New to MacBook Pro...need advice please

[BD_BB_8520]

Hi All,

I bought a used Late 2011 MacBook Pro 13' with 4 Gb RAM, core i5. I put in a 512 Gb SSD after discussion with a friend.

I have never used Mac before, nor any Apple products. I have been using Windows PC for over 20 yrs.

I am watching alot of videos on youtube to get into the flow, but would like to ask the Forum some Qs and ask for some advice :

1. I bought the MBP (plus SSD) for 526 GB Pounds : good buy? or waste of money?....

2. Since I'm new to the whole Mac experience, it took me 2 days to figure out 'Apple ID'....lol. What free apps would you recommend?

3. My usage is moderate, basically email, browsing, some word & excel work. Should I upgrade the RAM?

4. Any other tips, advice you would have for a newbie who has just entered the world of MacBook Pro

Thanks to All in Advance for the replies.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Hi All,

I bought a used Late 2011 MacBook Pro 13' with 4 Gb RAM, core i5. I put in a 512 Gb SSD after discussion with a friend.

I have never used Mac before, nor any Apple products. I have been using Windows PC for over 20 yrs.

I am watching alot of videos on youtube to get into the flow, but would like to ask the Forum some Qs and ask for some advice :

1. I bought the MBP (plus SSD) for 526 GB Pounds : good buy? or waste of money?....

If it fits your needs then consider it a good buy.

2. Since I'm new to the whole Mac experience, it took me 2 days to figure out 'Apple ID'....lol. What free apps would you recommend?

Dropbox, Evernote, Skype, Adobe Reader, OneDrive, Pocket and ClamAV.

3. My usage is moderate, basically email, browsing, some word & excel work. Should I upgrade the RAM?

Not unless you think you need to.

4. Any other tips, advice you would have for a newbie who has just entered the world of MacBook Pro

Thanks to All in Advance for the replies.

Continue interacting here in the iMore Forums and watch how much and how quickly you'll learn about your Apple device...

 

[BD_BB_8520]

Thank you for your reply Just_Me_D Sorry I had forgotten to check this site for reply.

I cannot seem to find Skype on the app store. Please keep in mind at the moment I am limited to free apps.

I have installed Libre Office and it works great! but I cannot seem download the update which shows in App store, but when I enter my Apple ID it says this was not the same id used to purchase ? :/

I will check out the other Apps you mentioned, thanks.

Thanks once again for the reply.

 

[Closingracer]

Well apparently my Macbook is installing updates so I can't check but if it's not in the app store you can go to Microsofts website and download it directly from there. If recall the OS X App store is pretty new and not many devs caught onto it.

 

[Algus]

App Store isn't that new but it isn't quite as ubiquitous on OS X as it is on iOS. It has some other issues too, mainly with the approval process. I've gotten some games sooner on Steam or via direct purchase from the Devs because the App Store takes time to get it. It is very handy for apps that are on there though since you can download to any other machine associated with your Apple ID and Devs can push app updates through it.

As Closingracer alluded to, you can download apps from websites or install them from media (very very few Mac apps have physical media now though) just like you could on a Windows PC. Give the apps that shipped with your PC a spin. I used to be a big LibreOffice fan but I mainly use Pages now.

 

[BD_BB_8520]

Thank you for your replies Closingracer & Algus.

Is there any 3rd party site you would recommend?

As a life ling Windows user, I am used to 'disk defragmant', 'disk clean up' etc. are there OS X functions like that?

I just want to make sure that the MBP is not crammed with useless apps and things I don't use.

I have downloaded 'Deluge' as a torrent client, any advice?

Algus, is Pages able to work with MS Excel files? I assumed it was a Word replacement.

Overall enjoying the MBP experience so far. Looking forward to more replies.

Thank you All

 

[Snoweagle]

Thank you for your replies Closingracer & Algus.

Is there any 3rd party site you would recommend?

As a life ling Windows user, I am used to 'disk defragmant', 'disk clean up' etc. are there OS X functions like that?

I just want to make sure that the MBP is not crammed with useless apps and things I don't use.

I have downloaded 'Deluge' as a torrent client, any advice?

