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Found the #1 Mac guide in the world!!

March 13, 2007

Ok i found this Mac guide like no other Mac guide, it dosn’t just explains keyboard shortcuts, it actually, well, read it to find out!

Introduction

A lot of people have been moving to the over the past few years, so a while back I thought I’d jot down a few notes about my experience over the last five years or so. The motives for anyone switching are pretty much irrelevant, and will not be discussed here – discussing relative merits of computer platforms is very much like discussing cars, and therefore largely unimportant if you are getting what you want.

Quasi-religious beliefs that any platform is better than another are not just irrelevant, but plain childish and stupid. Before maligning the , or , make sure you know what you are talking about – most people in the business have “pet hatreds” towards one platform or another out of sheer ignorance, and more than a decade in the business has shown me that anyone who only has bad things to say about any given platform probably doesn’t know what (s)he’s talking about.

So if you know you want a , you’ve come to the right place for a few basic hints that might just save you a lot of time.

The major “under-the-hood” issue for non- users is the underlying foundation of – it’s quite different from what you might be used to, and if you used any sort of before, bookmark Amit Singh’s What Is Mac OS X? now and go read it after you finish this.

The second (and quite frequent) issue is the recent transition to processors. The bottom line on that is: If it’s a , it will work the same way regardless of what chip is inside. There will always be teething issues, but the emulator ensures pretty much everything runs on new machines with acceptable performance, and most relevant applications are already available as Universal binaries for both and machines.

And yes, you can run (or ) on -based s. There are at least three good ways to do it. One is doing dual boot using (for which even supplies drivers), and the other two consist of using (i.e., running the other operating system in a virtual hardware sandbox). One is called and has been around since roughly mid-2006, and the other is called and reached public beta on .

They will not be discussed here at length, since the main point of this document is to ensure you feel at home in as quickly as possible.

The remainder of this is, therefore, mostly written for non-technical folk. However, I do throw in a few hints for people who are coming to with some computing experience and expect some “best practices”, so don’t worry if some points are a bit too technical.

Buying

Buying a is not a normal experience anywhere. It’s a local thing, best done with local people (pun intended). It’s exactly like this in Portugal, but for entirely the wrong reasons, like the lack of shops, the recurring problems of the local retail chain (we still don’t rate an official shop) and the quasi-underground nature of most user groups.

However, picking which to buy (and when) is pretty straightforward. It’s mostly a matter of visiting the site, reading the Macrumors Buyers’ Guide to figure out how recent each model is relative to the full lineup, and then finding a store that stocks it (some people order theirs – others, like me, want to go out, get it, and come back again without all that waiting around nonsense).

The recent change to may cause some disruption, but any machine bought on 2005 (and even early 2006, as cleared stock) will serve people well for a lot of years to come. Just make sure you plan for an upgrade to 1GB of , since the next version of (codenamed ) is likely to be a bit more demanding.

I will not go into warranties, support or suchlike – this is, again, a local affair, invariably dealt with by local people. So far, I’ve been lucky – a problem one of my s had (an original 15″ flat panel , which I started out in and since gave to my parents) was fixed within three weeks. It had a power supply failure, and fixing it required shipping a replacement part to Portugal. A similar thing happened to my recently, and the experience was mostly the same.

Three weeks is unacceptable in the rest of the civilized world (again, really should consider improving their presence in Portugal), but a couple of issues in three years (and, incidentally, four s) is pretty good.

Unpacking & Testing

  • While unpacking, look at the packaging. There are neat graphical hints of how to unpack every printed on the box. Do leaf through the manual, but (here’s the important bit) don’t rush it. There are a few important things to know, even if you’ve had a before.
  • If you’re getting a laptop or flatscreen, boot the Hardware Test off the first install (insert the CD and hold down Alt – or Option, as it is called in older keyboards – while the machine boots). Amongst other things, it performs a display test – which is fundamental for picking up “dead” pixels before you start installing stuff (I used to use , which filled the screen with solid colors, but it seems to have vanished). As usual, the smaller the screen, the less likely you are to have dead pixels (there is some controversy as to what amount of dead pixels warrants a replacement – search the Net for more info).

