Setting Up Mac OS X for a Teenage Coffeehouse? 348
WCityMike writes "I plan to donate a grape iMac to a local church-run non-profit coffeehouse for teenagers, and would like to give it to them appropriately set up for the atmosphere it'll be in. I'm seeking advice on a number of fronts - what freeware or shareware applications would be good for such an environment? Should visitors be allowed to have their own accounts (presumably created by the administrator), or should I just set up one 'student' account and one 'administrator' account? If the latter, is there a way to prevent students from saving things on the hard drive (thus forcing them to use a diskette and/or the CD drive?), and/or a 'Simple Finder' interface extant for OS X? Is there existing software that makes this easier or more configurable, or is it all inside the OS? I'm fairly familiar with Mac OS X, but have never needed to run anything outside a single-user environment."
A great act of kindness! (Score:5, Informative)
I would set up an admin account and several "template" accounts based on different types of usage such as "internet only," "power user," etc. You get the idea.
I would then train someone within the organization on how to setup, modify, and maintain the accounts (unless that is going to be you.).
Once again, your generosity of money and time is commendable.
Happy Trails!
Erick
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:5, Insightful)
I would then train someone within the organization on how to setup, modify, and maintain the accounts (unless that is going to be you.).
That's key--I would make it a condition of the donation, unless you want to spend a lot more time re-jiggering that computer later. I can guarantee that even if they know what they want to do with it now, they'll come up with something different/additional within a month.
Better off teaching them to fish.
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:2, Informative)
Here is what I did to make sure 6 PC are running reliabily in my former high scool:
- created 'student' account
- created backup of clean
- created a small boot script that was purging and reverting from backup copy of
Additionally I had a remote users database and home directories via NIS and NFS.
So, my advice is: k
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:4, Interesting)
As for the Mac... maybe you can set up a portal for your group. Either have it locally hosted on the Apache server on the Mac, or on the web. Safari can go to that page on startup. I don't know what you might want on it, but it's an option. Mine's [fycfreefall.org] pointing to a forum where people can leave messages right now... soon it'll have a link to pictures of the group.
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:5, Informative)
In the Users pane of System Prefs you can create a student account and then click on capabilities and pretty much block them out of everything.
In our OSX lab, we don't let them burn cds or open most of the utilites (including system prefs). They can't run most of the programs that came with OSX, like iMovie or the Address book. We just set up a new cafe image with only a browser and the most popular chat clients in the dock, and then turned off that user's ability to change the dock. The "Cafe" user only has the capability to run those programs. Simple Finder is also a good idea.
Once, we accidentally left some of the system prefs access on and the machine had a new desktop background within hours. People, especially teenagers will want to push the rules just as far as they can, you have to lock them out of as much as possible.
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:3, Interesting)
When I was in high school, it was pretty common for people to type obscenities into the scrolling marquee screensaver. We eventually got blocked out of changing screensavers, and then desktops/resolution size, and then IE's homepage, etc.
You do, however, have to be willing to take suggestions from the kids that will be using it. If they're locked out of a certain utility that they need/want to use, you should be
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:4, Insightful)
i was in college today, and the machine i was on had a res of 640x480
fortunately it has a vb compiler and the restriction on resultion in NT doesn't work if you use API calls. hooray for the only 1024x768 res in the room.
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:2, Insightful)
That's why I hated school.
(Score:5, Informative)
That's why I view Slashdot as little more than entertainment.
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:2)
I would say that kids bringing in CDs and ripping them to the computer lab's drive for in-lab listening would be under fair use. It'd be like a kid borrowing a friend's CD for a car trip, even though the music is on the friend's computer. They're not taking a copy for themselves to keep, they're just listening to it while they're in the lab (or in the car).
The original poster doesn't say if those
What I would do (Score:2, Informative)
If you have a budget and some time to learn, creating a Disk Image on a Firewire drive would be a great idea. Basically: Get everything working perfectly, make a disk image of the system, store it on the firewire drive a
Re:What I would do (Score:4, Informative)
(tig)
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is way OT (go, go gadget karma!), but couldn't the same thing be said about politics, or any strongly-held belief?
Is it at all reasonable to expect that what people believe will not affect what they do in the public sphere?
