!!! Getting a new iMac!!! OS X!!! Incoherent glee!!!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Congratulations, Yosemitebabe! Lordy, those little Christmas ornaments have come a long way, haven’t they? The specs on that thing leaves my PowerBook in the dust!

Grab the freeware X-Assist (avail. at VersionTracker) if you like the classic MacOS Application Menu in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. (It also has a user-configurable menu for categorizing and launching applications, which is highly useful since if you use more than a dozen apps, the Dock makes a miserable starting point).

Hey, iCab and Opera are BOTH OS-X native now (Carbon, so you can use them under 9 as well)!

I just upgraded from X (10.0.4) to “X.1” today. Definitely more like it!

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No, color coding is used for people too stupid to understand the numbers.

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I guess it’s time to talk about some essential system gadgets.

I haven’t tried X-Assist, but I like Snard for an app launcher menu.
http://www.gideonsoftworks.com/snard.html
Gideon makes a network monitor so you can watch your modem or ethernet throughput, but I like Net Monitor better:
http://homepage.mac.com/rominar/net.html
For returning to the OS 9 style upper-right corner app switching, I like “ASM”
http://asm.vercruesse.de/
If you use DivX movies, they now play native in Quicktime with DivOSX:
http://divx.jamby.net/
For some misc system prefs (like Dock orientation and pinning, font antialiasing) TinkerTool is essential
http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html
Forget the Genie, I want my OS 9 style Windowshades back! Windowshades X does it, but only for Carbon (dual 9/X apps) but not Cocoa (X only) apps. Cocoa support is coming. Note that Classic still supports the old windowshading.
http://www.unsanity.com/haxies.php
Classic is a lot more user-friendly when it uses an Aqua scheme for Kaleidoscope. It makes OS 9 windows look just like MacOS X windows. Alas, the Aqua X III Kaleidoscope scheme was withdrawn from distribution, so you’ll have to get it from someone that has it <wink>. Kaleidoscope is available, as usual, at
http://www.kaleidoscope.net

That’s all I can think of at the moment, I run pretty stock because most of the goodies are already in the OS. I’ll skip “essential” apps because they’re expensive and I’m too ready to spend other people’s money.

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Eeeewwww… a MAC?
Yeah, I have a beige box, but so what? It was way cheaper, personally built for MOI, and it works. I could care less about how it looks-although I would LOVE a new Dell keyboard-I’m fussy about keyboards…I like ones that “click” a certain way.
d&r

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Yep, X.1 is a big, big improvement. However, it’s not available for download, only on CD. It’s way too big - it’s basically an OS X installer disc that only works on systems that already have X installed - practically the whole OS is on that update. You can pick 'em up for free at the Apple retail stores or some Apple dealers like CompUSA (assuming the staff knows what the hell you’re talking about). As a last resort you can order them straight from Apple but they charge $20 for “shipping and handling.”

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Yep, X.1 is a big, big improvement. However, it’s not available for download, only on CD. It’s way too big - it’s basically an OS X installer disc that only works on systems that already have X installed - practically the whole OS is on that update. You can pick 'em up for free at the Apple retail stores or some Apple dealers like CompUSA (assuming the staff knows what the hell you’re talking about). As a last resort you can order them straight from Apple but they charge $20 for “shipping and handling.”

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Now this is a person who has some common sense. There is other intellegent life on this thread.

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Ah, I see it is time to point out this thread.

ChasE, once again, thanks for all the links! So much to digest! AHunter, yes, my cute little (inexpensive) iMac has some nice specs. I can’t get over it - 768 megs of RAM! 768!! 768!! I mean…768! It isn’t sinking in yet. 7…6…8. My first PC had 16 megs of RAM, and that seemed adequate for me at the time. I even had a little crappy laptop once that had 4 megs. So…768! No way. I just won’t believe it until I see it.

OK, I’ll stop going on about the damned RAM.

drewbert, thanks for the info on OS X.1. I will check out the local CompUSA and see if I can get a disk. Is the update difficult? I suppose it should be no big deal on a brand new iMac, with a fresh software install!

Cleophus: Too bad your G3 upgrade won’t allow you to run OS X. I remember hearing that some of the upgrade chip companies (Sonnet? I can’t recall) were making noises like maybe they’d try to find a way to get X to work. But I don’t know what came of that. Anyway, with your 64 megs of RAM, the point is moot. Even if you could run X, 64 isn’t going to cut it! Bummer! :frowning: Well, still, your G3 upgraded machine has got to be faster than my little 6100! I love that machine, but it is s-l-o-w!