Setting up

  • The default behavior these days is for the to prompt you for an installation language the first time it boots from the hard disk and, after installing a few files (a few minutes’ worth) configure your locale settings. If your boots straight to the Finder or to the login panel, then someone else has used it before (sadly, this is a common thing with Portuguese retailers, who like to play around with their customers’ gear). If so, I recommend using the restore s/s included with every to restore it to a factory-fresh configuration.
  • After setting up your keyboard, language and whatnot, the installer creates the first user account. This is the important bit: it is an administration account – call it “Administrator” or something like that and create another for yourself afterwards (if you’re a head, this is not root, which is disabled).

Many people think this is unnecessary until they discover (the hard way) that they threw some important system file into the Trash. Yes, there are warnings, but using the machine as an administrator tends to make people oblivious to them, and years of using all my machines as a “regular” user bestowed upon me painless system updates, zero trouble with the core system and no software instability whatsoever. In the end, it’s your call.

You can create that “regular” user accounts in System Preferences after setup ends. This will not prevent you from making all the silly mistakes people do when using a for the first few months, but it will significantly decrease the odds of you breaking something (you will be asked to authenticate as an administrator before any significant changes are made). Not to mention that it prevents unwanted changes to your system…

(Yes, you can break a install – or files that make subsequent upgrades fail – by mistake when you use the machine every day as an admin user. And yes, I’m repeating the warnings in small print above.)

  • Network configuration is usually trivial. s use by default, and visible access points will show up on the menu (to connect to a hidden or security-hardened network, choose the “Other…” option in the menu). For those having to deal with broadband connections, support is built-in, and your card’s physical address can be looked up in the Ethernet section of the Network preference pane in System Preferences.
  • Firewalling is configured in the Sharing tab in System Preferences. The defaults are usually sensible for most cases (and is very secure), but it’s best to ensure it’s on if you’re directly connected to the Net.

Best Practices

What not to do:

  • Don’t use the administration account for anything other than setting up the machine and applications or changing “permanent” settings (if you want to, say, change network settings as a normal user you’ll be prompted for the admin password, and since you’ll do configuration changes less and less often as time progresses, this isn’t a problem).
  • Don’t install “toy” applications as the admin user until you’re sure you’re going to use them. Most applications will run just fine from an Applications folder under your user directory.
  • Don’t open files or mail attachments that come from unknown sources. This is a basic security measure that is valid for any kind of machine, even for a – no operating system can protect your machine from your mistakes… One way to improve your odds is to open preferences and uncheck the Open "safe" files after downloading option. There is no such thing as a “safe” file, you have to be sure of what you download.
  • Never, ever move applications (such as ) to other folders. updates are not always very clever at updating built-in apps, so you’ll end up with either two copies of your apps or a single broken one.
  • If you’re a user: Don’t try moving a folder on top of another with the same name – will replace the entire folder, i.e., it will not merge both folder’s contents and will cause you to lose your data. This is a very significant difference between the and Explorer that catches most people at least once, and is simply a matter of different traditions (plus the underpinnings of , where things have worked like this from time immemorial). Drag the folder contents, not the folder itself.
  • If you’re a user: Don’t fiddle with the system startup scripts unless you’re sure you know what you’re doing (which includes reading this and a bit more about and the startup files themselves). doesn’t use runlevels in the same way as “classic” systems, and things like network configuration, system services, and whatnot are not (necessarily) stored under /etc. You’ll figure it out after a while, but don’t go in thinking this is “just like any other system”. It both is and isn’t like other es, and like other es, fiddling under the hood is not to be done lightly until you’ve read the documentation.