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, that was the point. He's taking what the religious nuts say about (for example) homosexuality and turning it back at them, showing that the comments they direct at others could just as easily be applied to them.
Re:A great act of kindness! (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank you. I'm sick and tired of all these atheists and their sympathizers forcing their beliefs (or lack thereof) on others. If they don't believe in God, why don't they just shut up and believe what they believe (or don't) privately instead of evangelizing it all over the place to the point where atheism is - gasp! - a de facto religion.
Don't you atheists hate it when someone turns your empty and bogus arguments against you?
I'll tell you a few things. First, nothing in the constitution says anyone has a right not to be offended, so if militant homosexuals can march in gay pride parades dressed as nuns and we Christians just have to shut up and take it because they are exercising their right to free speech, when we evangelize and preach the gospel of the Risen Christ, Savior of the world, you are going to just shut up and take it while we exercise our constitutional right to free speech. Who knows? A few of you might even be saved.
There are things that we all would be quite happy to see people shut up and not talk about. I don't like Nazis and what they say. I wish they'd shut up and go away. I dislike the KKK just as much. My wife isn't white and our children are half-white and half not, and they would say their is something wrong with me and them for that.
I don't like liberals who throw around the word Nazi as a term of derision for anyone they don't like and/or disagree with. It profanes what the millions of Jews and others suffered at the hands of real Nazis. I don't like conservatives who throw around the word communist about anyone they disagree with or don't like. It profanes what even greater numbers of people suffered at the hands of communist despots like Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. There are real Communists and real Nazis out there, and we need to reserve those epithets for them.
I have a whole laundry list of words and thoughts I wish people would never say and never think. Those of you who disagree with me probably have a different but similarly long list of your own, and you don't like it when you hear people say that President Bush is a good and honest man and Saddam Hussein was and is an evil and dishonest one and the United States, Iraq, and the entire world are better off with him in a prison cell and Iraq on track for true sovereignty and free elections. It's funny that people like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, who were true liberals, have the most in common not with those who today call themselves liberals, but who call themselves conservatives. Most liberals have far more beliefs in common with dictators of the left or right (but mostly of the left) than they do with Washington, Jefferson, or any other true liberals. And I bet that truth hurts and you wish I'd shut up and not say it.
Tough. If you don't like freedom of speech, go move to some country that doesn't have it, and don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way out. Just be sure you pick one that suppresses the kind of speech you don't like and allows that kind that you do, and hope they never change their minds on that and throw you in jail for speaking. Freedom of speech does not mean that you can say anything you want, while others have to shut theirs mouths and agree with you, or at least shut their mouths. You may not like to hear people talk about God in public, but it's their right. Live with it.
Finally, a word about "Forcing beliefs on others." A person speaking about God in a public place is forcing no belief on anyone. Indeed, that sort of thing usually comes from the left. Examples? Barring students from exercising their constitutional right to pray at school because you don't like it. "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or restricting the free exercise thereof." Most of you on the left like to pretend
Mac OS X Hints (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Mac OS X Hints (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Mac OS X Hints (Score:2)
There are no PowerPC binaries at that site. The images are from a computer that is using a theme on Linux that looks like Mac OS X's Aqua interface. Even if the Open Kiosk stuff could just be re-compiled for Mac OS X it would still probably take a lot more work than any person would do for a single computer.
Now if you had a lab full of computers...
Apple's OS X Kiosk Technote (Score:3, Informative)
Mac OS X Labs Deployment Project (Score:3, Informative)
Image it before you turn everyone loose! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Image it before you turn everyone loose! (Score:2)
Apple does it... (Score:5, Informative)
I've noticed that every night at closing time, a cron job or something fires off and all the machines put up a screen saying something like "Updating from image" and are evidently reloading themselves from a saved image to overcome the day's fiddling and messing up by customers.
Re:Apple does it... (Score:3, Informative)
The Apple Store computers are set up with two partitions. One is hidden and contains the ASR (Apple Software Restore) image, while the other is the normal boot partition. They're setup to image at some point from their hidden partition. I'm sure they also have a FireWire disk with the image when someone hoses the computer totally. (No, I don't work there, just poked around one day :))
Some info on deploying OS X ASR images: http://www.bombich.com/mactips/asrx-original.html [bombich.com]
We use ASR to image the base machi
Re:Image it before you turn everyone loose! (Score:2)
Mac OS X does support limits. (Score:5, Informative)
You can prevent them from rearranging the desktop, writing to any folder except their own in the /Users/ directory, and taking off/putting stuff onto the dock. At a lab that I administered for a while, I just put a student and admin account on each computer, and it worked well. The users were able to use applications like InDesign and Photoshop perfectly, and they kept their files on USB flash drives.
