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Thanks. I'll see if I can do a download now, install later and stick with El Capitan for now. We are facing a major upgrade to all software at work. Problem is, management just doesn't get the fact that most of the computers are just too old to be fit for purpose and there is not sufficient budget to replace them! Not my problem as I'm not in IT, but the IT guy is well pissed off. He has been told 'well, you'll just have to figure it out'. I really hate my boss!

Yeah, your IT guy just has to defecate some CPU cycles...
(facepalm)
When you go to install that High Sierra installer, you MAY have to set your System DateTime to the same as the Installer File's CREATION Date. At least I found that to be true with macOS Installers that I had created USB Install-Sticks for using the most-excellent DiskMakerX Freeware Utility:

https://www.macupdate.com/app/...

Wake me up when the LS command can show hidden files and folders without crazy hacks that go away after you restart the terminal program.

Um, it's really hard, I know: Try typing "ls -a". See, done!

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/1...

Inet last I looked had a program called netinfo

macOS (OS X) hasn't used NetInfo in, well, in a VERY long time. Like TWELVE years...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Apple was the first to make it fashionable to ban init

They didn't make it "Fashionable". They fucking INVENTED it (launchd) in 2005! And then Open Sourced it. But the FOSSies couldn't just accept a gift from Apple. They just HAD to go and fuck it all up. In a LOT of ways, the abomination that is systemd is a microcosm of all that is wrong with the entire F/OSS "Community".

BTW, macOS has been using launchd essentially trouble-free intstead of that retarded init since 10.4 (Tiger). IOW, WELL over a decade.

Read it and weep:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

All MacOSX is is a dumbed down GUI on top of a Mac kernel. It is not Unix like in spirit more than SystemD is.

"Dumbed-down GUI"? YOU write it!

Not Unix? Sorry. OS X/macOS has been a CERTIFIED Unix since at least 10.5 (around 2007), and maybe even before. Wake me when Linux of ANY flavor is a Certified Unix...

https://www.infoworld.com/arti...

In Unix everything is a text file so you can use the terminal tools. Not so in MacOSX.

In macOS, most config files are a flavor of xml, which is a flavor of text.

I know some people can run mysql under MacOSX but is it easy to install?

Yep. I found and used a one-click Installer that gave me an entire LAMP (well, XAMP) stack in just a few minutes.

Ah, here's one now...

https://www.macupdate.com/app/...

Next!

Is the XCode free?

Yep. Has been since OS X 10.0.0. They no longer include it on the Install Disc (but you can get it here) :

http://www.mactrast.com/2011/1...

Apple got rid of CUPS

Bullshit. Apple purchased CUPS in 2007, and STILL kept it Open Source!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

...Samba or rather a strange proprietary fork of Samba

Again, bullshit, at least sort of. Apple got rid of SAMBA because it had become a dumpster-fire of unmitigated proportions, and, because it became GPLv3, which Apple will not abide. They wrote their own SAMBA replacement, whiich, after a couple of revs, is stable enough and full-featured enough that they actually have DEPRECATED their own AFP sharing system in favor of SMB.

http://appleinsider.com/articl...

...a strange proprietary fork of [...], Apache...

I don't know about you; but this seems to be a standard version of Apache, and it shipped with macOS Sierra, which is still the current version of the OS:

https://medium.com/@JohnFodera...

And the version is ships with it (2.4.23) is also reasonabl

but even that's not strictly true, since you can use Fluke or other utilities to enable support for FLAC in iTunes, QuickTime, and other first-party apps.

That's not true anymore as the move from the Quicktime to AVFoundation frameworks shut out 3rd party format converters like Perian and Fluke. Note that the link you used is from 2013 and the Fluke no longer works on newer versions of OSX.

In my case, I converted my FLAC collection to the native Apple Lossless format and I can convert back if I wish in the future.

You mean, except for the one that was listed off immediately prior to that assertion? Though VLC is cross-platform, the Mac version is native to macOS.

I think what they meant to say was that no first-party apps support FLAC, but even that's not strictly true, since you can use Fluke or other utilities to enable support for FLAC in iTunes, QuickTime, and other first-party apps. Or maybe they meant that no Mac-exclusive apps support FLAC, but that's not true either, since there are plenty of Mac-only apps that can operate on FLAC files (e.g. Rogue Amoeba's Fission).

FLAC support isn't baked in, to be sure, but there have been simple ways to use FLAC files on Macs for the vast majority of the format's lifespan. I'm even planning to go through and re-rip my entire collection to FLAC in the next few months.

Heck, even if you want to get an equivalent of MS Paint

OMFG!!! You're holding-out MS Paint as an example of "Software not available on the Mac"????

Seriously?!? I've used MS Paint for years, and believe you, me, I wouldn't hold it up as a shining example of ANYTHING...

Besides, this Search seems to show SEVERAL highly-rated Freeware examples of Paintbox software for OS X. In fact, the first one I looked-at from that MacUpdate search, "Paintbrush" is not only Open Source and Free, but is pretty-much an equivalent to MS Paint. So, What's YOUR problem that you can't seem to find anything suitable?

