[Joshuashawharvey]

I was planning on purchasing a brand new Mac computer or laptop, but it looks like I won't be able to afford until later next year.

So in the meantime to keep me occupied and to get used to OSX again, I have purchased an eMac from eBay for just £75 including delivery.

It's spec is:-
1GHz G4 CPU
1GB RAM
40GB Hard Drive
ATI Radeon 7500 Graphics
Combo Drive
OSX Leopard

I used to have one but sold it because I never used it, but I have purchased another because I now need it for it's space-saving all-in-one design as I don't have much space for a proper desktop, and i'm not too fond of laptops.

I have Office 2008 and Toast Titanium ready for when it arrives.

Are there any other programs anyone could recommend for it?

[dudeking]

I use

Office 2008
Netbeans
Dreamweaver CS4
Photoshop CS4
Flash CS4
Cyberduck
iPhoto
VLC
MSN
Firefox

lol thats about it... Office is about the only thing you do need for it really... pretty much every thing else comes with OSX

[Joshuashawharvey]

Thanks mate.

What about house cleaning applications? Do you use any or is there any you could recommend?

[dudeking]

Id recommend you not to use one... half the speed of a mac comes from cache. Check it out... you currently on here 40Gb of my HDD is swap space and cache. I've used them but they tend to slow things down more than anything. When im on my mac mini later today ill tell you the name of the one i use but i only run it once a month max.

Not at all my my macbook.

[Albert Lionheart]

Wish I could help with the apps but have absolutely nothing - zilch! Sorry!

[Joshuashawharvey]

Fair enough. Thanks for your help mate

Any other things I should know about lol?

I'm sure i'll be coming to you with a few questions as time goes by

@ Albert - No problem mate, I know you'd help if you could

[dudeking]

Errrr... not that i can think of... you might wanna enable secure delete in finder preference then when u empty the trash its all shredded. But its all pretty much self explanatory. Let me know if u have any problems then dude.

[Joshuashawharvey]

Thanks. Much appreciated

[Joshuashawharvey]

Received my eMac through the post yesterday, and I must say, i'm very impressed

I'm amazed at how quick this thing boots up and shuts down! It boots up far quicker than my old eMac with Panther and shuts down just as quick.
The dashboard with the widgets is really cool and convenient, and Front Row works like a charm
I thought it would struggle slightly because it's only just over the requirements to run Leopard but it's running better than my old eMac with Panther!
Plenty of hard drive space still available. With the OS, all of my applications, and all of my documents only taking up 9GB of my 40GB hard drive.
Yet to buy and external hard drive so I can enable Time Machine and put my documents on it.

Having said that though, I do have a couple of gripes....

First one being, I have a game, 007 Nightfire, that with my old eMac with OSX Panther, worked. But now on Leopard it won't even start and crashes when I try to open it. Is there some sort of compatibility mode I can try, similar to the Windows one?

With OSX Panther, to access my Windows shared files all I needed to do was to enable "Windows Sharing" in the Networking preferences. Now it seems Leopard does not have that option, and I have to connect via the "Connect to Server" option where I have to enter the IP of the computer to access the shared files. It works, I don't like doing it this way because the IP changes when I turn everything off at night then turn it back on, so I have to go through the hassle of finding the IP for the computer I want to access files.
Is there any alternative way of accessing the shared files without the "Connect to Server" method?

[alan2273]

I am not familiar with MAC computers but this link says to use a name instead of an IP address.

Mac OS X: How to mount a Windows shared folder on your Mac

[Joshuashawharvey]

Thanks Alan. The method I am currently using works but I have to keep changing the IP every time I switch the computer back on, and I just want it immediate on without having to go through the hassle of looking for the computers IP everytime I turn my computer on.

It's obviously not a major problem, but I preferred the method with the "Windows Sharing" on OSX 10.3

EDIT:

Just read the part about the name being used as you said, and tried the "Connect to Server" method with the computers network name instead of it's IP, and it works, so this is no longer a problem

I still can't work out why they removed the "Windows Sharing" option in the preferences.

[dudeking]

My windows PC's show up as shared on the left hand side in finder

[Joshuashawharvey]

Mine do too, but only once i've mounted them using the method Alan has posted.

When I turn the machine off they disappear and I have to re-mount them.

It could possibly have something to do with the PRAM, because that can have an affect on network settings. The time and date always reset every time I turn the computer back on so I know the PRAM battery is dead. I have purchased a new PRAM battery and I will get back to you on that one as soon as it arrives

Anyway that's not really a problem now I know I can use the computer name instead of just the IP (thanks to Alan ).

It's really bugging me how 007 Nightfire doesn't work, but it's not in the Leopard games compatability list, so I guess theres nothing I can do

I thought there would have been a compatibility mode within OSX similar to that in Windows, but no such thing exists

[dudeking]

Hummm werid...sorry I'm not much help, I'm only familiar with 10.5.* so I cant really comment on any older ones.

[Joshuashawharvey]

No problem mate

Luckily I have 007 Nightfire on PC as well so that's also not a major problem. Still slightly disappointed that there is no compatibility mode though

I've got the hang of everything now and I remember all the stuff I learned with my old eMac so I think i'm fine, for now