XP to OSX?

[BinaryB]

It is my understanding that, on it's own, XP can't read or write to HFS+ at all.

Cheers for the info mate.
How are you using xp now and how does this affect your workflow ?

[Tarekith]

Yes, using XP now. Doesn't affect my workflow at all as I don't have the MBP yet

Seriously though, the only hiccup I ran into so far about this, was realizing that my 400GB external HD was formatted in NTFS (I did this myself when I first got it, wasn't planning on going the Mac route then). So I had to offload the files to my wife's external drive (takes awhile), then reformat the drive in FAT32 in preparation of the new laptop.

Of course, then I realized that XP will only allow you to format FAT32 partitions up to 32GB in size! Grrr. Took me awhile to remember I had Partition Magic, which let me format the drive into two 200GB FAT32 partitions. Still not as ideal as one large partition for my uses, but it works. Eventually once I get everything on the Mac sorted, I'll look into this again.

I'm not planning on using Boot Camp at this point, once I heard Wavelab runs fine under Parallels, I knew that's the route I wanted to take. Much easier, as I can leave the whole internal MBP HD as HFS+, and I don't have to reboot to access Windows apps.

[rbmonosylabik]

- The thing most unfamiliar to me is actually the process of installing and deinstalling programs. Felt strange for me, compared to PC, so you might want to ask some background on this from a mac user.

For program installing, either the program will come with it's installer just the program in a disk image. If so, all you need to do is drag the program to your Applications folder (or wherever you want to have it), run it and it's installed. To uninstall, check if it has an uninstaller (often it's the same as the installer). If not, it's usually safe to just drag the app to the Trash. It may leave behind some preference files (called ***.appname.plist or something) and stuff in the Application Support folder, so make a quick search for the app name and Trash what's left behind.

- The dock is a bit of a weird one at first, so its worth reading a 5 page intro on that one.

It's just a bunch of shortcuts to your apps and files. To add something, just drag and drop it in the dock. To remove something, drag it out of the dock and let it go. It will disappear with a "poof!"

- O yeah, and pushing the red button on a window does not close a program but only minimises it. I always end up with 20 programs open in the beginning

Make Cmd + Q your best friend

- The only thing that crashed my mac was my M-audio firewire interface, which is going back to the shop.

Damn right!!!

[djsynchro]

How about an audio test to see if OSX sounds better than Windows?

[rbmonosylabik]

How about an audio test to see if OSX sounds better than Windows?

Anyone and their grandma knows that CoreAudio sounds better than any ASIO driver ever will

[djsynchro]

How about an audio test to see if OSX sounds better than Windows?

Anyone and their grandma knows that CoreAudio sounds better than any ASIO driver ever will

Oooh they're biting! OK here we go:
PROOF IT!

[gomi]

also parallels isn't designed for 3d effects either (hasn't got the 'drivers' as such yet)

but they're working on it


alternatively, have you looked into Crossover? run windows apps "natively" in osx without installing windows!

crossover runs poorly.

it's good for word processors and stuff like that.
but not music apps.

why?
no directx.
which is windows downfall.

[pieter]

- Any tips and tricks you'd recommend to an Apple newbie?

some simple shortcuts that are very handy in OSX:

apple + TAB = switching programs
F9 = overview of the open windows
F11 = see the desktop
select file + apple + delete = file goes straight to trash

[huffcw]

One thing to watch out for that I just ran into - when you drag a folder to a location where a folder with the same name already exists, you will receive a prompt asking if you would like to replace the folder (same as XP). However, unlike XP, if you say yes to replace the folder, OSX deletes all of the files in the folder being replaced (whereas in XP only the files with the same name get replaced -and new files added). After doing this in OSX, I was unable to find a way to restore my lost files (there was no undo option in any of the file menus and the deleted files did not appear in the trash).

And the weird thing is this behavior seems to change depending where you are moving things to. I was working with an external drive, draging a folder from the internal drive.

