worce, no page up/page down! i use these keys all the time!

In World of Warcraft, the F1-12 keys refer to the Pbook's extra function keys instead of the in-game keybindings. Example, i push F1 to target my character in the game, but instead it dims the LCD screen!

I'm sure I will get used to certain aspects I find unsettling, and I will learn the keyboard shortcuts soon enough. I've only been using it for 5 hours

One more thing: The terminal program does not have tab-autocomplete. I must enable this somehow!

all in all, this machine is incredible.  I'm focusing more on the bad than the good right now... but everything is going pretty well

Edit:  Expose/dashboard is shaping up to be pretty cool... One thing though: Once in awhile,  lose a window. Right now, someone sent me a message on iChat. I can not find the buddy list. it's not on the clutterbar, and I can't access it from any menu i can see...

[bedouin]

The interface is one of the most origninal i have ever used. I have only scratched the surface of it, but I will eventally make it my own. I, of course, installed Firefox, and soon will install OOo, Gimp, and i'm still deciding about Gaim. iChat wll take a lot of getting used to, but I might just jump back to the comfort of gaim.

Try Adium, many people seem to like it.  iChat coupled with Jabber transports works fine for me though.

One thing: Safari. Isn't it supposed to have tabbed browsing?? I can't figure out how to use tabs with it for the life of me.

Eh, Safari > Preferences > Tabs?

(Also... the default FF icon theme is better in linux than it is on OS  X... these icons look bland. i'll need to theme it up)

See Firefoxy.

the Mail program is alright. I wish i could set up filters instead of just Smartboxes. I also miss fullscreen mode. I use fullscreen in a lot of applications (Firefox being among the most common for me use use fullscreen).

It seems PC users are used to maximizing every single window.  I never have been able to explain this psychological phenomenon, other than they just never learned how to truly multitask (this is more than running multiple programs at once), but using them at once too.

There is no home/end button. even worce, no page up/page down! i use these keys all the time!

FN + Left/Right arrow = page up/page down
FN + Up/Down arrow = home/end

Full size Mac keyboards have these just as PC ones too.

[piratePenguin]

check out Camino: http://www.mozilla.org/products/camino/

[WMD]

In World of Warcraft, the F1-12 keys refer to the Pbook's extra function keys instead of the in-game keybindings. Example, i push F1 to target my character in the game, but instead it dims the LCD screen!

System Preferences > Keyboard/Mouse.  There's a "fuction-key lock" thingy in there that's checked off by default.

[WMD]

One more thing: The terminal program does not have tab-autocomplete. I must enable this somehow!

The default shell is tcsh, which has no such thing.  Type "bash" and it should start working.

[bedouin]

The default shell is tcsh, which has no such thing.  Type "bash" and it should start working.

The default shell has been bash since Panther (maybe Jaguar).

[WMD]

At school I've done fresh installs of Panther that appear to use tcsh...I could be wrong, though.

[Siplus]

The new news has haunted my computer techish mind for the last 2 hours.

I am faced with a hard decision that has to be made in the next 4 days.

I am enjoying my new 12" 1.5Ghz Powerbook G4, and finally put some games on here. They all run incredible well, even Doom3!

My problem is not with Apple/Intel right now, It is with Apple/Intel coming soon. I am wondering if this investment in this nice, and expensive, powerbook is worth it! I could get a more powerful AMD64 with a larger video card and run all the games I am running now in linux, _ A N D _ run OSX/x86.

I have only gathered a sliver of the information I am sure is spreading throughout the web right now, but no matter what kind of DRM apple puts on its intel hardware, there *will* be a way to run it on x86, expecially now that the PearPC project won't need to emulate the processor.

I know this is a year down the road, but I'm planning on keeping this laptop longer than a year. I am mostly worried about OSX/ppc game support. They mentioned ongoing application support (for how long??) but what about game developers who have been skttish about writting mac ports?

It usually took them longer to port due to porting to ppc, but with x86, perhaps this port-time will decrease (which is good for Mac/x86 users, but i fear support for Mac/ppc users will dwindle VERY quickly)

I am interested in your opinions; i have a few short days before my return-window closes (with a 10% open-box fee. end up costing me $150 if i return it. or $1400 if i keep it (after a $100 education rebate)).

Don't get me wrong; I'm loving this peice of machinery. a 12", sturdy laptop will fit along with my books next year in college much better than the 15" weak-plasic x86 laptop i had (newer x86 laptops don't seem as sturdy as this metalic pbook, either). I'm learning the keyboard shortcuts, and i'm getting ready to buy some mac-ports of the games i don't already have

Since I am too young to know the history first-hand, I would like your opinions and feedback on how long a brand new 12" 1.5hz Powerbook G4 w/ superdrive will last before becoming depreciated in value too much.

(I was originally planning on keeping this at least halfway through college... I kept my Toshiba laptop for 2 1/2 years of high school. I would like to be able to make more than $400 on this $1700 laptop 2 or 3 years down the line)

[WMD]

no matter what kind of DRM apple puts on its intel hardware, there *will* be a way to run it on x86, expecially now that the PearPC project won't need to emulate the processor.

It doesn't have to be DRM.  The computer could just be a different design.  Heck, Apple could take their current chipsets and stick a P4 on it, and that could run OS X, but other PCs couldn't.  x86 != PC.

Typical apps should have Universal Binaries for 3 years or so.  You say halfway through college...and you're how old?  18?  You could make it until then.

As for games...laptops just aren't for games.  Period.  They may run games for a while, but they get too weak for new stuff sooner than PPC suppport could be dropped.  And then you can't upgrade them.

[bedouin]

Who buys laptops for gaming?  No matter what laptop you buy it's going to be obsolete for gaming in a year.  You do realize the last PPC machine is likely to be sold in like 2007 right?  That means cutting support for PPC is going to be unthinkable for a long time.  

And wipe the idea that there's going to be OS X on vanilla PCs out of your head.  If having the same CPU were enough for decent emulation I'd be playing Gamecube games on my PowerMac right now.

[Lead Head]

somewhere down the road some one is going to make some pice of hardware that alows you to use OSX on your beige box

[Siplus]

Who buys laptops for gaming?  No matter what laptop you buy it's going to be obsolete for gaming in a year.  You do realize the last PPC machine is likely to be sold in like 2007 right?  That means cutting support for PPC is going to be unthinkable for a long time.  

And wipe the idea that there's going to be OS X on vanilla PCs out of your head.  If having the same CPU were enough for decent emulation I'd be playing Gamecube games on my PowerMac right now.

well, You're talking to one user that buys a laptop and expects to play games on it :-D

Obviously that is not my primary reason I use my computer.

I do firmly beleive that OS X Games will run on x86 "PC's" much more easily once this transformation is complete.

At this point I'm expecting to keep this powerbook for awhile... but i have a feeling I'll be screwing myself later down the line when I lose an immense amount of value on this G4 machine when everyine is buying the x86/Powerbooks. Or, i could be wrong and this could be sought after once x86 makes its debute... who knows.

I intend on upgrading eventually, and that is the only thing that is making me worry. otherwise I am very happy with how this laptop is functioning.

edit: minor fixes

[choasforages]

i don't get it.......i just got a imac g5 17inch(original 1.8ghz). im happy i have one of the last ppc machines.....i fucking hate x86...the only thing i loath more is intel's implementations of it. too bad intel has SI-laser's and is going to be able to fit quite a few more cores per cpu then amd for a while. now if only amd where to figure out how to build things out of nana-tubes. mutli-threading in applications is going to become quite the thing to do, kidnof like object oriented programing, pain in the ass to implement, better in the end