Yosemite osx on the iMac Retina

FG-administator · Post by **FG-administator** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 2:40 pm

I bought an iMac Retina, if that's what they're called, this week, and it came with osx installed. While I bought the hardware in order to run a particular package, DaVinci Resolve, I do think I ought to become competent with the operating system. The last Mac I touched had OS9 on it - this was about twelve years ago - and I still shudder at the recollection.

Having unboxed and powered up, I spent around three hours tentatively exploring the application dock. I do hope I get the terminology right, it matters. I found a half-hearted configuration app which allowed me to speed the mouse response from its default crawl across the screen. That was about all I achieved in those three hours.

Where is a display of my hard drive directories, I wondered. There are a half million files on this dog of a system and I can see absolutely none of them.

I googled and found a way to turn on the missing areas of the finder app. My hard drive appeared. I still have no idea at all how to change file permissions yet but at least I can see the files. There appears to be a concept of read access, write access, my own user and staff and then everyone. Is "staff" meant to correspond to my local Group?

This user interface is the most childishly half-cocked waste of pixels I ever hope to encounter. I have installed the application I bought the computer for, I've also installed Oracle's VirtualBox for absolutely everything else I might run on this hardware. Apple's osx is a demented nightmare, nobody should have to spend their first day getting so little feedback on how to do everyday tasks.

If I ever get any less annoyed, I'll let you know. The name of the operating system appears to be an in-joke bit of Jew-baiting, the "App" app brings up an entirely Christian-focused succession of Bible Study packages... who are these weirdo graphics designer next-gen Steve Jobs wannabees that think such unprofessional high-jinks have a place in what's obviously a world-class piece of hardware? Why do they do it?

Wandrin · Post by **Wandrin** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 3:56 pm

This release (Yosemite) is named for the most famous National Park in California. The previous release (Mavericks) was named for a famous surfing spot. I have never seen any Bible study apps in an OS/X release. That sounds very strange.

Under the UI, there is a very solid implementation of unix. I'm an old unix guy, so to tweak permissions and do other setup I just open a command line window. There are a couple of free (or cheap) apps that will handle a lot of the UI configuration easily. I'll look around and see who has a Yosemite version out.

Congrats on a great system. I have a pre-Retina iMac on my desk and have been drooling over the reviews of the Retina (I have a Retina MacBook Pro, as well).

FG-administator · Post by **FG-administator** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 4:25 pm

I'm comfortable with BSD derivatives and I've certainly been using the command line as a fallback - the first thing I installed was the Mac binary for Midnight Commander, for instance. It was the UI that I criticized, not the underlying operating system. With Slackware, for example, I get a choice of a dozen UIs. Apple by contrast seem not to want me to run Xfce.

Naming the OS "for the most famous National Park in California" strikes me as merely an excuse to use the words "Yo! Semite!" in public and get away with it - Woody Allen's "Jew eat yet?" sketch in Annie Hall is along the same line. This is a worldwide computer and few people outside of the USA have a clue that the national park exists, much less how it might be pronounced by Californians. Jew get it yet?

I attach No.8 of the current "top free reference apps" in the App app - it's not exactly a screen shot, it's a screen photo because I don't yet know where the screen capture app lives. It's a Bible Study tool and it's what caught my eye and gave rise to the OP comment. Digging a little gave me the second photo. Christianity may be a minority world religion but by Christ the people at Apple are keen to cram it down the world's throat whether we like it or not. It's undignified but it's there on the desktop as part of the OS.

What I'd like to do is feel comfortable with the security aspects of the system and, with that App app on my dock, I honestly don't so far.

Attached files

Bruv · Post by **Bruv** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 4:26 pm

I am waiting for the English translation of that post before I can reply.

But seriously I just took a peek at the Retina thingy and drooled, you have to hand it to those Apple people..........they are going to rule the world one day anyway.....so resistance is futile. I am probably better than average total amateur, who's technical ability is only down to repeated trial and error, I know very few technical terms, only managing to limp around a PC without doing major damage. Only go back as far as Win 98 and got off Windows at XP and into Open Source, which had tempted me for a long time. As you might know on Ubuntu full time these days, but mainly only for letter writing and simple stuff plus surfing the net.

Now...........my missus has a little Ipad Air and it frustrates and fascinates me, it starts up as fast as lightening. It works brilliantly at what it does but........unlike other OS's I can't find my way around it, you just can't see under the bonnet, not that I want to tinker. It all seems so super smooth, so polished, so packaged.......to be brutally honest......so over bloody priced.

Hope this new toy does everything you want and more.

FG-administator · Post by **FG-administator** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 4:49 pm

Bruv;1467046 wrote: Hope this new toy does everything you want and more.

I'm sure it will, I know what I got it for and all I need do is learn how to use this Australian video editing package. With the jog shuttle I also bought. The kit's ideal for making full-HD films and by golly I'm going to give it a go over the next couple of years, learning on the job.

