[wellylug] Mac

[Ian Sterling]

On 9/28/06, E.Chalaron <e.chalaron at xtra.co.nz> wrote:
> I am more thinking about a Desktop actually. but I guess it wont change much.
> Now... What is the minimum RAM you need to run like a 2GB RAM PC ?
> Do tehy compare directly ?

I have a dual 800 G4 box at home with 1gb of RAM and a dual-core
2.0ghz G5 with 8gb of RAM here at work.  Both are fine machines.  The
G4 box is a bit slow, but runs all my apps fine.  Granted I use them
for not much more than terms, browsers, chat and music.  Occasionally
I'll use Office, but that's about it.  I play World of Warcraft on the
G5 from time to time (have a PC at home for that).

Comparitively, I just started using a dual-core P4 3.0ghz dell with
4gb RAM and a newer GeForce 7-series card running Kubuntu.  Fonts are
actually prettier in KDE than in OS X, IMHO.  The Focus Follows Mouse
is *very* nice to have again.  I'm getting used to it as it's been
almost 2 years since I went to mac full-time from linux.  I'm using
the linux box full-time at work now, and for me, the transition was
not seamless.  I hadda relearn everything and reset my hotkeys.  Once
I got that working, I'm efficient again.

> > You get a bash shell.  You don't get focus-follows-mouse (it's a bit
> > awkward with a universal menu bar) or multiple desktops (although you
> > can get an extension to do that).

There are several apps that do multiple desktops.  The one I'm using
at the moment is called VirtueDesktops.  It's very quirky when you
start using it, but it's a lot more stable than the last one I used,
Desktop Manager.  CodeTek has their Virtual Desktops application, and
it does provide FFM.  More specifically, their FFM includes raise
window on focus.  They did finally allow you the option of disabling
that though, in their newest release but I don't believe it's the
default.  CTVD costs $40, but I've heard lots of good things about it.
 VirtueDesktops and Desktop Manager are freeware.

> > You get X11, but X11 apps look and
> > feel different from Mac native, so many people prefer not to use them.
> >  It's quite different from a system-administration point of view, but
> > I'm not really qualified to comment more.

I keep X on my mac so I can forward X windows from my linux servers
that have X installed.  It's convenient, but cumbersome to use.  Just
my 2c worth.  I didn't bother trying to learn more about it to figure
out how to make it less cumbersome.

> Likely to get lost ? :-) gee I dont really need that, though it would be a single user
> networked/firewire machine..

It's pretty difficult to get lost on a Mac.  Everything really is
point-and-click.