Re:Mac OS X does support limits. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Mac OS X does support limits. (Score:2)
To do this, first enable the root account via NetInfo Manager application. (Applications/Utilities). In 10.2, you choose "Enable Root User" from the Security menu. Then you have to set a root password. It is similar in 10.3. Then, at the login window, you choose "Other" and then type "root" as the username along with the root password. Presto, you are now logged
Take a look at (Score:5, Informative)
Aside from some software tweaking and installation, this should really help your setup.
Look at the Accounts preference (Score:4, Informative)
macosxlabs.org (Score:5, Informative)
http://macosxlabs.org/ [macosxlabs.org]
Good intentions misplaced (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good intentions misplaced (Score:5, Funny)
It's nothing that a good lick of paint won't fix.
Re:Good intentions misplaced (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Good intentions misplaced (Score:2, Funny)
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:3, Funny)
oops, hell's calling. bbiab
Simple Finder (Score:2, Informative)
-Ian
Word of advice (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Word of advice (Score:2)
Re:Word of advice (Score:2)
Reboot!
Re:Word of advice (Score:2)
Who cares? The real question is, "What would Steve Jobs do?"
You think that's funny, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Check this out [jesussave.us]
Nah, it's a spoof (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry if I led anyone to actually believe that - it's a spoof, as described here [infoworld.com].
But it's a damned good spoof, and has "gotten" a few people, not to mention the Register and infoworld, as mentioned in the linked article.
Seems simple (Score:2)
-Erwos
Re:Seems simple (Score:2)
Not sure how to do that on OS X, but it's a BSD so probably ipf or ipfw rules.
I would install fink on the box for sure though. Most of your favourite *nix sysadmin tools are either preinstalled on OS X or available through fink; it will help fill in the gaps in a big way.
Accounts (Score:4, Insightful)
Tips (Score:2)
Mac OS X Labs (Score:4, Informative)
If anyone would have info on locking down a system they would.
Lock .plist files (Score:2, Informative)
A few questions and comments (Score:4, Informative)
Knoppix (Score:3, Informative)
They can listen to their music, compose documents (OO), browse the web with flash, install plugins for firefox (granted its linux so they cant install much), etc. Plus, some of the older kids even like to mess around in linux to learn it a bit. They can do anything that they need to, and the best part: no matter what, when they reboot the computer is back to normal.
I've seen similar windows software (fortess, deep freeze), but they all resulted in crippled systems (fortress wouldnt let you right click because then you could potentially disable the program). I also was able to get around deep freeze in high school in about 30 minutes, and Im sure some smart student can bypass fortress if they truly wanted to (it was not used when i was in school). Knoppix, however, is not subject to such vulnerabilities and provides more functionality. Plus, its free and 3rd party apps can cost a heapload.
Seriously, if you're doing a project like this guy with x86's, at least consider knoppix as an option. It really does have a lot of pro's.
Re:Knoppix (Score:2, Informative)
The only problem with a liveCD is that the CD drive is the only removable media the iMac had, and the students will not be able to play music on it.
There is also a way to get around booting into knoppix. You can start it up in OpenFirmWare and eject the CD
visitor account + backup & revert home folder (Score:2)
I would create a restricted 'visitor' account (see Accounts pane in the preferences), and back up the account's home folder on each machine (or simply once, centrally). Then run a nightly script to revert the home folder to it's original state. That's better than disallowing write access completely -- it is very useful if a user wants to download some file (which always goes to the desktop by default) - and maybe print / burn / e-mail it!
The user configuration (i.e. the fact that th
OSX Kiosk Program (Score:5, Informative)
I have never used it. But here is an application to make it into a kiosk. Good Luck.
http://www.ncsu.edu/mac/software/webXkiosk.html [ncsu.edu]-Adam
Add some sort of movement detector (Score:4, Funny)
reload HD image (Score:2)
But one of the easiest ways I found to fix problems is to give the caretaker a CD with a preset image of the HD. If something gets fubar, they just have to boot off the CD and it will reimage the OS back to the original state. Since it's a shared computer, nothing valuable should be stored on it anyway.