The funniest side to getting this system? It's far and away the cheapest that will do the job properly, all the PC-box answers or the Mac Pro plus monitor cost at least twice as much if they claim to colour-match adequately. If anyone had ever predicted I'd buy Apple kit because it was cost-effective I'd have laughed fit to bust but there it is. 4-core, 4GHz, 3TB of hybrid disk, 32MB and a 3.5Tflop GPU, and no sound whatever that I can tell. Surely there's a fan in there, but I can't hear it if there is.

Wandrin · Post by **Wandrin** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 4:53 pm

FG;1467045 wrote: I'm comfortable with BSD derivatives and I've certainly been using the command line as a fallback - the first thing I installed was the Mac binary for Midnight Commander, for instance. It was the UI that I criticized, not the underlying operating system. With Slackware, for example, I get a choice of a dozen UIs. Apple by contrast seem not to want me to run Xfce.

Naming the OS "for the most famous National Park in California" strikes me as merely an excuse to use the words "Yo! Semite!" in public and get away with it - Woody Allen's "Jew eat yet?" sketch in Annie Hall is along the same line. This is a worldwide computer and few people outside of the USA have a clue that the national park exists, much less how it might be pronounced by Californians. Jew get it yet?

I attach No.8 of the current "top free reference apps" in the App app - it's not exactly a screen shot, it's a screen photo because I don't yet know where the screen capture app lives. It's a Bible Study tool and it's what caught my eye and gave rise to the OP comment. Digging a little gave me the second photo. Christianity may be a minority world religion but by Christ the people at Apple are keen to cram it down the world's throat whether we like it or not. It's undignified but it's there on the desktop as part of the OS.

What I'd like to do is feel comfortable with the security aspects of the system and, with that App app on my dock, I honestly don't so far.

Okay, I understand a bit better now. The Bible study stuff is available through the app store, with all of the other 3rd party apps you can buy or get for free. Don't buy/install anything you don't want. Nothing from the app store gets installed unless you choose to install it, provide your Apple ID and password, etc.

FG-administator · Post by **FG-administator** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:07 pm

The App app appears to be similar in concept to a Play Store or whatever the iPhone has instead of a Play Store - possibly, in reflection, an App app. The idea that I might allow any of its contents onto my machine and grant it permission to access any of my data is risible. If I can delete the App app from the dock and refuse to provide the system with a password to any Apple web presence then I shall feel more in control. Switching off the WiFi and Bluetooth would help as well. I deliberately got a wired keyboard and plugged in a Microsoft Optical Mouse, I dislike unwired connections.

I have a hideous suspicion that this machine is trying to echo my files and configuration and contents index into an offsite file archive.

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:11 pm

As far as I'm concerned, the best Bible Study name for Apple is "Sodom". I hate, with a passion, anything that begins with a lower case 'i'.

So long as they go out of their way to ensure that their systems are incompatible with the rest of the market, I see them as being to be avoided at all costs. After all - buying a computer because of wanting to run a single piece of software??? Surely there has to be either Windows compatible versions or, better still, a totally different program that runs on any make or model that isn't Apple.

FG-administator · Post by **FG-administator** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:15 pm

FourPart;1467051 wrote: As far as I'm concerned, the best Bible Study name for Apple is "Sodom". I hate, with a passion, anything that begins with a lower case 'i'.

So long as they go out of their way to ensure that their systems are incompatible with the rest of the market, I see them as being to be avoided at all costs. After all - buying a computer because of wanting to run a single piece of software??? Surely there has to be either Windows compatible versions or, better still, a totally different program that runs on any make or model that isn't Apple.

It's the hardware which makes this thing so special. I want to run a non-linear video editor that can take 50Mbit/sec full HD imagery and colour-correct it in real-time, with an option of upgrading to 4k or Full-HD-Raw without buying anything new. My camera takes 50Mbit/sec full HD imagery and the Atomos Ninja Blade I use with it as a monitor captures 10-bit full-HD-raw. The program I selected is one of several that could do the job, but this hardware is far and away the cheapest to handle the processing and let me see the result as it runs. DaVinci Resolve does indeed have Microsoft and Linux versions too and I could have used any hardware that was up to the demand.

"Buying a computer because of wanting to run a single piece of software" is how I was brought up. Firstly you select the software you want to run, then you find hardware capable of running it. Few people do things in the logical order and I never really understood why.

FourPart · Post by **FourPart** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:29 pm

The hardware is not the problem. It's the software. Remember the OS itself is only Software.

TBH, I have no problems with their hardware - it's the operating systems & their policy of non-compatibility that bugs me.

FG-administator · Post by **FG-administator** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:45 pm

FourPart;1467055 wrote: TBH, I have no problems with their hardware - it's the operating systems & their policy of non-compatibility that bugs me.

I can install any alternative operating system I want, as a Virtual Machine inside the free Oracle VirtualBox handler. I can run the osx version of the video editing package for efficient use of the system, but I can run Windows 8.1, say, at 2560x1440, on one side of the screen and Debian Linux, say, at the same resolution on the other side of the screen, and the windows wouldn't even overlap. All my applications other than the primary one of video editing can be in those virtual machines, the browser and Libreoffice and mp3tag and vlc - the Apple osx simply doesn't see them at all. It doesn't stop me from using them on this hardware. Where does that leave non-compatibility as an issue? It seems to me to be obsolete, I can't see how it applies.

