How/were to learn about Macs?

[supershaun]

Ive been born and bread on PC's since i was knee high to a grass hopper but my new job requires me to learn about macintosh's, ive always been interested in them as they look so much better and are from what ive heard 99% more stable than anything microsoft can throw together OS wise. Basically is there any web sites that i could use to gain knowlege on these marvelous beasties? or any practical websites that can tell you how to mess around with the insides?
Thanx in advance peeps.
(a mac begginer)

 

[Corvette]

Oooh! A subscribe check box in quick reply!
And if you need help you can ask for it here!

 

[Lighter]

Originally posted by ViperSnake
And if you need help you can ask for it here!

He just did.

I don't want to spam the thread with mac URLs, so just start here: www.mac-forums.com

Then do a search for more on Google or whatever your preferred search engine is --Mac Forums is a good search key phrase. There are plenty of dedicated Mac forum sites, similar in style to NTFS.org.

I do encourage you to search the threads in NTFS.org though, there's lots-o-posts on Mac use. If you don't find exactly what you're looking for, start a new thread. There are plenty of highly knowledgeable Mac users here.

 

[grimman]

Right. I haven't been at a MAC the last year or so, but I can tell you that they're no more stable than you make them... ever.
They're like any other computer, they're not magical. As far as the OSX goes, I'd say it's far less likely to crash under the same circumstances as OS9 and such, plus it has better memory management.

UI-wise though, it's pretty hard to fail with a Mac (Classic) since ALOT of the stuff the computer depends on is hidden from the user and can NOT be accessed through bundled software... at least I didn't find a way.
Concerning application stability in Classic, when an application does crash, you kill it. And hope the OS doesn't commit suicide as well. It does... ALOT.

Anyway, it's probably very stupid of me just to write and write here, since you said "Macs"... quite frankly you could just as well have said "PPC based operating systems".
Where do I learn about windows?


There is documentation added in the operating system, and it's actually pretty good once you get the hang of the structure... you learn by trial and error. ;D

 

[DominikHoffmann]

The most informational news sites I know of are

MacInTouch and MacCentral.

As far as really learning from scratch, you should actually try a couple of books from the Missing Manuals series by O'Reilly. In particular there are

Switching to the Mac and Mac OS X, Panther Edition (Panther is version 10.3); if you can't wait until it comes out, get Mac OS X, 2nd Edition (covers Jaguar, version 10.2).

The most effective forums I've come across are the MacNN Forums (in fact, through them, I learned about this forum).

I hope this helps.

Dominik Hoffmann

 

[SPeedY_B]

Apple's site is a surprisingly good and easy to navigate source.
Other than that, if it's available to you, grab the manual that comes with the machine, believe me, there's some good reading in there, especially about the internal parts, how to access them and change components etc (although to be honest, I opened up my mac the other day to put in more ram and could see where everything goes, it's so simple inside.)

Your best bet is to just use one though. It really depends on the level of knowledge you require, if it's just for day to day use, then just hop on the machine and you'll be at home within minutes.
If it's more detailed and technical then definitely give the apple.com site a read over (there's so much more info there than you think, just dig for it) then ask on forums - here or those that have been linked - for more specific queries. Nothing is better for learning than experience, and if you don't have it then someone who's willing to share theirs is the next best thing

 

[PseudoKiller]

I want a Mac... G4 please... oh wait I dont have any money...

 

[Leo154]

Originally posted by PseudoKiller
I want a Mac... G4 please... oh wait I dont have any money...