Same Deal at our Library (Score:5, Informative)
I have basically done the same thing with 4 iMacs (233Mhz 320mb RAM)I donated to my local public library. They are used as internet/office/iTunes/AIM stations in a young adults room (grades 4-9). They are currently running 10.3.4 with shadow killer (a MUST for older machines running 10.x. Found at http://www.haxies.com ).
I set mine up with an Admin account (named staff) and a simple finder account (named student). Just go into the UserAccount section of system preferences, set the account you want limited to "simple finder" and limit what else you don't want them to have access to. It is also handy to give them a little bit of space to use for autosave in office and such (or scratch disks in Photoshop).
I have attempted to do similar limitations for the Windows XP computers in the adult section of the library (Using XP Security Console plug-in by Doug Knox), but have had nowhere near the success as I have had with the Macs. They have been running for a year now with ZERO down time.
Good Luck!!
Re:Same Deal at our Library (Score:2)
Wow, you have an adult section in your library? Is is blocked by a curtain so under-aged people can't see what's inside?
Oh and what town do you live in again?
Tar (Score:3, Insightful)
One Word: DriveShield (Score:5, Informative)
Pick up a copy a copy of DriveShield [centuriontech.com] for the Mac, and allow the students to do whatever they wish to it.
DriveShield is a driver that sits between the hard drive and the OS. Any writes made to the hard drive are redirected into a sratch area of the hard drive, and thus don't stick around for the next reboot. The machine will be back in the state it was in when it was locked on every reboot.
I've tested it by even booting off a System CD and reformatting the drive... on the next reboot it comes right back to how you expect!
The philosophy used to be to lock the machine down as tight as possible to prevent the users from making any changes to it. (Restricted Finder, Windows Policies, etc.) Products like DriveShield (DeepFreeze is another one) work differently -- they don't lock down the machine to the user at all, they just prevent any changes from sticking across a reboot.
Protect the machine with DriveShield (or something similar), and have all the kids log in as the admin. Quick and easy to do, and the kids don't have to be restricted to a limited set of options on the computer!
We've been using this technique in several of our schools now (only in the open labs, mind you -- not the staff computers!), and the only support calls we now recieve in those labs is for hardware problems, not software.
- Bunny
Re:One Word: DriveShield (Score:2)
How does this interact with 10.3's hot file clustering and on-the-fly defrag? It sounds like the results would be pessimal.
No prob. (Score:5, Informative)
Simple Finder is an incredible pain in the ass and confuses the hell out of Windows users. My girlfriend is largely computer-illiterate (she's memorized the motions and screen locations needed to operate Office, but not much else). I set up a limited account on my iBook because she couldn't seen to get to the web browser without dragging my Terminal icon off the dock. But that's a diatribe for another time.
I set up Simple Finder. No good. I can't blame her -- I couldn't really figure out how to get much actual work done with it.
In the end, I've been using a straight Limited Account for my Guest acct on the laptop, with much success. MacOS X already does a good job of keeping users out of one anothers' stuff, by properly setting homedir modes and whatnot. I've been working for a couple of weeks to bypass the Limited Account limitations, without luck. If you declare that the user cannot run a particular application, I haven't figured out a way around it that doesn't require admin.
However, unlike my experience with Windows, a limited account on OS X is still quite usable. Programs don't automatically expect to have root, and aren't able to sneak off and get it without asking (*cough*WinIE*cough*). If the need arises, the Auth Services password-dialog provides a way for an employee to work magic if necessary.
My recommendations, therefore:
1. Set up a 'Managed' account for the coffee people. Don't do per-user accounts unless you want to set up an LDAP server to handle it; cloning account settings on a single-user MacOS X system is a bitch. Retain an admin account for the employees.
2. Whitelist, not blacklist, the apps the user can run. Give them access to Safari and whatever else. Don't let them dork with the dock, etc. Specifically allowing access to a handful of apps will prevent them from firing up a new one from a USB key. Because they'll try. Oh, they'll try.
