This page is going to be fairly long and not everything may apply to your situation. Just have a browse, read it once and hope that enough sticks in your memory to help you find a solution when a related issue comes up. These are the topics I’ll discuss.

1. 1.Bootcamp - installing Windows on your Mac
   

2. 2.VMWare - tips for creating a virtual image of your PC on your Mac
   

3. 3.Firewire - nobody uses it but Apple
   

4. 4.Backups - how you can make them after all
   

5. 5.Setting up your Mac as a print-server
   

6. 6.Some stuff about iWeb
   

7. 7.When and where to buy
   

Okay, let’s rock:

1. 1.Bootcamp
   

With Bootcamp it is supposedly easy to install Windows on a Mac. Here’s what they DIDN’T tell you.

1. -If there is even the slightest thing wrong with your hard-disk, Bootcamp will abort. First, run disc utility and check your disc. If disc utility finds problems that it can’t fix, boot from the install disc and run it from there. In my case, that helped.
   

2. -If your disc is judged perfectly healthy, you may STILL have problems when Bootcamp tries to partition your disc. In my case, it was because there were some very large files on my disk (VMware images, some movies) and Bootcamp wasn’t able to move them. It doesn’t TELL you that, it just aborts. Get a free demo of iDefrag. That will at least tell you what the biggest files are. Move them to an external disk and try again till it works.
   

3. -You will need a full copy of Windows XP or Vista. The recovery CD that came with your Dell or your Compaq is NOT acceptable. Also, you can’t upgrade the install to a new service pack so get the latest version and get SP 2 at least. (Did you know there are pirated versions of XP out there that don’t even need a serial number? It’s a shame these pirates can get away with that, don’t you think? Damn them and their swedish servers. Incredible, the number of people willing to go the illegal route. I mean, with a torrent swarm of hundreds of people downloading XP can be even faster than burning a copy to CD! Which, by the way, is illegal, ok kids? So don’t do that.) Also, when Bootcamp suggests you print a manual for this procedure, print the damned manual.
   

4. -At some point in the procedure Windows wants to know if it should format the partition or leave it as is. Do a format, quick or full. Don’t pick ‘leave filesystem intact’ or you will be back to square one.
   

2. 2.VMWare
   

VMWare Fusion can easily be obtained in exchange for a bottle of rum and some bandwidth although I’d never do that myself because it is illegal and you will burn in hell. VMWare converter, which you can use to convert your current Windows installation to a VMWare image, is free if you register. I created a virtual copy of my Windows laptop from a Trueimage backup. Worked like charm, took about 90  minutes. Remember that you need to activate that machine with Microsoft, because as far as that installation of Windows is concerned it’s now in an entirely new machine and that triggers the activation procedure. Don’t worry about it, just activate over the Internet. You get a couple of these activations per Windows-version, because after all you are entitled to swap hardware around in your PC. Then, remove any software you no longer need. Oh and if your VMWare-machine crashes, that might be because software for things such as multimedia buttons or other hardware is now looking for stuff that isn’t there anymore. Try booting in safe mode and remove things such as touchpad drivers, eco-mode button controls, etc. If you’re desperate, strip your installation BEFORE you convert it to a virtual machine.

Update: for no reason at all, one of my VMware machines became extremely slow on a machine running OXS Lion. Worked fine on a machine with Snow Leopard, though. I blame VMWare, frankly. What I’m saying here is: your results may vary, but if it works, it works very well indeed.

3. 3.Firewire
   

This interface is largely ignored by the PC world: I only ever used it for my digital videocamera. Apple loves it, though. OSX can boot from external USB discs. You can use the free tool SuperDuper! to clone a disk to an external harddisk and boot from that. Apple support documents frequently mention that you need an external FireWire-drive. (I guess booting from USB is a fairly recent option, I’m only familiar with OSX 10.5 and up.) Those Firewire disks are, you guessed it, expensive. Happily, you don’t really NEED to boot from an external firewire drive just to restore an image. Again, the install disc is your friend. Boot from it, THEN make your disc image backup (use disc utility, it’s built-in) on a USB drive and boot from disc again to restore that image. I’ve never seen a successful image made from OSX that started up from the drive I wanted to copy, so give that up. Boot the install disc with SHIFT, for some reason.

One advantage to FireWire is that it’s fast. Much faster than USB 2.0 At the time of writing, no Macs support USB 3.0 (they can’t boot or shut down when a USB 3.0 drive is connected) so that may be a reason to shell for a Firewire drive. Make sure it comes with the correct cable or connector for your type of Mac. See below:

Apple loves weird Firewire connections. It’s a mess, I haven’t fully figured it out yet but my Mac Mini and my iMac have Firewire 800 whereas my PC had a tiny Firewire 400 connector (like mini-usb) and my external firewire drive had a larger type of firewire connector. (400 comes in 4 and 6 channel versions, something like that.) I say: fuck that, get a USB-drive (2.0) and boot from the install disc if you have to.

4. 4.Backups
   

TimeMachine is the bees knees, apparently. I’ve never used it, I don’t like external harddisks buzzing on my desk all day for no good reason. TimeMachine is fantastic. I love it. Not that I frequently need to retrieve files I deleted weeks ago, but if you have a permanent TimeMachine backup not only can you get back any kind of file but you ALSO have a good image of your machine. AND you can boot from that TimeMachine disk. It’s good stuff. But since I am a pessimist, I also make disc images with the disc utility (also see the section on Firewire on this page) and for my data I have a free account with Idrive. Which is not the same as MobileMe, by the way. You can restore your machine from a TimeMachine drive via the install disc, to the exact point where it went wrong. Sounds good, but I’ve not tested it and I am, frankly, suspicious.