I wanted to ask more about Classic vs. OS X vs. OS 9. Let me get this straight - when I start my Mac, I will be given a choice to go into OS 9, or OS X? How does this work, exactly?

And OS 9 is just…OS 9. Like anyone else’s OS 9. Right? Same memory useage, same everything? And OS X is X, but I can my programs run in “Classic” mode, (for “older” applications like Photoshop, which don’t have an X-version out yet.) Do I have this all correctly?

And how much hard drive does X and 9 take? WIth 20 GBs, I am not going to feel cramped for a while, but I am just curious.

Also, how much RAM do you recommend for X? How does it use memory? When I called ClubMac (I was incorrect before when I said MacMall - I ordered from ClubMac) to ask about OS X’s memory needs, they said 128 was the minimum, but that 256 or more was “recommended”.

And, I get the impression that the modem doesn’t work in “Classic” mode? So if I wanted to open Netscape 4.75, I couldn’t get online, unless I was in OS 9? But there is an X-native version of IE5, right? So I could browse the Internet with that, right?

So many questions…so many questions! Thanks, everyone!

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cleophus, some unsupported Macs can now run MacOSX with “Unsupported UtilityX” but you’d probably be insane to try it.
http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/framework.cfm?page=UnsupportedUtilityX.html

Hey babe, no reason to stop freaking about RAM, everyone is freaking about prices lately. If you really want to freak, I should tell you about my vintage 1975 Sol computer, I paid $600 for 8K RAM boards. And I had 2 of em.

Startup is still controlled by the usual Control Panel, Startup Disk, or X’s equivalent preference gadget.
Believe it or not, Classic running 9.2 is slightly FASTER than a stock 9.2 system. They say it’s because Classic has improved VM handling. I don’t see much of any change in speed, looks about the same speed to me. Yeah, Classic w/9 is just about exactly like 9 standalone, except you can set apps for way more RAM than you would in 9, everything is virtual memory now, and VM runs as fast as non-VM used to. The modem does work in Classic, except you can’t directly control it through Classic. You fire up your net connection in X, and then it passes the networking through to Classic. I still am using Netscape 4.78 on Classic. Using it right now, in fact.
The way classic works is that the first time you launch a Classic app, suddenly Classic itself starts to run, you get a popup screen showing you the traditional MacOS 9 boot sequence, then Classic is active, and your app launches. Then you never have to reboot Classic again, it’s ready, running in the background. The only glitch I’ve not yet sorted out is the occasional document that wants to run in a classic app when I’ve got a native X app for that (Stuffit, for example). There are ways to fix this, but it happens rarely enough that I never bothered to fix it, it’s only a minor loss of speed.
I don’t know how much disk space a default install of X is, I’d measure mine but that wouldn’t give you a good idea, mine is bloated with stuff like Japanese extensions.

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Chas, a 1400, being NuBus based, cannot run X at all. The kernel would have to be re-written, which isn’t going to happen. Unsupported UtilityX requires a PCI-based system. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Guin, ask yourself one question. Do you feel lucky, punk? :wink:

clayton_e, you knew full well before coming into this thread what we would be talking about. Your posts fall under the category of trolling, which I’m sure I don’t have to mention are against the rules. Cut it out.

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Yosemitebabe, just wanted to say I know the feelings you are having… kind of like the ones I had when I realized that I finally had enough to buy a new graphite a while back:

[stimpy]happy, happy, joy, joy[/stimpy]

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Hey Mac Dopers! I really started using OS X when the 10.1 came out. It runs pretty smooth on my iMac DV/384 MB. The only problems I have is that I can´t record audio and the director plug-in doesn´t work. Anyone tried those two?

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Mattk, I’d be glad to help but I don’t have enough info. How are you trying to record audio? Let me know what hardware you’re using to get to your sound port, and what application you use to record. Does recording work in OS 9? You shouldn’t be able to use audio recording apps under Classic, they can’t directly access the audio port, so you have to use a MacOS X-compatible app. And what “director plugin” doesn’t work? You’re talking about Macromedia Director 8.5, I presume?