3. Unfortunately, I'd recommend against giving them iChat. iChat, unlike Windows AIM and GAIM, doesn't give you an easy way to switch accounts -- which is a must-have on a public terminal.
4. Lock down the keychain. Set Safari to not save passwords. Locking the keychain (with some known but non-obvious password) will prevent users from saving new items into it. This is a good thing.
5. Giving access to iTunes puts you in an interesting legal gray area. Like iChat, it provides no easy way to change accounts (in terms of iTMS). It also enables users to rip CDs. This may not be a good idea.
6. Unfortunately, OS X does not provide disk quotas, as far as I can tell (please, if someone knows different, clue me in!). The support is there in the filesystem, but there doesn't appear to be a UI. Keep this in mind.
7. As admin, periodically use Repair Permissions in Disk Utility to check for anything that's become accessible to the peons. More importantly, do this after you're done with the initial software install -- you'd be amazed at how much commercial software starts out world-writeable. (Bad Adobe.)
Good luck!
What I did. (Score:4, Informative)
You can lock down alot of things inside the users preferences. For example, you can specify that they are not allowed to changed any system settings (including those that would only effect their account like wallpaper), which applications they are allowed to run, and whether they can edit the doc. I locked all of these down, disallowing running the chat application and other things that they didn't need to be doing in class. I also locked down the terminal and disallowed >console login to prevent them from getting around what I had locked down. Anyway look there before you do anything else.
Not being a networking expert myself I didn't know if it was possible to have the kids logon to the windows domain, and automatically mount a home directory across the network (via smb). Furthermore it would a pain to manually recreate all those users, and I didn't have enough time to make an automated solution from scratch. So instead I just setup a single student account, and then wrote a script to mount thier network directories. I put a shortcut to the script in the doc. I also showed my dad how to create normal accounts, so that if a trustworthy student needs to do more than he can with the locked down student account he could give them an individual account.
For your purposes the big question is do the need to be saving things to the harddrive. If the answer is no (and I would expect it to be since they it is basically acting like a public terminal), just go with a single account. That will suffice for most people, and you can make special accounts for special cases.
As far as locking down the harddrive, by default they are restricted to
Actually I don't even know if it would be possible to completely lock the students out of using the harddrive altogether. Of course it would be trivial to just chown
Anyway I hope that helped.
A Few Potential Problems (Score:5, Funny)
Caffeine is a so-called "gateway drug", which can eventually lead to other things such as juice or even pop. Think twice before unleashing the power of coffee on unsuspecting teenagers. I wish someone had warned me when I was a teen. Look at me now, hanging out on Slashdot all day and drinking coffee*. Don't let it happen again.
If the Church is Amish, there may be problems with the iMac, being high technology and all. If they're against technology, give them an old Windows PC, there's less innovation in Win98 than a rusted salad fork, so it should be acceptable to even the most orthodox old dudes.
If these teenagers are anything like the teens I know, no matter what you do, one of them will have root access before you finish installing. Let them admin it, if you're over 30 they probably know more than you do anyway. It's sad that my non-computer-using wife can give me OS X tips, simply because she doesn't have to unlearn years of Windows and doing things the hard way.
* Even though the link between caffeine and Slashdot hasn't been proven to be cause and effect, empirical analysis supports the hypothesis. So monitor the system for warning signs, such as Slashdot being bookmarked.
Admin and Student Account (Score:2, Insightful)
You specify which applications they are allowed to run through System Preferences, as well as prevent them from changing passwords, burning DVDs/CDs, etc. If you have any kind of proficiency with UNIX, you can prevent them from writing to anything on the hard drive by setting the permissions through t
A few misc. thoughts..... (Score:4, Insightful)
But back to the Mac, have you considered the possibility of just using MacOS 9.1 on the grape iMac instead of OS X? I know this might seem foolish, but I bring it up for a couple reasons.
1. There's an excellent program for locking down a MacOS 9.1 (or earlier) desktop environment, called FoolProof. It's usually used in educational settings, but it's a very flexible way to prevent people from saving files to specific devices, deleting or rearranging icons on the desktop, and so on. (And yes, it even prevents people from trying to bypass it by booting without extensions enabled.) FoolProof is commercial software, but there's a good chance someone might have a copy they're no longer using that they could donate to the cause.
