Mac usage so far

Thus far, I’ve been annoyed by several of Apple’s settings for the ibook g4 on OS X tiger. But I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by the hacks and open source support to fix Apple’s bad decisions/the shortcomings of the ibook.

Cool things include:

• lots of open source support and integration of the support into the Mac UI. Much of the support I’ve downloaded so far seems to unlock drivers that apple for some reason disables before shipping the computer. So this means using the “hacks” doesn’t require opening new consoles or applications. The new options to the standard menus.
• quicksilver… I think i like it about the same as enso…
• ability to view all open windows by dragging to a corner of the trackpad
• ability to “lock” computer or bring up a screen saver requiring pw to get unlock
• coming from Windows, I’m finding it much easier on mac os x to organize and locate folders, projects, etc. With windows, there were generally a lot more system folders and junk to deal with. I’m on tiger, and it just….works. Aside from having to download X11 for gimp. Though I am still hunting for a downloadable version of Xcode for tiger.

Screen Spanning Doctor

Screen spanning doctor

Note: For me, on an ibook g4, Screen Spanning Doctor did not start instantly when I restarted my machine. Instead, I had to go to the display icon on my top menu bar and choose “turn off mirroring”. Finally, the useless mirroring ended. I did not see the “turn off mirroring” option before downloading Scree Spanning Doctor, so I am pretty sure it was not enabled until after I downloaded.

Another link that was helpful in getting extended desktop to work with my ibook and explaining the problems, was:

• http://www.macworld.com/article/39969/2004/10/imacscreenspanning.html