Re: Just bought a Mac Mini

A. J. Moss <ajmoss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> and I *hate* it.
>
> Well, not so much it, as the new operating system, Tiger.

(I used 10.1 and 10.2. They were worse.

If you find Spotlight annoying, there's utilities out there to switch it
off and you can get pretty much the same search functions (but
non-indexed) with EasyFind.

> Before you can even use it, you have to sign your soul away to Apple's
> marketing department.

I lied and didn't send any data anyway.

>And even then, it's so different from OS 9 that I
> don't know what I'm doing any more.

I know that feeling. Stick with it, though - there are workarounds for
most problems and the rest of it is liveable-with, if you see what I
mean.

[snip]

> Is it worth persevering with OS X,

I'd say so.

> or should I send the bloody thing
> straight back to Apple, and use the money to buy the fastest PowerMac
> that still runs OS 9.2?

Too late. I bought one when they were last on sale, in 2003. I've
never booted it in OS 9, believe it or not.

One thing: avoid any software that calls itself a haxie.

Things that are useful to add if you're like me (see VersionTracker or
any of the usual places).

DragThing: like the old Launcher but beefed up, and gives you back a
nice `running applications' menu (and a pop-up discs menu) all of which
I find handy.

Xmenu: provides multiple (if you want) customizable menus rather like
the old Apple menu.

WinSwitch (only if you've multiple accounts and use fast user
switching): sorts out the stupid amount of space the fast user switching
menu chews up if you've got a name like mine.

LittleSnitch: monitors network activity to spot when applications are
trying to use the net. If they are - well, you can block 'em or not and
have the setting saved etc., etc. Dead handy if you're paranoid like me
and like to know about it when Acrobat Reader tries to phone home for no
apparent reason.

MainMenu: there are OS X mainenance jobs that need doing every now and
then. MainMenu is a GUI for most of them. You shouldn't have to do
them manually, but sometimes... There are other similar applications.

RCDefaultApp: what applications open which files and which file
extensions map which application and all that? I dunno quite how it all
works under OS X, but this preference pane gives you some control over
what's going on.

But I still can't find anything to slow down window scrolling or provide
click-and-hold contextual menus (without wrecking havoc) under OS X.

Rowland.

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