And BTW, NEWSFLASH: NOT EVERY PIECE OF SOFTWARE HAS TO COST ZERO DOLLARS TO BE WORTHWHILE!!!

If someone feels like they deserve $5, $10, or $20, AND YOU LIKE THE SOFTWARE, FFS, PUT A CROWBAR IN YOUR WALLET!!! Most of those companies have a Free Trial period, anyway (something I admit that really do wish that ANY of the "App Stores" (regardless of platform) would start allowing, though)

But, Damn! Even Pixelmator, which is a DAMN sight more full-featured than MS Paint (and in fact, is closer to The Gimp or Photoshop), is only $30, and it has a Free Trial.

I am writing this from a laptop running Kubuntu 16.04 and while there are things which I find inconvenient/annoying, I am generally pretty happy with the overall experience. I am not trying to troll you but I like my computer's environment set a particular way and I am actually genuinely interested in knowing if the OSX GUI can now support my workflow instead of me having to adapt so here goes; I use a multi-monitor setup with a panel on both screens, each of the panels has its own Application launcher, taskbar (which shows only applications from the screen the panel is on and does not autosort/group applications) and a notifications tray and I like to use focus-follows-mouse instead of click-to-focus. Last time I checked (with Yosemite, a friend let me keep their old Mac Book Pro for a month to play with), OSX wouldn't let me do either of these things (I could not get the dock to show up on both screens or get it to not group windows of the same application together and even when i eventually managed to get focus-follows-mouse working, the unified toolbar (which I couldn't switch off) made it nearly impossible to use). I realise someone somewhere might think that the interface of OS X is perfect but as far as I am concerned, I could not see myself using it in it's default configuration and since I couldn't modify it either, I didn't really see the point of getting a Mac if I was going to install Kubuntu on it at the end of the day anyway.

Ok, let's tackle these one-at-a-time. If I misunderstand, let me know and I will try to realign my thinking... I am not an expert in all things regarding multiple desktops and docks; but I might be able to help.

Keep in mind that no OS has everything; but the question is, can you "get there". And I think that the answer in your case is "Yes".

1. Multiple Docks. I am not sure if any of these might help; but there sure are a LOT of choices!

2. Multiple Desktops (Spaces). Again, not sure if any of these will fit the bill; but again, there are a LOT of options...

2a. Windows Grouped by Application, and "multiple displays have separate Spaces". I found this when looking for a way to have Multiple Menubars (see #4, below). It might help with some of your Window Grouping.

3. Focus-follows-mouse. Well, there are a few "terminal" solutions. The best one (CodeTek VirtualDesktop Pro) seems to cost $40 though. If you don't like any of that, try this Google Search.

4. Unified "Toolbar" (MenuBar?). Hmmm. If the "Displays have Separate Spaces" setting won't do what you want, there are a few other options. This one might be the best overall solution. It's $15, but allows you to do several cute things with MenubarS (plural!).

Or you can always whip out XCode and create your own haxie/extension!

I am writing this from a laptop running Kubuntu 16.04 and while there are things which I find inconvenient/annoying, I am generally pretty happy with the overall experience. I am not trying to troll you but I like my computer's environment set a particular way and I am actually genuinely interested in knowing if the OSX GUI can now support my workflow instead of me having to adapt so here goes; I use a multi-monitor setup with a panel on both screens, each of the panels has its own Application launcher, taskbar (which shows only applications from the screen the panel is on and does not autosort/group applications) and a notifications tray and I like to use focus-follows-mouse instead of click-to-focus. Last time I checked (with Yosemite, a friend let me keep their old Mac Book Pro for a month to play with), OSX wouldn't let me do either of these things (I could not get the dock to show up on both screens or get it to not group windows of the same application together and even when i eventually managed to get focus-follows-mouse working, the unified toolbar (which I couldn't switch off) made it nearly impossible to use). I realise someone somewhere might think that the interface of OS X is perfect but as far as I am concerned, I could not see myself using it in it's default configuration and since I couldn't modify it either, I didn't really see the point of getting a Mac if I was going to install Kubuntu on it at the end of the day anyway.

Ok, let's tackle these one-at-a-time. If I misunderstand, let me know and I will try to realign my thinking... I am not an expert in all things regarding multiple desktops and docks; but I might be able to help.

Keep in mind that no OS has everything; but the question is, can you "get there". And I think that the answer in your case is "Yes".

1. Multiple Docks. I am not sure if any of these might help; but there sure are a LOT of choices!

2. Multiple Desktops (Spaces). Again, not sure if any of these will fit the bill; but again, there are a LOT of options...

2a. Windows Grouped by Application, and "multiple displays have separate Spaces". I found this when looking for a way to have Multiple Menubars (see #4, below). It might help with some of your Window Grouping.

3. Focus-follows-mouse. Well, there are a few "terminal" solutions. The best one (CodeTek VirtualDesktop Pro) seems to cost $40 though. If you don't like any of that, try this Google Search.

4. Unified "Toolbar" (MenuBar?). Hmmm. If the "Displays have Separate Spaces" setting won't do what you want, there are a few other options. This one might be the best overall solution. It's $15, but allows you to do several cute things with MenubarS (plural!).