(Luckly I had backup files)

[huffcw]

- Any tips and tricks you'd recommend to an Apple newbie?

some simple shortcuts that are very handy in OSX:

apple + TAB = switching programs
F9 = overview of the open windows
F11 = see the desktop
select file + apple + delete = file goes straight to trash

Also:

• apple + ~ = switching among open windows for a program
  
  You can also setup the desktop so that when you drag your mouse to one corner, it shows the desktop, when you drag to another corner it shows an overview of open windows to select from - and it works when in full screen mode (very handy may of switching between things).

[polyslax]

I'll just throw this out for your consideration - a few utilities I find ultra handy:

Max Menus

Power and Flexibility, Merged in One Awesome Utility
MaxMenus is a utility that adds powerful, flexible menus to simplify using Mac OS X with NO haxies involved. Always available in the corners of your display, the menus offer unparalleled ease-of-access to your most commonly used applications, documents, folders, volumes, preferences, and... well, you get the idea.

MaxMenus can be customized to your heart's content, configured to meet your every desire. You can build a menu out of any items you want and put it wherever you want. In just a few moments of set-up you can streamline OS X to fit your work habits. With MaxMenus installed you have Mac OS X finally working for you.

MaxMenus also offers the power to link any item on your computer to a key combination. And yes, it's very easy to set up. Just press the key combo while your mouse is over a menu item, presto, the task is done! So go all out and configure every shortcut you want. F8 for iPhoto. F9 for iTunes. F12 for the Terminal. You can even assign key combinations to your menus from the MaxMenus preference pane. Try pressing Option-Apple-Tab when you're done with the MaxMenus install.

We knew MaxMenus wouldn't be complete without support for drag-and-drop. So we took it all the way. The menus you set up in MaxMenus fully support spring loaded drag-and-drop. You'll be moving and copying files, making aliases, and opening every document with your favorite application when MaxMenus is installed.

In many ways, MaxMenus outdoes the built in OS X Dock. For instance, you can list more applications in a menu than in the Dock; there's just more space. Also, MaxMenus are text and alphabetically sorted not faceless icons in pseudo-random order. And MaxMenus is unobtrusive, it waits politely in the corners of your display. It won't ambush you like the Dock does if you mouse over to the edge of your screen accidentally.

MaxiMice

MaxiMice takes the clicks out of scrolling views and dragging windows. Move the mouse pointer near the edge of a view and it scrolls. Move it closer to the edge and the scrolling speeds up. Or just hold down a modifier key to move or scroll the window under the cursor.

Transmit

FTP app.

[Tarekith]

Ok, here's a dumb question. I use a Saitek Eclipse USB keyboard with my XP laptop, as it's back lit and I like that in the studio. Do I need a new Mac specific keyboard to work with the MBP? IE, Does the MBP recoginize the Windows key as an Apple key now?

[rbmonosylabik]

Ok, here's a dumb question. I use a Saitek Eclipse USB keyboard with my XP laptop, as it's back lit and I like that in the studio. Do I need a new Mac specific keyboard to work with the MBP? IE, Does the MBP recoginize the Windows key as an Apple key now?

It works, but I think it Ctrl is Cmd and Windows is Ctrl. Not sure though.

[noisetonepause]

- O yeah, and pushing the red button on a window does not close a program but only minimises it. I always end up with 20 programs open in the beginning

Hm. This comes up a lot. It makes perfect sense and it's not intrusive once you 'get it'.

For well-behaved Mac applications (most all except M-Audio's FireWire control panel whatsit), it's pretty obvious: if it can have more than one "main" window open (a browser, a text editor, etc.), it can also have no windows open. The app lingers behind, still in the dock - and clicking its icon will open a new, empty window. Because Macs only have one menu bar (as it should be, IM and other people's not so HO) you can always see which app is in the foreground even if no windows are open.

Cmd+W always closes a window, and cmd+Q always quits an application. For a single-window app, those are always the same thing. For a multi-winow app, they never are. You never accidentally quit an application and you can leave browsers, a text editor, a terminal emulator, what have you, running without having any windows open. Indispensible when you're, say, editing a bunch of files one by one.

Now, I've been a Mac user all my life, so it seems very natural to me. I'm sure it will to you too in time.

-N

[Tarekith]

Yeah, cause that made no sense at all