Just got an IMac with the new Intel processor - Browser Question

[McKenzie]

I liked using Linux but it was a pain to get working online, so I was forced to use Windows. I'm still finding my way around my Mac. I know I'm going to just love it as the days go by. I've heard many people say "I can't figure out why I didn't do this years ago". Now I know what they mean.

This baby just rocks...20 inch screen, ILife 6 and reasonable, built-in speakers that mean I can sell my brutes of Phillips desktop speakers. Jeez, the whole thing only needs ONE electrical socket. And I can use it for my job because of the nifty graphics capability.

Time to type up an advertisement to sell loads of PC hardware and years worth of Windows software.

The only question I have (at present) is about Safari. It's way too soon to jump to any conclusions about the browser. From what I've seen so far I like it. However, anyone use Opera on a Mac? I used an old version (5) on my PC and loved it apart from some pages not rendering properly, probably because older versions of Opera were not fully W3C compliant. Sometimes I'd get what looked like a load of hex characters. Otherwise, Opera rock and rolls.

Any information on browsers for Macs welcome. I know virtually nothing about Macs so I'm back to noob status.

Thanks

[Elwood P Dowd]

1. There are several to try

I've used Opera, iCab, Mozilla, Netscape, and IE on OS 9. So far on Tiger I've only used Safari and Mozilla's Firefox. Haven't decided which one I like the best. Download Opera and Firefox, and see what you think.

Edited to add: You will absolutely love your new Mac. I've had a couple of friends make the switch from Windoze PeeCees, and they can't believe they ever lived with that crap. Go to the Apple home page, and join some of the discussions. Tons of help and advice available there. Here is a list of Mac browsers......http://www.pure-mac.com/webb.html

[McKenzie]

2. Thank you - d/loaded Opera

and I'm using it just now. It's just as I experienced with Windblows...mega quick. Damned fine browser. I'm off to try Firefox now...rarely used FF but the guys on my forum rave about it.

And you are sooo right...Mac OS just rocks...I'm still groping around but so far I just love it to bits.

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. How many widgets do you have?

:)

[McKenzie]

4. LOL! Is this a trick question?

I'm barely able to find my way around Mac OSX. I'm sure I've downloaded some QT files but I'm damned if I can find them. I somehow managed to d/load Opera and get it to run.

I've just sussed how to hide the dock on MacOSX and I think I know how to create directories. Think is the operative word here...

I'm just loving Mac OSX.

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. Click on the widget icon down on the dock.

Make clocks, calendars, maps, calculators, etc. I'm using an older OS-9 Mac at the moment, but I think the dashboard icon (for widgets) is the one next to the finder (Mac smiling face) on the far left of the dock.

Have fun!

Edit: Sorry, the dashboard is where I put it, not Apple. Poke around, and you will eventually discover dashboard and widgets.

[bullimiami]

6. i dont like widgets. they are always running, stealing processor time.

especially the online ones. especially on my older g4.

[myomy]

17. Take a look at the Camino browser

there’s a new upgrade at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/camino/
Fast and classy ..

[GoneOffShore]

7. And wait till you try Spotlight

I just upgraded to Tiger and absolutely love it.

Safari is a great browser, but then so is Firefox. The tabbed browsing feature is great, and the support for RSS feeds makes it extremely useful.

I run both browsers.

Don't forget to use Disk Utility to do a permissions repair every time you use software update or install a new application. And if you turn the machine off at night, you'll need to run a couple of maintenance programs in Terminal.

Launch Terminal, type "sudo periodic daily weekly monthly" You'll then be prompted for you administrator password, type it, then press return, wait until the cursor starts blinking again and then restart. This is a Unix program that runs late at night unless you don't keep the computer on. and Mac doesn't tell you to run it. It flushes out the various caches and log files. You can run the daily program by launching Terminal and then typing "sudo periodic daily" and following the procedure above.

Have fun with your new Mac and welcome to the light.

[McKenzie]

8. Some useful info' there. I'm reading "The Missing Manual"

which seems way better than most texts of the tekkie sort.

I have just set up the e-mail account - what a stunning e-mail client - just gorgeous.

I used various file cleaning utilities on Windblows machines - Window Washer, BC Wipe etc - anything similar for Macs? Not that important but it is useful to be able to erase files rather than just deleting them.

At this rate I'm going to run out of superlatives.

[alfredo]

9. Don't forget to enable tabbed browsing. Another good browser

is Shiira. http://hmdt-web.net/shiira/en

Desktop Manager will provide a pager, something you may have grown to love on the Linux platform.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12682

Be sure to enable Expose' too.

BTW, Control-Click (right click) on a misspelled word will bring up a menu with (hopefully) the correct spelling. Of course if the word is mangled beyond recognition, you are on your own. Control-click on the desktop will bring up a menu also.



http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/

http://www.macupdate.com/

http://osx.hyperjeff.net/

[McKenzie]

10. thank you alfredo

your help is much appreciated. I'm slowly finding my way around OSX. From what I've seen so far it is one excellent OS. It seems so intuitive and damned secure too.

Thanks again.

[alfredo]

11. Knowing Linux will really help you to go beyond the typical user

of OSX.

What do you do with your machine?

BTW, I am a big fan of MacAddict magazine. Not only are they good at what they do, they have tons of attitude. I've read every issue but the first.

http://www.macaddict.com/

[McKenzie]

12. I edit digital video from my Panasonic hand held and

I mess around with architectural graphics. I also use my computer as a video player and for playing background music in the study. I send waaay too much time online (P2P, surfing, Newsgroups and e-mail) which is one of the reasons for getting a Mac...relatively secure from viruses.

I'm getting back copies of ICreate and MacUser mags from friends; both are good mags. Not heard of MacAddict - if we can get it in the UK I'll have a look.

Still finding my way around - I screwed up the e-mail account settings when I set up a wireless router at the weekend. I'll figure it out after some poking around.

BTW, the image viewer on my Mac is absolutely superb.

Only gripe is getting .avi and .wmv files to work properly. I got hold of a utility that allows me to convert some files but it doesn't seem to work on all vids I tried. One of my camcorders outputs in MPEG4 and I'm not sure if I'll get those files to open/run on a Mac without some third party utility.

Off to work.

Cheers alfredo

[alfredo]

14. Try this for WMV

Flip4MacWMV

go here and type in mpeg4 in the search window. http://www.macupdate.com/ MPlayer is a very good

BTW, type WMV in the search to find flip4MacWMV

[alfredo]

16. Just found this

You might need it someday.

http://labs.divx.com/latestmacplayer

[TommyO]

13. Congrats on the new purchase

I'm a recent switcher also, brought home my bouncing baby PowerMac on January 20th (all 44+ pounds of it!) The only things that I'm using from my old Windows PC is my 20" Dell display, the Klipsch speakers, and two hard drives in external drive enclosures.

I use both Safari and Mozilla's Firefox, one thing to remember since you have one of the new Intel-based iMacs, Firefox is not a Universal Binary, it will run under Rosetta.

Almost everything works with Firefox, one of the exceptions is listening to messages with AT&T's Callvantage, that's one of the things that I'm still using Safari for, otherwise, it's Firefox.

[bikebloke]

15. For.AVI files

I use VLC. A freebie. Also, some mpeg's that won't play for some reason with Quciktime.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/