Or you can always whip out XCode and create your own haxie/extension!

To be fair, since download.com and entire CNET is actively involved in pushing malware, I wouldn't be surprised if any non-Windows downloads they might offer would try to push malware as well.

Once CNet acquired VersionTracker (Mac software site that'd been around forever), they tried their substitute installer bit. I don't know how successful they were as I've never been back using http://www.macupdate.com/ instead.

God damn, I miss VersionTracker and all apps being available without dealing with a walled garden.

Here you go, at least for OS X: http://www.macupdate.com/

Definitely rsync. I backup 500 GB of data over slow links to remote locations. Granted, it might take you a couple weeks to set the first remote images but after that, it only takes a few minutes to update the images.

Don't forget to use the backup dir options to keep a copy of deleted files or files that have changed. You can deleted them after a while. I delete them after 14 weeks.

Use cigwin and rsync under Windows, for Mac, look at:
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/20983/arrsync

Wrong.

How is it "wrong"? How is the fact that itunes 11 won't install on Leopard in any way even the slightest bit different from what Microsoft is doing? Both companies just want to move on and not support the old stuff.

Apple doesn't artifically limit it.

Yes, actually they do. Hell there have been OS X upgrades that they have simply DECIDED not to let run on older Apple hardware.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26562/leopardassist

LeopardAssist is a simple tool to install Leopard on older, unsupported Power Macs.

"It bypasses the 867 MHz processor check in the Leopard installer to allow systems that don't meet the requirements to complete installation. It achieves this by temporarily faking the clock speed in the device tree, changing it to 933MHz, and then launching the Leopard Installer. No modified Leopard DVD's, no hardware hacks or tweaks, just a one-time run application. (Much like XPostFacto)"

It doesn't get to be any more of an artificial limit than that. 900MHz = "Ok" 800MHz = "No you can't install it".

There are a number of other similar OSX upgrade related jerk moves like this over the years.

What could be more artificial than that?

They make it clear they move on and don't support old stuff because that's what they want to do not because it's physically impossible.

Same as microsoft.

Microsoft doesn't want to support directX on XP. They said so. Nobody ever claimed it would be "impossible". Ditto for Internet Explorer. They could support IE10 on XP but they don't want to, and said so. But at least in those cases it would be actual work to get them running on the older system.

Apple is the only one that completely artificially blocks you from running new software on old OSes, or new OSes on older hardware. Safari 5 was artificially exclusive to Tiger. Itunes restrictions have also been pretty artificial. I think my favorite is itunes because you needed the latest itunes to support new iphones, but itunes only supports the latest macs.

My brother got burned by an iphone, forcing him to update itunes, forcing him to update his OSX, forcing him to buy a new computer. And he wasn't running a decrepit old computer either; it was meeting his needs just fine.

It was rather ironic that itunes supported Windows XP PC which came out years before his Mac computer. (Granted it required XPSP2... but XPSP2 is a free upgrade that worked on any computer that ran XP. vs OSX updates which were not free and which do not run on any Mac made in 2002 onwards with nothing more than a (optional) ram upgrade.

Find a friend with a Mac, get a copy of Lion/Mountain Lion install media and use Lion Diskmaker to build yourself a bootable USB key - exactly what you need in this situation. You can make a DVD as well, but it boots much more slowly as the data layout isn't optimized for smooth consecutive reading by an optical head. If Apple complain... screw them - you weren't stealing the software, you were protecting your investment. Fair use.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39701/lion-diskmaker

This is true, but remember, those that don't want those styles generally know how to change settings to make them go away.

In this case, it's not a "setting" in the sense of "run defaults write to make it go away", and at least one of the solutions, LionBleacher, appears to have bleached out all the color, including useful color. I don't know whether any other "change the title bar" hacks work better in that regard.

I'm making a blatant assumption here, but those who do not know how to change the settings will generally like the imitation styles as compared to the purely-digital look. This was proven by many new users in many GUI's past. Looking too "technical" scares new users away.

The fake leather is new in Lion; have a significant number of new users been afraid of iCal in releases past due to it looking "purely digital" but, now that Lion pretends that either a cow or a nauga died to make the calendar app, new users have no problem with it?

Odd; I've had no problems implementing middle click copy/paste using the default install, nor have I had a problem with my number pad in vim (until I started using a keyboard with no number pad xP --Fn-NP just doesn't cut it, so I had to update my vimrc to move the functions to other keys). Decent terminal apps: other than Terminal.app (which is definitely sub-par in some areas and superior in others), there's a number found here: http://www.macupdate.com/find/mac/terminal%20emulator -- of which MacTerm is the best. There's also Konsole, which runs just fine (as does most of the KDE environment, complete with focus follows mouse).

Personally, I always found FFM a bad idea, and haven't missed it; but then, I use my keyboard to change focus and do what I want, and don't want my mouse to be randomly messing with where my keyboard focus is going.

OS X defaults definitely target one kind of user, and there's a learning curve if you're coming from a Linux background. If you're coming from a BSD background, the transition is significantly smoother, as almost everything can be implemented in the same way if you want to.

