Beakersful

I trialled a Macbook Pro the other day. Very fast, very nice. I can see why people love them so much. Crisp screen, little noticeable lagging I came home and thought about it, then I realised sticking a fast model SSD inside my ubuntu/windows machines may just narrow that speed gap down!

The internet has been threatened with becoming a walled garden many times, and the average user doesn't need the extensive power of the ridiculously expensive machines on the market. A lot of gamers have got themselves a games console to go with a £300 laptop for day to day use. That's still 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of a decent Mac. Also consider that Steam are close to releasing a linux native client and shifting their games catalogue over. This should break Microsofts grip, particularly with the upcoming Windows8 release many people are angry with (economical monopoly/business reasons)

Spugsy

I've got the same one, they are great machines. I've also got an iMac from 5 years ago which is still doing the business.

Spugsy

The new screens on the laptops are incredible.

Oyibopeppeh

What's the best software for keeping your Mac running well?

auzdafluff

You don't need it. Seriously; after four years, my old MacBook Pro was still running lightening fast.

Desert Dubliner

Just repair permissions and verify the disk from time to time using disk utility. And back up on an external HDD using time machine. In fact I repair permissions before any installation or software upgrade.

Oyibopeppeh

Fair enough, I'll try Permissions.

(I haven't done this in almost 3 years of ownership and the spinning kaleidoscope of death was appearing too often!)

willmore

energysolutions

Good taste

energysolutions

I keep repeating it to myself:

"I must resist the urge"

"I must resist the urge"

LaLaLayla

Can I ask a quick questions, as Bob moved my Mac thread to The Lab where no-one posts.

I want to do this course. However, the course organisers told me that it is not compatible with Mac computers. Upon further investigation, it seems it may be OK, but they don't offer support if it goes wrong. They sent me this:

We do not offer support for Mac based systems and that is the reason why we state it is not compatible. The course should work if you have all the proper plugins below, but again, we do not offer computer based support for Mac users.

Internet Explorer (IE) version 5.5+/FireFox 1+ (Windows 98+) or Netscape 7.2+/FireFox 1+ will allow you to take full advantage of the range of features of the site. And Windows Media Player.

I have Safari. Will it work? Would appreciate some advice. Thanks. Bob said it should be fine, but I need a bit more information than that as the course is quite expensive. Also, it appears to give different options for what is required - what is the best option?

Thanks.

auzdafluff

Download FireFox (which works on Mac), and Flip4Mac which will allow you to play any Windows Media Files.

To be fair, I think I'd throw up a stink and remind them that around 5-10% of computer users use Macs, and that is only growing. Also, ownership amongst medium to high income earning families is significantly higher (I remember seeing secret industry figures which put personal ownership in medium to high income families at around 20% in the UK alone). You know, the families that will be able to afford their expensive courses.

LaLaLayla

Thanks auzdafluff. Yeah, it is shocking how many organisations are stuck in the dark ages. When I did my MBA through the OU just a couple of years ago, there were loads of course materials I couldn't access for this very reason.

Desert Dubliner

If you must. This stuff was crashing all the time and eventually I stopped using Firefox. It is too big, hungry and unstable for my taste. I used Chrome for a while but that wasn't great either so now back to Safari, release 6 rocks.

auzdafluff

I use Chrome myself. Made the switch after Firefox became unbearably slow.