The Sunday Post ex exty two
Posted in Mac Stuff,Tech,The Sunday Post — by Don on 11/04/07

So, I have Leopard up and running.

Before I began, I purchased a second external hard drive. CostCo has the WD dual interface (firewire and USB) 500GB drive for $149 if you are looking for one. First step, copy everything from the old 250GB to the new. Time: 4.5 hours.

Then, it was SuperDuper!’s turn to back up my user folder and whatnot. Time: 3.5 hours*

Then, and only then, was it time for Leopard. Erase and install for me thankyouverymuch because I had a ton of cruft, crap and misc. whatnot that I didn’t want anymore. Time: 1 hour

Then, install apps time. This time around I’m really going to make an effort to only install apps that I will be using on a regular basis. For the others, I am not going to install them until needed. Here is what I have so far.

  • iLife ’08
  • iWork ’08. Yes, I’m going to try this for 30 days before reinstalling office.
  • SuperDuper!
  • Skype
  • VMWare Fusion
  • Adium
  • Flickr uploader

I have a few left to go (MAMP, Smultron, Acorn/Pixelmator), but those I will leave for later today.

Thoughts so far?

It’s faster. Noticeably faster. I’m not sure where, but it is.

Safari is smokin’ fast. So, I’m going to try it for a while before I put FireFox back. 2 things that are killing me on this so far are the ability to set all new links to open in a new tab (I know, cmd-click does this, but FF has a setting so I don’t have to) and to highlight the menu bar with a single click. Plus extensions. But, I’m going to give it a week and see what I can do.

Dock on the bottom sure is pretty. Dock on the left is pretty ok too. Although the change from black arrows to blue lights will take some getting used to.

Spaces seems awesome. As soon as I play with it some more I’m sure it will be.

Spotlight doesn’t suck anymore. I’m going to try to use that instead of Quicksilver for launching apps (the primary use of Quicksilver for me anyway).

Preview is great. It’s that Windows feature that I have been waiting for and they did it right. Try it with a multi-sheet spread sheet. You can actually look at all of the sheets in a workbook. Awesome.

So far it’s only been about a day with it, but I can say that I am glad I did the upgrade.

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(5) comments
  • http://jwiltshire.org Josh

    Yes, I can get this in before the other Mac geeks do: Can I recommend FlickrExport for iPhoto? It’s a pretty awesome little plugin that uploads photos directly from within iPhoto. It’s so good, I actually paid for it.

  • http://www.cjupin.com chris

    hey db, I double-dog-dare-you to try boot camp… I’m still running parallels but I’d like to see what native windows runs like. However, I’m still rather squeamish about it.

    couple apps I highly recommend for your new leopardized machine:

    1) appfresh (http://metaquark.de/appfresh/)-> it scans your applications/widgets/plugins/etc and looks through the tubes for updated versions (and downloads/installs them!). Saves all kinds of time. (and free!)

    2) omni disk sweeper (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/) – scans your system and allows you to find those huge files that suck up disk space (did you know that epson printer drivers take up over a gig of space? does it look like I have an epson printer? delete!)- free version is good (paid version lets you delete the file right there versus hunting for it)

    3) coda (http://www.panic.com/coda/). I’ve been using the free version for a long time and let me tell you- it’s awesome. it’s by far my favorite web coding app of all time (I don’t do much coding- but when I do this is it). It lets you update files directly in your directory (even has a wysiwyg css editor), or ftp them directly (built in transmit). I need to shell out the $80 for this..try the free version for a while- you’ll love it.

    4) dashalytics (http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/22/widget-watch-dashalytics-3-0/)–> your google analytics account as a widget – pretty handy for quick trend watching.

    ok, that’s enough from me..back to work on my crap work dell pc. blech.

  • db

    I’ve heard of appfresh and will be trying it. Coda is truly awesome, but my budget won’t allow it for now. I’m sticking with Smultron for the time being. And the other 2 I will look at.

    I am seriously tempted to try bootcamp. However, VMWare running in it’s own space is pretty sweet. I am pretty sure that XP will run natively fairly kickass on the MacBook, esp. since the MacBook Pro has been named the fastest Vista Notebook by PCWorld!

  • http://jwiltshire.org Josh

    I haven’t boot camped in ages, but I remember Windows running aight on my iMac. I don’t boot into Windows nearly enough to make it worth while. The opportunity to play Portal has made it tempting though…

    I’m a TextMate man myself, I love it for coding stuff, though Smultron is a great open source alternative. And WhatSize does the same thing as OmniWhatever, only freer.

  • http://guapacha.com paul

    dammit, I must be the last person out there yet to upgrade. But now I have my video project out of the way, tonight I will start le grande backup in preparation for the macbook pro.

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