That said, there's nothing wrong with OS X not being for you... there's lots of other OSes that run just fine on Mac hardware -- it appears with the exception of whatever distribution of Linux the story author used when it comes to the new MacBook Pro.

Steve Jobs got his security hole exploited last month, and now apple fanboys are getting it too.

Looks like it's a ringer: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15930/macnessus Warmest regards.

Not FUD about flac, half my music is flac and my NanoTouch (a present) won't play them - unless you know of a way of getting flac to work?

I do: Max It can losslessly convert your FLAC into ALAC. Granted, this program is old, but it will work and preserve your tag data. I converted a few hundred albums with it recently. I can also convert it back into FLAC if I like, with no losses. The beauty of lossless codecs. All it takes is a little time.

BTW, Max, being relatively old, does have a quirk every now and then. It's free, so I can't really complain since it does do the job.

Interesting, you highlighted the OP's question, while I would highlight his *reason for asking* the question.

...would cause the Mac mini's fans to spin up like turbine engines — much too loud for my liking. I ask, therefore: What hardware would you recommend for building a...?"

The answer to controlling how loud your Mac is, something which Macs are infamous for, is to install a 1.3MB utility that gives you control over the various fan speed presets. Sometimes the Mac's fan controller goes too fast or too slow for the heat generated. Sometimes the sensor gets crammed in the wrong place. It's important to monitor and control it. Meanwhile, the Mini will sit happily on a netbook cooling stand, and you can buy whatever size fan you want for that. Problem (potentially) solved for $40.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol
http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=196467&sid=94a8929424920b9e36f8bb2131c58d48#196467

Sometimes the engineer way to solve a problem solves the wrong problem. But it sure does use up a lot of energy, time and money. Which young men seem to have rather a lot of.
OP: Try cooling off yourself before you decide to throw out the problem before even finding a solution. ;)

RAID is not a backup solution. RAID will simply increase the reliability. I've had many raid 5 arrays fail and loose everything. There are many ways of backing up data and RAID is not one of them.

I agree. But RAID is a place to start.

There are a zillion GUI front-ends for rsync-based backups for OS X. Most of them are even free. Some of them handle backing-up Time Machine backups (Sparse Image files). Then there are industrial-strength backup systems like the ones from TOLIS (full disclosure: I haven't used these. I just know they exist). But, I think with a 10-person office, you probably can get by with something that is rsync-based (rsync is a very powerful UNIX "file/folder synchronization" utility that has been around since dirt. Rsync is included with OS X. Like all UNIX utilities, it is actually a command-line creature; but as I said, there are MANY GUI "front-ends" for rsync for OS X. Checkout this and this list. Let me know when you get through all those, LOL!

Now, let's talk about what MEDIA to backup to: In this day and age, pretty much the only reasonable thing to backup a hard drive to is another hard drive. Nothing else makes sense, cost and speed wise. You have a 6TB Drobo. What RAID mode is it being used in? Let's say it is in RAID 1. That means it will have 50% of its actual capacity, due to the "mirroring". Ok, so that's roughly 3TB (nevermind the formatting overhead). If it is in RAID 5 mode, the Drobo will have roughly 2/3 of its 6TB (or about 4TB). I'll assume you are NOT running RAID 0, 2, 3, or 4. Nor do I personally like any of the RAID levels above 5, because they are either relatively less safe, and/or have sort of "cumulative" storage and performance penalties as the array size grows. If you are doing a lot of random-writes to your server, then RAID 1 (straight mirroring) will give you the best overall performance, at the cost of less storage overall. See this article for more details than you probably want to know right now.

But, I digress... Let's say you have this running in RAID 1. This means that your Drobo is effectively 3TB. That's very convenient; because the world has 3TB drives now. So, here's what you do: Go and get two (to start) 3TB EXTERNAL drives (preferably FireWire 800 (if the server supports FW800. I'm assuming it doesn't support Thunderbolt). Format these as HFS+ (journaled). Name them the same (but not the same as the Drobo, just for confusion's sake). Now, you effectively have two 3TB "backup tapes" that you can "rsync" your Drobo to.

"Rotate" these at whatever frequency you desire (not less frequency than once per week). Take the "new" backup OFFSITE (Monday evening is easy to remember. That way, you can bring the "old" backup into the office on Friday morning, swap it with the "new" backup, and take it home with you on Friday night when you go home. Assuming your business is an 8-5 M-F type thing, set your rsync "incremental" backups to start late in the evening, every evening, like around 11pm (that way, people leaving late aren't a problem). If all goes well (and it should, because backup-to-harddrive is rarely a problem), your drive should be backed-up by the time you return in the morning. If you want to be extra safe, you can even rotate your drives every day, but that is a lot of wear-and-tear on the power and FireWire connectors on the drives; but is the safest overall. Swapping the drives every day also keeps rsync from having to to a BIG backup the first time the drives are swapped; because it won't have to "catch up" for the whole time the "returning" drive has been "away". But DO know that you probably will start having connector problems in a year or two. Big deal. You can replace the drives every freakin' MONTH and still be money ahead over a tape-changer (and

RAID is not a backup solution. RAID will simply increase the reliability. I've had many raid 5 arrays fail and loose everything. There are many ways of backing up data and RAID is not one of them.

