Jumping on the MBA train...

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W.Feather

[H]ard DCOTM x4 & [H]DCOTY x1
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Nov 10, 2009
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Picked up a 13.3" MBA 8gb RAM 256GB SSD for $1175 out the door, cant find a PC based equivalent that matches it in specs and price .... hell of an upgrade from my HP 2740p (i7-620m, 8gb , 80gb ssd...4 yrs old) that is on its last legs....

So im wondering what should I look at getting, both peripherals and software, coming from windows 7/8/8.1 and im a bit of a "power" users.....And an engineering major (Going to need to RDP into home for stuff, did that anyhow). I have absolutely no knowledge of OSX so i dont know what to look for at all....I do have Xubuntu experience....

Also if im looking to run a 2nd OS (probably an Arch install), whats the best way? Bootcamp (Thats at least the buzz word I know!).

Thanks for any input guys.
 
Rather than dual-booting, I'd highly recommend running your alternate operating systems in virtual machines. No other OS has the power management of OS X, so you will lose battery life by running any other OS as primary, and performance in a virtual machine is usually 90-100% of native, depending on what you are doing. I run Windows Server 2012 R2 and Arch in VMWare all day on my iMac at work and seamlessly move between all of them depending on the task at hand.

If you're used to Linux, the vast majority of your open source tools that do not require an X server can be easily compiled right in OS X with XCode installed. Fink, MacPorts and Homebrew can all expedite this process.
 
I did the same thing late 2012. First foray into OS X and I jumped all the hurdles you're looking at. I've been running different Linux OS's as well as Windows 8 via VM (I've been using Parallels and can't complain too much). Personally I think it's a lot better than dual booting as you can access both OS's at the same time, which is extremely important for my typical work load.

I have MS Office 2011 installed as I need it to stay compatible with my coworkers and customers. With that you get a RDP tool which works in a pinch. Otherwise, I use TeamViewer for remote management into just about anything else (my home server and desktop pc, as well as friends/family).
 
Is there a good RDP client though, not essential, but I'd rather use what I have setup already to connect to my server when needing to do heavy lifting.....

Suggestions on where to look for the must have tweaks / software that are just damn nifty to have?

Thanks for the info so far, keep it coming,
 
W.Feather said:
Is there a good RDP client though, not essential, but I'd rather use what I have setup already to connect to my server when needing to do heavy lifting.....

Suggestions on where to look for the must have tweaks / software that are just damn nifty to have?

Thanks for the info so far, keep it coming,
Click to expand...

There's an official RDP client in the App Store that works pretty well. Microsoft just recently overhauled the old version that comes with Office 2011, which was crappy. The new one supports full protocol encryption and such.
 
CEpeep said:
There's an official RDP client in the App Store that works pretty well. Microsoft just recently overhauled the old version that comes with Office 2011, which was crappy. The new one supports full protocol encryption and such.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes it was. I'll have to check out the new version myself.
 
it's tremendously better now. it finally replaced cord for me
 
W.Feather said:
Is there a good RDP client though, not essential, but I'd rather use what I have setup already to connect to my server when needing to do heavy lifting.....

Suggestions on where to look for the must have tweaks / software that are just damn nifty to have?

Thanks for the info so far, keep it coming,
Click to expand...

Most likely the software I would suggest wouldn't line up with your major. Although this may or may not be useful to you.

Aggregate Devices & Multiple output devices to record System Audio with Quicktime and Soundflower.

Create and mount RAMDISK for Chrome's cache script

Save Text As Audio with Automator

You might want to familiarize with Automator in general






The following via terminal

Rebuild Spotlight
Code: 
$ sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/DriveName

Show Hidden Files and Folders
Code: 
$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE
Code: 
$ killall Finder

Change Screenshot format
Code: 
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg
Code: 
killall SystemUIServer
 
Just got it in today, and its pretty nice, getting warm with all the DL's going on i can say, knew that going in...


Anyhow, looking to get it setup to use control rather than cmd (Would rather not have to use two separate standards for this), and a gesture based for swapping tabs in a window (found "nexTab"), is HyperDock the best choice for snap tools?
 
Sweet, swapped and loving it. Looking to do tab switching soon, cant find a way to get a gesture i like in BTT, just swiping across the top of the pad would be ideal IMO, any thoughts on this?
 
I'm ready to jump to an MBA, but am addicted to my rMBP's screen resolution. I hope the next MBA refresh offers at least 1920x1200.
 
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