2. MacOS 9.1 would run much faster on an older iMac than OS X does, so it might give a better user experience in that respect.
3. You won't have a great choice of web browsers under MacOS 9.x - but at least you have Internet Explorer 5 for the Mac which was fairly recently patched to fix security issues/bugs, and feels familiar to most users. You also have the iCab browser which could be thrown on there as an alternate.
Might wanna use BumperCar... (Score:3, Interesting)
Check it out here [freeverse.com].
Re:Might wanna use BumperCar... (Score:2)
Are you sure you want them to get to the internet at all? All those ideas, all that porn, all that freedom. Maybe you should just install a nice selection of different [apple.com] bible [applelinks.com] software [com.com]? Oops, the last one accidentally has a couple of non-Christian packages. See what I mean? Dat ol' debbil he hidin' in dat big ol' Internat.
Which grape model? (Score:4, Informative)
If you can, round up one or two sticks of RAM to upgrade the machine to 384 MB or more. If you're going with OS X, try to use 10.3.x, it's much faster than previous versions... not so important for a G4, but for a little G3-based iMac like you have, it will make a big difference.
Mac Kiosk (Score:4, Interesting)
Consider donating an external drive too. (Score:3, Insightful)
Suggestions (Score:4, Insightful)
Logic Game (Score:2)
Re:Logic Game -- Spanish Link (Score:2)
DeepFreeze (Score:3, Informative)
Make it into a public kiosk. (Score:3, Informative)
http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/
Large source of information, links software and more.
I would rather do it with a pc running Netstop, but hay, if your set on a mac, then theres no changing your mind.
imacs are great (Score:2)
seek help (Score:2)
With due respect, from the questions you are asking, you've not spent much or any time using OS X in anything but basic "newbie" user mode and certainly spend about zero time configuring it in any way.
You should donate
church-run non-profit coffeehouse for teenagers? (Score:3, Funny)
Straight porn for the kids, kiddie porn for the church staff.
This is going to cost me some karma, isn't it.
Re:Don't give it to them (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Windows.. (Score:3, Informative)
OK I may be rising to the bait but here goes..... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Windows.. (Score:2, Informative)
In any case, using a Mac isn't rocket science. The "dock" is pretty self explanitory, and for complete newbies you can put shortcuts on the desktop to launch applications. For example, put a Safari shortcut on the desktop and label it "Internet," or a shortcut to iPhoto and call it "Picture Tools."
Maintaining a Mac isn't that ba
Re:Windows.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Bwwwwaaaaahahahahahhahahahahahah!
Okay, sorry. OSX is a much, much, much safer environment for teens to be thrown loose into, than Windows.
I'm not even going to bother with the whole "Virus" thing
Out of the box, you can set up an OSX account that deletes itself at the end of each session and renews the
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Windows.. pfooie (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Windows.. (Score:2, Informative)
People may be more familiar with the use of Windows computers, but they are also more familiar with the abuse of Windows computers. Let the little hax0rs on your PC and see what happens. Yes, you can POLEDIT until your heart's content, until the hax0rs bring in their Linux boot CD with the Windows password cracker on it so they
Re: Windows.. (Score:2)
Re:Windows.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Just a few points:
These are teens we are talking about, not senior citizens. They'll figure it out.
Virus problems solved by Windows??
Windows easier to use than Mac?
What kind of stuff do you think they need to do that will be so confusing on a Mac? A web browser and a word processor would be sufficient and those can only va
Re:Windows.. (Score:2)
Well I guess that you are a bigot then. This is not an opinon but a fact since you judge a whole group of people based on there religous belief.
Re:Flavor? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Here area a bunch of tips for you (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The 1st install should be: (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Seriously (Score:2)
Anything 300+ MHz should be fine for basic X development (although maybe 500+ for Panther).
Floppies? (Score:2)
By default, USB mass storage devices get automounted at /Volumes/ with your basic read/write access enabled anyway on OS X. You shouldn't need to do anything special to enable write access to USB keys.
baaa mod down (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't think of a better way to learn than learning while helping charity. If the OP was doin
Re:baaa mod down (Score:2)
An insecure (read improperly configured) system could be a haven for pirates, porn (kiddi
Re:Freeware (Score:2)
It's funny how "crime" and "babies" have the same inflection in that sentence.