G5 & Leopard questions

[Compman55]

Hi,

I have a friend that cannot use his PC based machine without getting spyware + popups.

I suggested an apple, but now have second thoughts. I have a few questions:

1.) Can apples get viruses / malware like pc's?
2.) Where do you find codecs to play all the vidoes like xvid, divx, vlc, etc.......?
3.) Is the safari browser now good and updatable. 10.4 OSX was not.

All he uses it for is email, internet, and videos, thats it.

 

[Ka0t1x]

1. There are a few but you'd need to enter your Admin password to get by much of anything required to install something.
2. Codecs are not required when using VLC, alternatively I think you can use the Perian plugin with QT.
2a. There's Flip4Mac for WMV files, but I rarely end up having a need for that.
3. Safari is a great browser now, v4+ is amazing.
3a. There's Also Firefox, Chrome, Opera..

 

[Compman55]

Anything else I should know?

 

[VinylxScratches]

Is he getting a G5 used? He should really get a Intel based Mac.

 

[Compman55]

I am actually going to buy one set it up and take it over. What should I buy. I want to stay in the $500 tops. G5's fit the bill but I don;t know if newer ones will.

 

[Ka0t1x]

If its going to be a light-use machine I would probably go with a Mini. Sometimes appear on the refurb store.

 

[alfa147x]

2nd for the intel minis you do not want a Power PC CPU

 

[Compman55]

Why not?

 

[TheStu]

If your friend already has a USB keyboard, mouse and monitor, then go for the Mini. You can usually find them on ebay in your price range. Just try to get a more recent intel one.

 

[Compman55]

Why not a power pc CPU?

 

[Ka0t1x]

Anything flash based, HD video, or CPU intensive will be utterly slow.

I would shoot for a Mini with the Core2Duo and nVidia 9400M Chipset.

 

[TheStu]

Anything flash based, HD video, or CPU intensive will be utterly slow.

I would shoot for a Mini with the Core2Duo and nVidia 9400M Chipset.

Exactly, for anything except flash PowerPC is just fine, but you really want to get some dual core intel action in there if you want to do Hulu and Netflix streaming.

 

[Compman55]

What happens if I use OSX 10.4, is there much limits to it. I see a lot of listings of computers that have 10.4 on them.

 

[alfa147x]

Try this:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC...co=MTU5MTc1MzI

or if you can splurge:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2054957

But it seems like this is going in place of a pc, so the person has a keyboard, mouse, display. Go with the refurb they are a good deal, I bought my White Macbook back in 2007 and it was great!

 

[secretanchitman]

i wouldnt get a powerpc (G4/G5) based computer at this point quite honestly. even the very first intel machines that apple made are a lot faster (from 2006).

1: there are viruses/spyware that are designed for mac, but are so rare/uncommon, its highly unlikely that you will. no o/s or machine is totally protected from them.

2: there is a freeware codec pack called perian that lets you play basically everything. flip4mac wmv lets you play wmv files, and there is vlc for osx. divx also makes a web player for osx as well.

3: safari as always been good for me. in fact, they released an update so its now at 4.05. i used to use safari exclusively until i realized that i cant live without my extensions in firefox.

 

[VinylxScratches]

Why not a power pc CPU?

They will barely play flash, Apple doesn't support it, there are no current OS supported.... the list goes on. A Mac Mini is way better.

 

[speg]

Ubuntu is free and you get to keep all his current hardware.

 

[KeithP]

Hi,

I have a friend that cannot use his PC based machine without getting spyware + popups.

I suggested an apple, but now have second thoughts. I have a few questions:

1.) Can apples get viruses / malware like pc's?
2.) Where do you find codecs to play all the vidoes like xvid, divx, vlc, etc.......?
3.) Is the safari browser now good and updatable. 10.4 OSX was not.

All he uses it for is email, internet, and videos, thats it.

You could just wipe his current system, get everything installed and setup, then install Windows SteadyState. You could probably also install the free version of Logmein so you can access his system remotely if he has a question.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pr...t.mspx?wt_svl=10215wh_os_all1&mg_id=10215whb1

https://secure.logmein.com/US/products/free/

You might also want to point him to mechbgon's security guide:
http://www.mechbgon.com/build/security1.html

And as speg pointed out Ubuntu would solve the problem as well.

OS X would certainly be less of a security risk for your friend, but it sounds to me like it is more important that his habits and security knowledge change rather than his OS. If he is getting into a lot of malware trouble with Windows, it will be just a matter of time before something happens on OS X. He might not get a virus or spyware, maybe something like a phishing scam, but eventually, it will happen.

-KeithP

 

[alfa147x]

If he is getting into a lot of malware trouble with Windows, it will be just a matter of time before something happens on OS X. He might not get a virus or spyware, maybe something like a phishing scam, but eventually, it will happen.

-KeithP

I don't know about that. My parents / younger sister have a Macbook + a hackintosh. They haven't been able to fuck it up! I'm not saying that education is a bad thing but some people just don't understand computers

 

[Compman55]

He gets infections by clicking on ads. He was innocently looking at RV's and clicked a banner and that was it. Total slowness, lockups, ctrl+alt+del disabled, a total mess. I reinstalled, patched, and updated, two days later he followed a link to some superbowl comedey ad and now IE is hopeless, firefox still works. A reinstall is due this weekend where I will see if an apple will be better suited.

I know how to browse safe and usually get one good hit every 1-2 years thru my doings. However for the older generations that don't know much about computers, I find it sad that the internet destroys peoples hard earned dollars.

 

[speg]

Hehe, that's why I've converted most of my family and friends to Apple. No more problems. Still though, I just installed Ubuntu on an old box I brought back to life and have been pretty impressed. It's worth considering.

 

[TheStu]

I have tried Ubuntu half a dozen times, and it just isn't for me. Apple is close enough to the Windows paradigm (installing items, file structure, that sort of stuff) and enough software is on both that transitioning between the two is not that much of a 'shock' as it were. Ubuntu, and really Linux in general, is too much of a reworking for most people I think.

 

[Compman55]

That and my hardware on any of my boxes were never compatible. Nor was I able to learn how to write or convert windows drivers. Looks cool enough, but I never liked computer programming, and quite frankly that is what is needed to work with this OS.

 

[Compman55]

Sorry for bringing this thread back, but I was looking at some G5 systems and the quad core G5 CPU's that are water cooled. Why are these so slow at flash and other things mentioned? They look like they could run a space station......

So in essence, a new intel core 2 duo would blow those out of the water?

 

[TheStu]

Sorry for bringing this thread back, but I was looking at some G5 systems and the quad core G5 CPU's that are water cooled. Why are these so slow at flash and other things mentioned? They look like they could run a space station......

So in essence, a new intel core 2 duo would blow those out of the water?

My 1.83 GHz Core Duo marked higher in benchmarks than any PowerPC except the quad 2.7GHz G5. Trust me, the Core 2 Duo is better in everything except perhaps highly PowerPC optimized, multithreaded applications. Of which there are not that many.