Wandrin · Post by **Wandrin** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:55 pm

The app store is how you'll get os and app updates, so be careful about deleting the app. It is easy enough to remove from the dock.. In system preferences, make sure to set iCloud for no automatic backups or sharing. Also turn off remote login or access and remote file sharing. For software updates, set to manual - no automatic updates. It will then ask you about each update when they become available. You definitely want to avoid the situation where there is an update to the os before Resolve says it is tested on that version. You may or may not want to set up keychain so that it doesn't automatically save passwords.

If you are worried about security from some app or process on your system, there is an app named Little Snitch that logs every network message originating on your computer.

FG-administator · Post by **FG-administator** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 6:00 pm

Wandrin;1467059 wrote: The app store is how you'll get os and app updates, so be careful about deleting the app. It is easy enough to remove from the dock.. In system preferences, make sure to set iCloud for no automatic backups or sharing. Also turn off remote login or access and remote file sharing. For software updates, set to manual - no automatic updates. It will then ask you about each update when they become available. You definitely want to avoid the situation where there is an update to the os before Resolve says it is tested on that version. You may or may not want to set up keychain so that it doesn't automatically save passwords.

If you are worried about security from some app or process on your system, there is an app named Little Snitch that logs every network message originating on your computer.
Those are all ideally helpful suggestions and exactly what I need to hear in order to take charge. It would have taken me days before I got that far. Thank you.

Wandrin · Post by **Wandrin** » Fri Oct 31, 2014 8:23 pm

FG;1467057 wrote: I can install any alternative operating system I want, as a Virtual Machine inside the free Oracle VirtualBox handler. I can run the osx version of the video editing package for efficient use of the system, but I can run Windows 8.1, say, at 2560x1440, on one side of the screen and Debian Linux, say, at the same resolution on the other side of the screen, and the windows wouldn't even overlap. All my applications other than the primary one of video editing can be in those virtual machines, the browser and Libreoffice and mp3tag and vlc - the Apple osx simply doesn't see them at all. It doesn't stop me from using them on this hardware. Where does that leave non-compatibility as an issue? It seems to me to be obsolete, I can't see how it applies.

I do a similar thing except I use Parallels. In one of its modes I can cut and paste between OS/X, Windows, and Linux apps. I also set it up so there is a shared directory that each of them see.

Wandrin · Post by **Wandrin** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:21 pm

TinkerTool is a handy/easy way to set a lot of preferences in multiple areas of the UI without having to navigate the individual config files on the command line. It has items such as having Finder display the unix path to the current selection, disabling animation when opening windows, turn on expanded "save menu" items, enable the debug menu in Disk Utility, etc.

I have used it for many versions of the os for years and can vouch for it being safe.

TinkerTool: Details

FG-administator · Post by **FG-administator** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 5:15 pm

A few notes on how I'm getting along.

I found a surprising site at https://www.modern.ie/en-gb/virtualization-tools which allows anyone to install Win8 or Win7 as a virtual system on their local computer, with no license fee, without breaking any Microsoft license condition. The Win7 system is the one I've gone with, it has a 1-year life after which it needs reinstalling from scratch. I invariably reinstall any operating system from scratch at least once a year just to clean up the accumulated uncertainties, so that's no headache.

I've left the 3TB drive unencrypted, for speed. I have one virtual computer fully encrypted with LVM and crypt-setup and that's where all my confidential files are kept. I have bidirectional copy-paste enabled to export passwords on the fly if I need them elsewhere. That secure virtual machine is running Slackware, since I feel comfortable configuring it.

I've banned every Adobe product from all the machines in the computer, virtual or real, and that especially includes Flashplayer and Reader. Both have gone so wrong so badly so often in terms of vulnerabilities and deliberate nastiness that I feel I have no rational choice in the matter. I trust Adobe products to be entirely on my side about as far as I can spit into a howling gale. I don't need them, I won't give them house room.

I'm getting on quite well with the non-linear video editing under osx, it feels usable. The only other package I have on osx is vlc to play video files, and a torrent client, and a browser. It seems silly to play videos on a less efficient virtual display rather than the native osx driver.

I'm running BlackMagic Fusion under Windows7, since it has no Linux or Mac version at the moment, and it has access to the whole drive using a share. Any other windows software I want to use, like Mp3tag or Ahnenblatt, I'm running under Wine where I can keep an eye on what it's up to, rather than inside Win7 where I haven't a clue.

Most of the rest of my time at the keyboard is in fullscreen Slackware, though I've never seen it with so much display before. Switching between the assorted operating systems is trivially simple. I still can't quite believe the hardware exists, it's an astounding desktop computer.

The only aspect I've had to consciously work out is which operating system to allow to update the system clock, I don't want more than one of them fighting it out between them. I can't recall what I decided but I expect it's osx doing the job.

Bruv · Post by **Bruv** » Wed Nov 26, 2014 8:26 am

I am happy for you.........seriously.

You lost me several posts ago.