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To that I say: ppppphhhhhbbbbllllttttt!!!

:stuck_out_tongue:
[sub]seriously, I’m just kidding around. I do think iMacs are pretty, but I can’t STAND Macs. However, whatever floats your boat. So, congrats, yosemitebabe. But I’ll stick with my beloved custom model, designed for me and me only.[/sub]

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Yes, I can record audio in OS 9. In OS X , I used SoundStudio and Amadeus II. I seem to get a little bit of sound into the microphone, but there is no way to adjust it, in the OS X sound setting, it only gives me alerts and output. Shouldn´t there be input, too? I only have the built-in microphone in my iMac DV. But I can´t even change the port it uses, in OS 9 I could.
It´s Macromedia Director, yes. Site like habbohotel.com and isktech.net don´t work. Normal Shockwave works. I use IE 5.1.3.

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Matt, I checked into the sites you mentioned, and yep, it appears that Director-Shockwave gadgets don’t run in IE (or Mozilla). However, I did easily get them to run in Netscape under Classic, so I guess you’re stuck with Classic for a while. I’m sure Macromedia will fix this ASAP, since they are heavily committed to MacOS X, they had the first major app ship for X (Freehand).
No gain adjustment in the sys prefs sound gadget, it appears. I tried Sound Studio X, and there is an Input Levels window, I was able to adjust the gain up and down and got a good range even using a stupid Apple Plaintalk mike (the one that ships with the machine). Seems to work for me, so check and see if you can bring up the levels window and diddle with it.
BTW, Peak is coming to OS X and the developers say that OS X is the ideal platform for audio. But the drivers are only just now finalized in the OS as of 10.1 so we’ll see improvements in this area very soon. Probably this was holding up the Director-Shockwave gadget too.

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Congrats on your new purchase, YB. I got the same one last summer; upgraded from my old Performa I bought 6 years ago. I went from 1GB hard drive (that’s right; ONE), 8 MB RAM (that’s right; EIGHT) and 100 MHZ to 20GB, 768 MB, and 500 MHZ. Like going from a '88 Civic to the space shuttle.

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Ah! All the wonderful new stuff I am learning!

It just hit me, I am going to get iMovie! I hadn’t really thought of that. I do have a camcorder, but don’t use it much. Tell me - exactly how much hard drive space does a smallish digital movie (say, 5 minutes) take up? I might like to make some QuickTime movies of Yosemite Falls, etc.

I also have to ask about…(sigh) firewire. I think an external firewire hard drive might be nice. How fast is firewire, and would an external firewire drive do well for storing all my MP3s and misc. crap? I don’t see myself going through my 20 GB drive that quickly, but I am a hard drive hog.

So - Torgo - it sounds like you have the exact same configuration as my new iMac! Did you get an iMac, or a G4, or what? It sounds sublime!

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Yosemitebabe:

You know the Startup Disk Control Panel? The newer versions will let you select which operating system even if you have more than one on the same disk. Anyway, when you start your Mac, it boots the OS that you selected, from the Startup Disk that you chose.

If you’re running older legacy operating systems (e.g., 8.6), you can copy the Startup Disk Control Panel from 9.2 to the older OS’s Control Panels folder–it works fine with older operating systems, letting you select your MacOS X partition (or select it as the active OS on the same partition containing a pre-X MacOS, for that matter).

I believe there is still an “open firmware” stage of bootup and there may be 3rd party software that still lets you select an OpenFirmware boot which stops at that point to let you enter command-line arguments to switch the selection of bootup OS on-the-fly, but the Startup Disk Control Panel no longer gives you that option. (The old System Disk CP from the beta days did, but it doesn’t recognize modern incarnations of MacOS X).

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We use iMovie 2 on an iMacDV Grape, and love it…example here…the amount of disk space needed varies…keep in mind that you will shoot more footage than will end up in your edited movie…but for short movies you’re probably OK with the stock HD for now…you can always get an external firewire drive later. We just bought an external FW enclosure and dropped an IDE HD (40GIG) into it…works great. When you say that you have a camcorder…I assume you mean a DIGITAL camcorder? If not, you will need a digital-analog convertor to input your media (and of course it will be VHS quality source, not digital source.)

BTW, there is no iMovie manual…you’ll want to get “iMovie2:The Missing Manual” by David Pogue…it’ll get ya going right spiffy…