Things You should do:

  • Did you read the bit above about setting up your own user account? Go back and read it then.
  • Disable ’s “Open Safe Files After Downloading” preference. There is no such thing as a safe file anymore, and like e-mail attachments, you should only download and open files from trusted sources. Yes, I am repeating this again, just to make sure you get it.
  • Tweak preferences to enable tabs. You’ll never go back.
  • Create your own Applications folder inside your home directory ( will change the icon accordingly) and try out new stuff in there. If it breaks, you won’t break the machine for other people (and if a app breaks while running under an unprivileged account, it’s badly written for sure).
  • Put things you want to share among users in the /Users/Shared folder. You may have to tweak file and folder permissions a bit, but it’s the easiest way (see my , and pages for ways to share these applications’ data).
  • Consider using a separate user account for playing around (yes, another one, besides your own and the administration one). Fast User Switching makes it very easy to try out new software like this.
  • Set up separate accounts for kids using the Simple Finder or Some Limits option under the Limitations tab.
  • Use . Go on, press F9. Learn how to use F9, F10 and F11 to switch windows and drag-and drop files onto apps – there is nothing quite like it, and it’s a real time-saver.
  • Be mentally prepared to reinstall your from scratch after a month or so of heavy fiddling. This is mostly applicable to the heads that like poking under the hood and will disregard every other warning so far – “Normal” users can disregard this hint, especially if you follow my previous hint and don’t use the administration account for everyday work.
  • Get as much RAM as you can possibly afford – 512MB used to be OK for general 10.4 () use, but programmers or graphics-oriented folk will feel 1GB much more comfortable (I have felt little need to go beyond that so far, but users that do a lot of video editing will most certainly disagree with me).
  • If your didn’t come with a (as late 2005 models do), then get a proper mouse. I’ve said that with a single button mouse is like rowing with a single oar, and I mean it: supports multiple-button mice, scroll wheels, etc. I use wireless mice (the old kind, not the ones), which work perfectly and can be obtained in white (no sense getting a horrible blue and red mouse, now is there?).
  • Although all new laptop models now have two-finger scrolling, people picking up a second-hand or should look at something like uControl or SideTrack to make better use of the trackpad.
  • Drag to your dock as soon as possible (it’s in Applications/Utilities). won’t bite you, and some things are best done at a terminal.
  • Use ’s great Remote Desktop Client (recently updated to 1.0.3) to access your boxes. is good, but RDC is much faster and also allows you to transfer files across by mounting your filesystem on (it will appear as a network drive).

Keyboard Tips

These started piling up a bit, so I decided to group them together in a single section.

  • Spend some time getting used to the accelerator and “special” keys. They make sense after a while, but having the extra Command modifier key and a different meaning for Home and End plays havoc with some people’s reflexes. (See below for a way to change this if you really want to, but I recommend opening a text editor and playing around for a while to get used to the way things work on a ).
  • users will like to know that Alt-Command-Esc will display the “Force Quit Applications” dialog. You can also force quit an application by clicking on its dock icon while holding down Ctrl+Alt.
  • The Command-Tab bezel doesn’t just let you switch between applications – you can also select an application and quit it immediately by keeping the Command key down and doing Command-Q.
  • Remember that Command-H will “hide” applications (i.e., there’s more to life than minimizing windows)
  • The screenshot key combos are mostly well-known, but here’s a brief summary:
    • Command-Shift-3 to snapshot the whole screen (doesn’t work in Player, though). A file will be saved to the desktop (you can change the file format by manipulating a preferences file, but is good enough for most purposes).
    • Command-Shift-4 to get a selection cursor. In this mode:
      • Hit Space to snapshot a specific window.
      • Hold down Control when clicking to save the snapshot to the clipboard (instead of the desktop), ready to paste into any application.
  • There is a set of startup key combinations that you might find useful.
  • People using a with standard PC keyboards are likely to have trouble with the way keys are mapped (especially non-US layouts, which swap accent and symbol keys), so I strongly recommend getting an keyboard.
  • If you’re using a desktop with a non-US keyboard, the screen brightness control is often unmarked – try the function keys above the help key.
  • and users will also want to know about Command-F1 to toggle between mirrored and extended desktop modes (a lifesaver when you have a bum LCD screen) and Ctrl-Alt-Command-8 to toggle ‘white on black’ display in low-light situations. (Command-Alt-8 will also toggle zooming). But those who really want to get to know their laptop keyboards will want to look at this 15-inch PowerBook G4 Developer Note, which is still mostly applicable to s.
  • If you use with a Portuguese keyboard layout at both ends, the Alt Gr key can be emulated by using Ctrl+Alt (so the “@” symbol is on Ctrl+Alt+2, etc.)
  • If you use and non-US keyboards, I’ve found VNCThing (2.2 is what I have) to have the most accurate keyboard mappings. Its main website seems to have vanished from the Internet, but it can be found via .
  • If you’re keyboard-oriented, go into System Preferences | Keyboard and Mouse | Keyboard Preferences and Turn on full keyboard access. Now you can deal with dialog boxes the way you’re used to, as well as accessing menus and toolbars with the keyboard.
  • If you hate digging through Applications to find what you want, get . Think of it as a keyboard-based application launcher. It’s , but it takes a while for its power to sink in.
  • Can’t stand the apparently useless extra enter key that put where Alt Gr ought to be on laptops? Try using to remap it to something more sensible.