I agree. But RAID is a place to start.

There are a zillion GUI front-ends for rsync-based backups for OS X. Most of them are even free. Some of them handle backing-up Time Machine backups (Sparse Image files). Then there are industrial-strength backup systems like the ones from TOLIS (full disclosure: I haven't used these. I just know they exist). But, I think with a 10-person office, you probably can get by with something that is rsync-based (rsync is a very powerful UNIX "file/folder synchronization" utility that has been around since dirt. Rsync is included with OS X. Like all UNIX utilities, it is actually a command-line creature; but as I said, there are MANY GUI "front-ends" for rsync for OS X. Checkout this and this list. Let me know when you get through all those, LOL!

Now, let's talk about what MEDIA to backup to: In this day and age, pretty much the only reasonable thing to backup a hard drive to is another hard drive. Nothing else makes sense, cost and speed wise. You have a 6TB Drobo. What RAID mode is it being used in? Let's say it is in RAID 1. That means it will have 50% of its actual capacity, due to the "mirroring". Ok, so that's roughly 3TB (nevermind the formatting overhead). If it is in RAID 5 mode, the Drobo will have roughly 2/3 of its 6TB (or about 4TB). I'll assume you are NOT running RAID 0, 2, 3, or 4. Nor do I personally like any of the RAID levels above 5, because they are either relatively less safe, and/or have sort of "cumulative" storage and performance penalties as the array size grows. If you are doing a lot of random-writes to your server, then RAID 1 (straight mirroring) will give you the best overall performance, at the cost of less storage overall. See this article for more details than you probably want to know right now.

But, I digress... Let's say you have this running in RAID 1. This means that your Drobo is effectively 3TB. That's very convenient; because the world has 3TB drives now. So, here's what you do: Go and get two (to start) 3TB EXTERNAL drives (preferably FireWire 800 (if the server supports FW800. I'm assuming it doesn't support Thunderbolt). Format these as HFS+ (journaled). Name them the same (but not the same as the Drobo, just for confusion's sake). Now, you effectively have two 3TB "backup tapes" that you can "rsync" your Drobo to.

"Rotate" these at whatever frequency you desire (not less frequency than once per week). Take the "new" backup OFFSITE (Monday evening is easy to remember. That way, you can bring the "old" backup into the office on Friday morning, swap it with the "new" backup, and take it home with you on Friday night when you go home. Assuming your business is an 8-5 M-F type thing, set your rsync "incremental" backups to start late in the evening, every evening, like around 11pm (that way, people leaving late aren't a problem). If all goes well (and it should, because backup-to-harddrive is rarely a problem), your drive should be backed-up by the time you return in the morning. If you want to be extra safe, you can even rotate your drives every day, but that is a lot of wear-and-tear on the power and FireWire connectors on the drives; but is the safest overall. Swapping the drives every day also keeps rsync from having to to a BIG backup the first time the drives are swapped; because it won't have to "catch up" for the whole time the "returning" drive has been "away". But DO know that you probably will start having connector problems in a year or two. Big deal. You can replace the drives every freakin' MONTH and still be money ahead over a tape-changer (and

I run the 3 major ones (Linux, OSX and -now only occasionally- Windows), and only the Linux setup does not have any anti-virus and anti-trojan on it as it runs off read-only media. But on the Mac I have Kaspersky too. Not that it runs permanently, but I test anything that I'm interested in installing, and every so often I do a full check from an account with admin risks (my work account has no admin rights).

So, has Kaspersky ever found a MAC threat?

OSX doesn't have a decent uninstall mechanism.

Sure it does: Drag the Application to the Trash. Empty Trash. Done. That does it for all but the most instrusive of apps. Unless you are really that worried about an orphaned file or two hanging around in /Library/Preferences/ or /Library/Application Support/. Then the SAVVY Mac-users KNOWS where to look for, and TRASH those, too. Not that they can do anything, anyway. It's not like the DLL-Hell system of Windows "Do you want to remove [some DLL name you've never heard of]? It appears to be used by more than one program." That simply DOESN'T happen on OS X. Never did; never will.

Or, you can just use this. Found it in five seconds. Wotta whiner. SInce OS X "packages" have a BOM, uninstalling is a snap. There is also a command-line way to do it; but since this is FREE...

Not only are there several variants of Emacs for OS X, apparently it is ALREADY INSTALLED. When I use Emacs (not very often, because there are better OS X text editors), I tend to use the Aquamacs GUI version.

This guy needs FIRED from his web developer job immediately; because he obviously doesn't have even the intelligence to breathe, let alone develop code of ANY sort.

Your father-in-law might want to see if these help with some of OS X's odd "features":

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12850/macpilot

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/5721/tinkertool

I don't know if any of these apps will help, but they both allow for the customization of OS X that Apple never intended. :)

Your father-in-law might want to see if these help with some of OS X's odd "features":

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12850/macpilot

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/5721/tinkertool

I don't know if any of these apps will help, but they both allow for the customization of OS X that Apple never intended. :)

It's called menu pop. Just hit any programmable key combo and you get the apple menus right under the mouse cursor. Free in the app store:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/36095/menupop

Definitely suggested for high resolution monitors.

