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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Mac OS changeover
Dave Prelosky, Photographer
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Lower Burrell | Pa | US | Posted: 8:19 PM on 10.27.04 |
->> In my little corner of the world, we've been content with a G4 / System 9.1 / Photoshop 5.5 combo since nearly the dawn of time.
As the Mac on the desk is showing signs of impending doom, we're being upgraded to current product - a G5 / OX-X.x.x / and Photoshop CS. I realise the technophiles are wondering what has taken us so long, but the simple answer is this: what we've been using works for us.
My question is essentially this - What do I want to watch for, notice, appreciate, marvel at, or let pass without notice?
dp |
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Greg Ferguson, Photographer
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Scottsdale | Az | USA | Posted: 9:21 PM on 10.27.04 |
->> make sure you run Disk Utilities so the disk permissions are clean and the directories and files are in good shape.
MacOS 9 on a G4 is fast. MacOS X on a G5 is fast, and doesn't slow down because of the difference in cooperative multi-tasking (apps voluntarily give time to each other when they feel like it which means foreground apps generally run faster than background ones) vs. preemptive multitasking (apps are doled out CPU time in a round-robin approach so they all get equal time).
Memory protection means crashes are very rare. If an application tries to do something nasty to memory, the Unix protected-memory will slap it silly, causing it to quit before other apps (or worse, the OS) is affected. In the MacOS 9 memory model, an application could mess up all sorts of other areas of memory when it misbehaved, leading to slow death of the OS and apps, forcing a reboot eventually.
My G4 Powerbook runs days and days before I'll finally reboot out of paranoia. My wife runs hers weeks before I reboot it out of paranoia. :-)
There are some things missing in MacOS X that were in MacOS 9, but nowdays I don't remember what they are, because I like the new OS so well. I guess, in short, it just works like I expect it should.
There are other things about it I like, such as being able to launch a MacOS 9 shell and run old apps, but mostly I stick with the MacOS X apps and find updated or new apps to replace the old ones. They've all been worth the upgrade or switch. |
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Darren Whitley, Photographer
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Maryville | MO | USA | Posted: 10:01 PM on 10.27.04 |
->> OS X does not support SCSI printing and Epson printers don't work as smoothly, nor with all the features when connected to an OS9 or Windows machine.
Apple-Y is no longer your eject. It's now Apple-E, which is more logical.
Apple-N does not create a new folder, it creates a new window. Apple-shift-N creates a new folder.
Apple-K is connect to server. I wish Apple-K had been the Chooser in OS9, but they never engineered such a short cut. This is huge!
Also, sometimes when you want to save to another computer, you'll discover you're not connected to it. In OSX you do not have to exit Photoshop to "connect to server". Simply save, click on "network" in the left column, navigate your computer network and then login when you're given the option. Awesome.
Utility programs that are highly recommended are Disk Warrior and Norton. Also, buy a copy of Toast. Apple's built-in burning program has a little bit of learning curve and has little to no GUI.
If you don't use Photo Mechanic, you might want to use Image Capture. Open Image Capture and go to preferences where you can set it up to import your images from CF card almost automatically. I used this before I began using injest disk in Photo Mechanic.
iMovie requires you keep iPhoto to support using still images so if you want to use one, keep the other.
You will need both Safari and IE. Some websites do not work in Safari, but will work in IE.
Sharing is more troublesome in OSX but freeware like Sharepoints will allow you to turn your internal or external drive(s) into shared volumes. Sharing can be controlled on individual files, which can be a big pain if you start moving your external drives around the office. I recently went through that mess when I got the new G5.
Try out Sherlock for finding movies and trailers for a nearby theater. Very cool.
RAM is very important to the speed of a G5. You must buy two modules at a time. I just went from 512 to 2GB by buying from Crucial.com. The G5 a much, much happier machine. Photoshop saves faster and opens large PSD files faster than it did with 512mb, duh!
Good luck. |
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Darren Whitley, Photographer
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Maryville | MO | USA | Posted: 10:03 PM on 10.27.04 |
->> One more thing...
OSX has a number of keyboard shortcuts just for the OS. You may want to visit the System prefs and shut some of these off so they don't interfer with your ability to use Photoshop Shortcuts. OSX shortcuts trump Photoshop until you turn them off. In addition, if you don't like a shortcut in either OSX or an Adobe product, you can customize them to be whatever you like. |
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Jason Grow, Photographer
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Gloucester | MA | USA | Posted: 10:30 PM on 10.27.04 |
| ->> What's really cool is that in the versions of Photoshop after 5.5 -- they added COLOR!!! |
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Michael Hickey, Photographer
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Kokomo | IN | USA | Posted: 11:32 PM on 10.27.04 |
| ->> Darren, SCSI printing is still available if you are using a printer such as the Fuji Pictrography, I have one at work hooked up via SCSI on OS X. |
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Darren Whitley, Photographer
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Maryville | MO | USA | Posted: 10:32 AM on 10.28.04 |
| ->> I have a Sony dye sub that will not work with OSX. Blame seems to fall on all involved. Same with the Epson problems. |
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Greg Ferguson, Photographer
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Scottsdale | Az | USA | Posted: 12:18 PM on 10.28.04 |
->> I use an Epson 1280 with OSX 10.3.5, and it works fine - good color, page sizes are fine. I've used it hooked up to my iMac server as a shared printer, and to the Airport base-station and accessed it via Rendezvous.
The only thing that acts up is the Epson Utility when trying to check the ink tanks or force a cleaning or printing a test page. So, if need be I attach it temporarily via USB to one of our Macs and do what I need to, then reattach it to the Airport, where it normally resides.
Rather than mess with the Utility, I usually just print test pages from a simple Photoshop document that looks like Epson's test page, or use one of the MacBeth test pages. To force a cleaning I do it using the front-panel buttons.
All in all I think it works fine.
What is it that others are experiencing with Epson that doesn't work? |
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Dave Prelosky, Photographer
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Lower Burrell | Pa | US | Posted: 2:17 PM on 10.28.04 |
->> Before this thread gets too far off track, in the office I use either an HP laserjet for B/W proofs, or a QMS for the occasional color request. In either event, they're both on our ethernet network.
I appreciate the information expressed so far, and I'm still interested in any other OS-X / Photoshop CS details anyone has to offer.
dp |
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Greg Ferguson, Photographer
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Scottsdale | Az | USA | Posted: 4:33 PM on 10.28.04 |
->> I assume the LaserJet is using the PostScript module and has LPR capability if you're using it with your current Mac, so that should have no problem.
The QMS should be OK though we used to have some PostScript compatibility problems with ours. That was back when they tried to write their own version of PostScript instead of license it from Adobe. Since licensing it we didn't have any problems. Again, I assume you're using the built-in LPR.
MacOS X has the ability to print to TCP/IP based printers (LPR) both at the Unix and the Mac levels. Also, the GIMP drivers should cover both printers (though I haven't checked) if you don't have the standard drivers. You might want to try the GIMP drivers also because the reports are that they're more flexible and have better options.
Re: other experiences after converting ... all I remember was positive, except for minor issues with filesharing from my iMac fileserver - basically Personal File Sharing on MacOS X assumes all hardware is owned by the root of the machine and all one admin, and everyone else is a guest. That makes it more difficult to set up shared drives unless you give all users on the server admin privileges. That bugs me a bit.
Oh, and I miss playing Marathon and Myth, but I'm thinking of loading on the ports of those games and seeing how they work. I'm tired of getting beat by my son at Soul Caliber II on the PlayStation, and need to whup him at some good ol' shoot'em'ups. :-) |
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