That being said, I also make regular images of my Macs with SuperDuper! which I store on a separate drive. (Exclamation mark is part of the title, I’m not really all that happy about making backups.)

5. 5.Mac as a print server
   

I’ve found my Mac Mini to be a much better print server than either my wireless router OR a dedicated PC. It’s much more forgiving if, for instance, you’ve not yet turned the printer on and have given the print order.
Provided you can get a Mac-driver for your printer, there’s no problem connecting to it from Windows machines if you use the free Bonjour for Windows software. Here’s what you do:

1. -Get your printer to work on your Mac. (Good luck with that. I had to use a different driver for my Samsung ML-2010, the one offered for download on the Samsung site did diddly squat. You’ll have a similar drama, I’m sure.)
   

2. -On the Mac, go to system settings, sharing and tick ‘share printer’. (If your printer has a scanner you can also share that. I’d bet money that has never EVER worked on a Windows PC, but I’m quietly confident that it would work from another Mac. Use Mac A’s scanner on Mac B, that is.)
   

3. -Install Bonjour for Windows (free, Google it) on your windows machine
   

4. -Run Bonjour. It will find the shared printer. Set it as default.
   

5. -Your mac can even go to ‘sleep’ but will still pick up print orders. Me likey!
   

6. -Me likey less that HP provides very poor software for us Mac users, particularly for scanners.
   

6. Some stuff about iWeb that I’m not overjoyed about.

7. 7.When and where to buy
   

Yes, Apple products are expensive. That’s not just because they make high quality stuff, they also maintain a very healthy profit margin. Some 30%, I’m told. (Dell only has 3.5% on average.) Now here is the thing about discounts: Apple does not like them. There are a few ways to get a discount, which I have all explored.

1. -Be a student. If you are a student or a teacher, you get a discount if you order from the Apple site, buy in an Apple store and with some 3rd-party vendors. Be prepared to prove it, although when ordering online you are NOT asked to prove it. There MAY be a random check (after you have ordered but before delivery I’d imagine) and if you’re caught lying there seems to be no penalty other than having to either pay the difference or have the order cancelled. Of course, I have no idea if Apple reports perjury to the police, but if you live in the Netherlands that’s hardly a problem because the police here only writes speeding tickets nowadays. (What the deal is like in the Soviet Republic of America, I have no idea. I do know some US government agent just made a note of that joke and added it to my file. I did that on purpose, because the ‘random extra screening’ queue at the airport is usually quicker.) Anyway, there are several tiers of discounts, for instance your school may have a special deal with Apple with an even higher discount rate.
   

2. -Find a discount retailer. High street shops will NOT give you discounts. If they do, it is coming out of their own pocket. That is why you will never see a Mac for less, as it is cheaper for the store to throw in something extra. So you get a Mac for full price with, for instance, an Airport Express adapter. Or 100 bucks off in vouchers.
   There are, however, some companies that buy in large volumes from Apple, manage to get a discount and pass part of that discount on to you. Be prepared to buy your Mac online and have it dragged from a truck by some lout who didn’t finish high school (though that would also happen if you ordered from the Apple website) or personally collect your Mac from some industrial area loading dock, as I did.
   

3. -Wait. Most Mac models are replaced after, say, 18 months. JUST before a new model comes out, the older one will be SLIGHTLY cheaper. Sometimes. In some stores. Though many stores will cheerfully keep selling their stuff at full price until the end of the actual business day when they yank if off the shelf. Macrumors.com has a guide that keeps track of these cycles.
   

4. -Buy in bulk. Apparently, if you’re a business and you’re getting a couple of Macs at at time, you get a discount too. No idea how that works. There is a business store on the Apple site, but there is no discount and all you get for ordering as a business is LESS consumer protection so don’t ever do that. At least, not for just one or two machines.
   

5. -Save on RAM. Apple-RAM (supplied by Apple that is, they use generic RAM) is quite expensive. If you’re buying an item where RAM is (relatively) easy to replace, consider this as an option to save money. However, most Apple hardware doesn’t open easily. Or, indeed, at all. I had a hare-raising experience with my Mac Mini, I can tell you. On the other hand, the only screw on my 27” iMac is for the memory bay, so there it is easy. The excellent iFixit site will be able to tell you if your particular device is easy to open, service and upgrade. You have no chance in hell of upgrading hard disks, video cards etc. in notebooks. My philosophy on hard disks is: they are not intended to store data if they are inside a machine, only to give quick access to the data you need and the software you run. Data that needs to be stored should be redundantly stored on an external HD (Time Machine perhaps, though storing large files on your Mac will mean you can’t go back into the timeline very much as the space for older files is now needed for your precious pirated Lord of the Rings blue-ray rip) AND online (with a service such as iDrive) AND on a DVD in someone else’s house.
   

Now, since you probably won’t get (much of a) discount, here is the best piece of advice: follow the cycle of what you want to buy. The good people of MacRumors.com actually do this for you. Look up what you want to buy and they will know when the model was last updated and if it is a good time to buy. This is what I did.

Be prepared to wait if you order a customised Mac. I ordered extra RAM and a better video card on my Mac and it took ‘them’ 10 days to build it. You only get your stuff quickly if you buy the configuration in the storefront.

More will be added to this list as I learn more about my Mac. Tips are welcome, rants are NOT. Mail switch2mac@martijnwarnas.nl and feel free to be polite. Or subservient, even.