Combine that with QuickSilver and you rarely need to grab the mouse for common tasks:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/14831/quicksilver

It's called menu pop. Just hit any programmable key combo and you get the apple menus right under the mouse cursor. Free in the app store:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/36095/menupop

Definitely suggested for high resolution monitors.

Combine that with QuickSilver and you rarely need to grab the mouse for common tasks:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/14831/quicksilver

Take a look at MagicPrefs. It lets you do just about anything with the MagicMouse. Lots of different gestures can be enabled - swipes, taps, etc. It's free.

Guess there is MacUpdate utility. Why they have never gone into a store and distribution model has always confused me. They are halfway there already.

Someone should make an alternative to Apple's App Store, without the silly restrictions (however I do support testing to see if the app works, checking it wont steal my data and perhaps parental limits).

AppFresh
MacUpdate
I would say VersionTracker, but it appears cnet Downloads now owns them and made it as useless as cnet downloads.

I also have MacPorts so:
alias u='sudo port selfupdate;sudo port upgrade outdated;sudo port -f uninstall inactive'

Mac users are very fond of pointing out this distinction, leaving out that trojans and malware, and social engineering, these days are the overwhelming majority of Windows issues as well.

Yes. Yes they are.

Now please list the count of Windows trojans vs. mac trojans. I'll get you started with the Mac count:

1 (or is this trojan actually in the wild yet?)

After all, we are talking about active trojans in the wild...

Do you not think that a system with a few orders of magnitude fewer active security threats might not, in fact, be more secure for the average user.

No I don't. I just believe that the claim that Mac has no such issues now is proven wrong. That is all. Nobody have claimed that Windows doesn't have a longer list of malware in the wild.

And questioning whether this one is in the wild is either disingenuous or you haven't RTFA or anything else on the subject. This is clearly proven to be in the wild, fx as a disguised iPhoto app for download.

Among some of the first Mac OSX trojans discovered in the wild was this one in 1996: http://www.macrumors.com/2006/02/16/the-first-mac-os-x-virus-a-new-os-x-trojan/.

And in 1997: http://boingboing.net/2007/10/31/mac-trojan-in-the-wi.html

Then you had these two: http://www.scmagazineus.com/two-in-the-wild-trojans-target-mac-os-x/article/111551/ . The ARDAgent one was drive-by stealth install (which Mac users also are fond of pointing out is a Windows only problem)

You've had a handful of others in the wild as well, like:
http://blog.trendmicro.com/mac-os-x-dns-changing-trojan-in-the-wild/ http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30265/iservices-trojan-removal-tool

etc. There are more, but again, I'm not in any way claiming the list isn't shorter than similar Windows list, nobody is. But the claim that Mac OSX have no such malware in the wild have clearly been proven wrong (a long time ago).

MacUpdate Desktop sounds like what you're looking for.

It would be nice if it was free, but $20 annually for up to five computers shouldn't break the bank.

...and only with programs that they want you to use...

Wait, what?! How do you people not get modded down for this blatant misinformation? There are absolutely no restrictions on what applications you can run on OSX, as evidenced by the vast selection of free and open source software available for it, much of it competing directly with apple products.

...and only with programs that they want you to use...

Wait, what?! How do you people not get modded down for this blatant misinformation? There are absolutely no restrictions on what applications you can run on OSX, as evidenced by the vast selection of free and open source software available for it, much of it competing directly with apple products.

Are you stating I can't install my own memory, my own hard drive, my own optical disk, MP3's, MP4's, Blu-Ray rips (yes you can also rip those on a Mac), DVD's, Operating Systems, etc, etc. ad-nauseum? Need hardware? It's just a click away on Amazon, just as it is for every laptop and PC out there.

There is a plethora of Mac and Unix FOSS available, just as there is for Linux.

http://www.macupdate.com/
http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/
http://www.sourceforge.net/
http://mac.softpedia.com/
http://www.opensourcemac.org/

Your argument is patently ridiculous and reeks of trolling.

Are you really joking? VLC is the most successful open source project on Mac, forever. It even beats Firefox.

Here is a top sw downloads listing from absolutely general user focused download site: http://www.macupdate.com/popular/

VLC has also become de-facto remote controlled Apple OS X software for iPhone/iPod users. Those are the true "walled garden" lovers/ignorers.

VLC should look at their community, IRC channel, developer public comments for why on earth their developer level dropped to zero with such amazing success.

There's no need to because it's not a question. The answer is because there is, within the framework of any Open Source community, no essential relation between any measurement of a project's success and any measurement of its participation.

In commercial development, this relationship is simple-- it is provided by cash. More users means more income, more income means more resources to pay more programmers to continue to develop and support the project.

When the project is free for any and all to use (free as in beer) and participation in the project is based on "scratch your own itch" there is no relationship at all between the two.