Finally, if you’re a user and the ’s way of dealing with Home and End really bugs you, here’s a tip from Aaron Adams -

To change the Mac’s home and end keys to behave like , create a text file named /Library//.dict (if the folder doesn’t exist, go ahead and create it) and add these lines:
/* Home/End keys like Windows */

{

"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; /*home*/

"\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:"; /*end*/

"$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /*shift + home*/

"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:"; /*shift + end*/

}

Logout and login, and the home and end keys will work like .

-centric tips:

As mentioned above, these won’t cover , or . Think of this as a list of things that are different in and that you will need to get accustomed to.

  • Remember that moving files replaces the whole folder (see above).
  • No, there isn’t a Start button. You can drag applications to the for quick access, or even drag the entire Applications folder to the right-hand side of the . Right-click on it, and you’ll get a menu listing the contents. It’s that easy.
  • If you really miss Alt-Tab like application switching (on a window basis, like ), get . You can bind that to Alt-Tab and leave the standard Command-Tab switching in place.
  • Check the Keyboard Tips section for ways to force-quit applications. You won’t use them much, but you’ll feel better knowing they’re there.
  • Applications can be started upon login by going to Accounts in System Preferences, clicking Startup Items and adding them to the list.
  • File shares can be browsed via the Network icon in the . works a little differently than the standard network browser, but it’s all there.
  • File shares are mounted directly by pressing Cmd-K in the and entering a like so: smb://server/share (do not even think about using the backslash (”\”), that is not the way to do things).
  • will mount network file shares automatically on most circumstances, although there might be some issues with username and password caching (i.e., some file servers will always ask your for your password, even if you check the “save this password” option).
  • shares (the \\domain\path type) are not directly accessible to . You need to either figure out the real pathname to the share (smb://server/share) or spend a good while figuring out how to integrate your with .
  • Installers don’t work the same way – most applications (including ) can be installed by just dragging and dropping them into your Applications folder (applications can ultimately reside anywhere on your hard disk, but it pays to be tidy). Installers are mostly used when it’s necessary to set up large volumes of files or application resources (fonts, libraries, etc.).
  • Properly written installers will run from a non-administrative account, ask you for the administrative password, and go about their business. If an installer fails in a non-administrative account, contact the developer and have them fix it – their installer is broken and not performing up to specs ( software is a notorious offender).

-centric Tips:

  • All disks (file shares, external hard disks, etc.) are mounted under the /Volumes directory (which is hidden, but accessible via the ).
  • Disks with identical names (such as file shares) will be mounted as /Volumes/name, /Volumes/name_1, etc.
  • Get now. It will manage your and keychains, let you define tunnels, etc. It has a small bug (it gets confused with lots of forwarded ports), but you can edit the tunnel configurations directly in ~/Library/Preferences/SSHKeyChain.plist (just double click on it and add your tunnels under the Tunnels array).
  • does not use the proxy settings in System Preferences properly – it still does name resolution wrong, and over doesn’t work. It’s actually improved a bit, earlier versions would not work at all. If you need to access remote mailboxes via a / tunnel, get .
  • , however, does honor settings, and seems to be fully 5 compliant – which means it will perform hostname lookups remotely through the proxy.
  • on the might have some issues with your keyboard layout (check my section for more hints on that) and display permissions, but will work perfectly via ssh -X or -Y. And yes, makes a pain to install for some obscure reason.
  • If you’re a convert, check out . It’s not really , but your apt-get addiction will get a quick fix. is especially nice since it does not, ever, mess around with your system directories (it hangs off /sw, /sw/bin, etc.), and has the most packages available in binary format. Be prepared, however, for some packages not being the same versions you’re used to in – some packages lag behind quite a bit, even easily ported stuff like .
  • Make sure to install (it’s usually in the second or third OS restore/install disk) and get , in this order. Set up the placeholder packages to let use ’s stuff, and then install whatever packages you need to feel at home.
  • If you’re a guy, is your thing. It hangs off /opt by default, and seems to work a bit better on -based s. The available packages also seem to be better maintained.
  • If you need virtual desktops, you need not go much further than . It’s free, fast, neatly designed, and the transitions will blow your mind.
  • Need and ? Here’s a . now publishes an excellent set of installers and management tools, so head on over to their site.

Other Stuff

  • Read John Gruber’s piece on Software Update, and his more recent one on why “Repair Permissions” (one of the most common – and stupid – troubleshooting suggestions in forums) is voodoo. Either have a number of good tips, and, more importantly, banish some of the most common misconceptions about either process.
  • Resetting a password can be done by rebooting from the install CD and using the “Reset Password” option in the installer (but do note that this will not change your keychain password and you’ll need to change the password again after you login)
  • Resetting an password requires zapping the PRAM three times (restart holding Cmd-Alt-P-R three times) – some folk say you should change the ’s configuration as well (removing or adding RAM), but I fail to see the logic in that.

Essential Applications

I originally went out and bought a copy of 2004, since there really isn’t any -native alternative right now ( sort of works, but it still doesn’t act or look fully native). was bundled with , but I’ve had very little reason to use it after the first year or so, and I’ve since moved on to the platform and started using . I might switch to some day, but only time will tell.

Besides those and some of the utilities I mentioned above, my current list of “essentials” is:

  • – this is the way to use a via the keyboard, and you’ll wonder why hasn’t integrated it into the OS yet.
  • , available here, together with the RDC Launcher (which lets you run more than one session at once).
  • My very own , which I use to work remotely.
  • A client. I’ve been using VNCDimension for a while, even if it doesn’t fix .
  • for instant messaging ( and , plus a lot more). It integrates seamlessly with , so you’ll never lose your buddies’ contacts.
  • (if you happen to hate as much as I do, this makes it bearable).
  • for the occasional conference call and file transfer ( works too, but not across all firewalls).
  • for desktop notifications of all sorts (new mail, , you name it). It’s now bundled with , and it installs itself if you configure ’s “new message” notification to use it.
  • for web development. I use for everything (and it is my default browser), but ’s make it more useful for debugging web applications, and it is handy for those sites that don’t like for whatever reason – however, if you don’t do web development and just want a fast -based browser, might be just the thing.
  • for reading my e-mail when traveling ( doesn’t support properly, so I need a mail application that does).
  • for virtual desktops (even with , I like to keep some windows in view at all times and have separate desktops for mail, coding and remote sessions).
  • to keep track of network traffic and usage.
  • Lite for a few feeds – I use newspipe and for most of my news reading, but commits, link blogs and machine-related stuff (like logfiles that I convert into ) need something with a dock icon.
  • for reading long documents and web pages. Makes for much easier reading when you’re tired, since the column display lessens eye movement.
  • Lite for drafting text and making notes (or as your very own -based personal and script archive).
  • as an all-singing, all-dancing text editor with a built-in mini- and support.
  • ’s free plugin to open Media files in and (check out as well).
  • for opening any sort of media.
  • for -style Alt-Tab switching.
  • to manage my keychain and tunnels.
  • for and file transfers.
  • And, on my , – a native port of that will let you emulate a PC on both and s. It’s much slower than on s and is still not capable of native speeds on machines, but it will get there…

And there you have it.

Source [the.taoofmac]

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