Developers scratching their own itch on a project they need for their own use can continue working for years on a project that may have little or no application outside of a small community of like-minded developers with similar needs. Likewise, a fantastically popular application like VLC can eventually hit a brick wall when it finds there are no developers with itches that require scratching on a particular platform.

Are you really joking? VLC is the most successful open source project on Mac, forever. It even beats Firefox.

Here is a top sw downloads listing from absolutely general user focused download site: http://www.macupdate.com/popular/

VLC has also become de-facto remote controlled Apple OS X software for iPhone/iPod users. Those are the true "walled garden" lovers/ignorers.

VLC should look at their community, IRC channel, developer public comments for why on earth their developer level dropped to zero with such amazing success.

Because "true Apple lovers" are mostly either multimedia designers, artists, writers or just ordinary users with more money than sense, and not down-in-the-trenches C/C++ developers? It will really be interesting to see how this story with VLC develops. I bet VLC would be even more successful on Mac if they charged $39.99 for it.

Actually, I think this would be a good point to make with the developers: create a "VLC Gold" edition for Mac, which will be basically the same with some fancy Apple-like UI tweak or just a logo change, and charge for it. This way development gets funded and people get the warm fuzzy feeling of actually buying something good.

Are you really joking? VLC is the most successful open source project on Mac, forever. It even beats Firefox.

Here is a top sw downloads listing from absolutely general user focused download site: http://www.macupdate.com/popular/

VLC has also become de-facto remote controlled Apple OS X software for iPhone/iPod users. Those are the true "walled garden" lovers/ignorers.

VLC should look at their community, IRC channel, developer public comments for why on earth their developer level dropped to zero with such amazing success. Imagine you are a multimedia developer, is there anything more visible and easy to contribute than VLC? Get a CVS pwd, start showing off with your coding capabilities... Really interesting... I suspect some bad treatment to Mac users/Developers going on. BTW, they should look at pure numbers, not some troll/idiot comments from some download sites or blogs. They are currently de facto standard multimedia player on OS X. They should figure this fact if not already.

PS: Not a big VLC fan really while it saves us all the time at TV. I personally use Coreplayer OS X which is really really unpopular and commercial application which does amazing things like playing 720P HD/H264 on G4 1.42 Ghz.

Agreed. I simply feel no need to peddle on warez sites. Open source, freeware as well as low cost payware are abundant enough and fill the gaps for a decently low price. Why take the risk?

http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/
http://mac.softpedia.com/
http://www.opensourcemac.org/
http://www.macorchard.com/
http://www.macupdate.com/

I've purchased 3 apps since switching to Mac last year. VMWare Fusion, an encoding app, and another to sync my gmail calendars to OS X Mail's calendars. Everything else I've needed has been free via Open Source sites found above. Gimp and OpenOffice handle the other basics. Why would you need warez?

Almost anything written well for 'Linux' that runs on *BSD or Solaris, can be compiled for OS X.

I just got into GeoTagging my photos. There are 3-4 GUI programs which 'Just Work'. In addition to exiftool and gpsbabel which are can be run from the command line plus BT747 which is OSS but Java. And most of the stuff I can install with MacPorts so everything is managed.

TrailRunner is a VERY well made piece of freeware.

http://macupdate.com/
http://versiontracker.com/

Search both for 'Free' and there are quite a bit of good apps.

I paid for TextMate because it's one of the best programs I've used. Same with Graphic Converter.

Maybe not iSurgery but they may very well have used Osirix: http://m.macupdate.com/info.php/id/29646/osirix-for-iphone on their iPhones to plan the surgery

http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/11858/macpar-deluxe

"MacPAR deLuxe is a utility program that can be useful to you if you upload and download binary files to and from Internet newsgroups."
**************
Works with "regular" rar files too.

You really ended up purchasing lots of "small" apps for the Mac? I've found that Shareware in the Mac community blows away the Windows community by about x100. There are a TON of non-crippled apps for the Mac that are shareware, way more so then on Windows.

http://macupdate.com/
http://versiontracker.com/

So you could say it's platform limitation is OSX.

If the camera doesn't work in Adium, then they need to add support. As I said before, Apple isn't locking down the iSight. Third party apps can use it if they're written to do so.

As for MOD, yes, it's primarily used as an audio codec for digital video cameras. I have NEVER heard of anyone using it for personal music files. Ever. Don't tell me about Amigas. Amiga is dead, dead, dead. They were great computers in the day, but that day passed long ago. It's bloody irrelevant. The vast majority use MP3 for their music. Some use AAC. Hell, some use OGG. Just how many people choose to use MOD? Who the hell distributes music (outside of specific editing apps and such) in that format, much less S3M or XM? Why convert? BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT USED FOR REGULAR OLD MUSIC! Jesus, how fucking hard is that to understand? Why should Apple support formats that see next to no use outside of very specific applications? What the hell is the point?

Apple doesn't "kill" anything. If third party developers don't want to step in, then they don't want to step in. If you don't like it, get an OSS project for such a thing off the ground or start porting another OSS project to OS X that will do what you want. You're one of very, very few people that actually wants iTunes to play archaic filetypes that see no use in the home music market. You want to play them? Download this:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17009/ximplemod

Or this:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12607/cocomodx

Voila, players that will do MOD, S3M, XM, and much more! If you want iTunes support, a Quicktime codec will work. If none exists, then there is likely not enough demand to justify it. Get an OSS project started if you want it so badly.

If the camera doesn't work in Adium, then they need to add support. As I said before, Apple isn't locking down the iSight. Third party apps can use it if they're written to do so.

As for MOD, yes, it's primarily used as an audio codec for digital video cameras. I have NEVER heard of anyone using it for personal music files. Ever. Don't tell me about Amigas. Amiga is dead, dead, dead. They were great computers in the day, but that day passed long ago. It's bloody irrelevant. The vast majority use MP3 for their music. Some use AAC. Hell, some use OGG. Just how many people choose to use MOD? Who the hell distributes music (outside of specific editing apps and such) in that format, much less S3M or XM? Why convert? BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT USED FOR REGULAR OLD MUSIC! Jesus, how fucking hard is that to understand? Why should Apple support formats that see next to no use outside of very specific applications? What the hell is the point?

Apple doesn't "kill" anything. If third party developers don't want to step in, then they don't want to step in. If you don't like it, get an OSS project for such a thing off the ground or start porting another OSS project to OS X that will do what you want. You're one of very, very few people that actually wants iTunes to play archaic filetypes that see no use in the home music market. You want to play them? Download this:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/17009/ximplemod

Or this:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/12607/cocomodx

Voila, players that will do MOD, S3M, XM, and much more! If you want iTunes support, a Quicktime codec will work. If none exists, then there is likely not enough demand to justify it. Get an OSS project started if you want it so badly.

A better link for xACT is: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14246

[...] unlike OS X where just about every app is made by Apple or Adobe.

This is so ridiculous it made me chuckle. Someone better tell MacUpdate about this fact.

tc qdisc add dev eth1 root hadle ee:0 tbf rate 56kbit burst 8Kb latency 100ms

Which basically means something like add a Token Bucket Filter queue discipline to the interface eth1 with the handle ee:0 (arbitrary if this is the only discipline) using those properties. There's other kinds of filters too. You can just run this on your Linux router/firewall (on the port from the router to your mac). You do have a Linux router and a Mac right? The best part is that since it's running on the router it's platform independent downstream. I think I saw a shareware bit on macupdate that does what you're asking directly on your mac (this might be it?) but if you already have a router in place the linux route is great and you can tweak it via ssh, switching add for change.

Cheers, Ed

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I know what you are saying. Lucky for me, all your reasons are actually reasons I like the mac.

I gave up gaming on computers, it simply is not worth it. I use my xbox 360 and wii for that now and I'm having a much better experience. No drm that requires me to shut down tools just to play a game, no constant upgrade mill to get the latest graphics, etc. All my favorite windows games run on mac anyways (either via wine/cider or native)

I actually like the hotkeys much better on mac. Sure it really pissed me off at first, but the fact that they are so constant across programs rules (command-, for example). Sure it would be nice to be able to remap them, but that is not an issue to me at this point my hands do what they are supose to do on each OS.

I love the interface, i'm finding that I no longer work with apps fullscreen on linux and windows now. I'm more productive now as well (I think it is because i'm not constantly switching windows to read documentation and such. I also love that I can close the app but leave it running (like itunes). A simple command-w and the app is gone but still running, very nice if I know I'm going to use it again but don't want to clutter up the dock and very nice for programs that I use headless (like iTunes). But as you said, it's a personal thing, not a technical one.

As for backspace, I know exactly what you are saying, which is why I use a external keyboard (the apple one) when I'm at home. Although I think you have it backwards, delete is backspace and function-delete is what we think of as actual delete. But on my fullsize keyboard at home, you have both keys (just named delete and a funny icon and delete) in the places you would expect them as a touch typer and they work exactly like every other OS (only backspace says delete on it). Not an issue to me, but I can see how it throws people off.

My real pet peeve is the home/end keys. I am very programed to use home/end as a programer. They do not function as expected. They function more like page up/page down. It has been hard for me to replace this with command-arrow right/left. There is a way for me to change this, but I have decided to learn to deal with it.

As for software, yea repo would be nice (although for most open source software there is macports and the like). However I find that with sites like http://www.macupdate.com/ http://osx.iusethis.com/ and ttp://www.versiontracker.com I have no problem finding all the software I need.

I think it is just like migrating from windows to linux, you have to give up your thoughts on how things are done and learn the (insert os here) way.

The LED is probably sitting across the power lines to the camera. Camera has power = LED is on. there is no non-physical way to disable it.

Personally, I have Undercover installed on all my and my siblings laptops.

I wish the guy that wrote the command line tool (iSightCapture) to take photos would either release the source or make some updates. A video capture CLI tool would be awesome.

I'm thinking of writing my own poor man's Undercover using cron, bash scripts and curl. Attempt to curl a website which I have access to, all the website does is return a 1 or a 0. (Stolen, not stolen). If anything gets taken just update my website and next time my Mac connects to the net, it gets what it needs.