Algus, is Pages able to work with MS Excel files? I assumed it was a Word replacement.

Overall enjoying the MBP experience so far. Looking forward to more replies.

Thank you All

In OS X El Capitan, in 'Disk Utility', you can select 'Macintosh HD' on the left and above it, select 'First Aid'.

 

[Ariel Babalao]

Thank you for your replies Closingracer & Algus.

Is there any 3rd party site you would recommend?

As a life ling Windows user, I am used to 'disk defragmant', 'disk clean up' etc. are there OS X functions like that?

I just want to make sure that the MBP is not crammed with useless apps and things I don't use.

I have downloaded 'Deluge' as a torrent client, any advice?

Algus, is Pages able to work with MS Excel files? I assumed it was a Word replacement.

Overall enjoying the MBP experience so far. Looking forward to more replies.

Thank you All

I've been using MacBook since 2008, and I can tell you that you do not need to worry about the hard drive fragmentation at all, unless, unless you are planing to create large files size and move them from folder to folder and delete and etc... Large files like 10gb files. If you work with movies editing, you can consider using disk utility to rearrange the disk permission etc... otherwise there is no need to care about it at all. OS X handle drive and memories unlike Windows, different system, different behavior.
For torrent downloading, I use "transmission" it's a free torrent client for Mac, and it works just great for me. You can go to transmission set up, and tweak download and upload limits if you want and a lot of flexibilities.
Pages and MS excel is something I have never tried my self, but there have to be way around to make it work I think.
Enjoy your Mac.

 

[BD_BB_8520]

Thank you for the reply Snoweagle.

I am still using Yosemite, and have not upgraded to El Capitan yet. I am not sure I *need* to upgrade to El Capitan yet. What would you say are the benefits of moving to El Capitan?

I will check out the 'Disk Utility" in Yosemite, thank you.

 

[BD_BB_8520]

Thank you for your reply Ariel Babalao.

I usually do not work with 'large' files, so thank you for putting my mind at ease.

I saw 'transmission' but was a intimidated by all the options. I used to use utorrent when I was in Windows and liked the simple interface.

I will revisit the 'transmission' site and learn more about it and see if I should use that instead. I am a bit worried about 'deluge' since sometimes the icon does not show properly in the dock (it shows as a question mark). I have not downloaded a torrent yet using it.

Still have not used Pages, OfficeLibre seems to be working fine for my needs (basically word and excel uses),

Enjoying the experience as I learn more each day, thanks.

 

[Ariel Babalao]

Thank you for the reply Snoweagle.

I am still using Yosemite, and have not upgraded to El Capitan yet. I am not sure I *need* to upgrade to El Capitan yet. What would you say are the benefits of moving to El Capitan?

I will check out the 'Disk Utility" in Yosemite, thank you.

Well, from the outside, there is no much of difference that you can see expect for the split view which is a feature become a must for me. Also the choice to hide the task bar which (I think) wasn't in Yosemite. Native applications are also better polished, apps like mail, calendar map, and recently iTunes. I personally upgrade because of the split view only, otherwise I wouldn't. And I've also noticed noticed a little improvement in my battery life, but that's a versatile topic as battery draining depend on a lot of factors. Anyway, check if your mostly used apps are now compatible with el captain or not, if they are, you can upgrade to el captain, you can't go wrong with it. Remember to backup your machine before upgrade your OS.

 

[Ariel Babalao]

Thank you for your reply Ariel Babalao.

I usually do not work with 'large' files, so thank you for putting my mind at ease.

I saw 'transmission' but was a intimidated by all the options. I used to use utorrent when I was in Windows and liked the simple interface.

I will revisit the 'transmission' site and learn more about it and see if I should use that instead. I am a bit worried about 'deluge' since sometimes the icon does not show properly in the dock (it shows as a question mark). I have not downloaded a torrent yet using it.

Still have not used Pages, OfficeLibre seems to be working fine for my needs (basically word and excel uses),

Enjoying the experience as I learn more each day, thanks.

You are welcome. You can give a try to transmission see how it goes for you.
Glad that you are enjoying and learning your way with your new machine.

 

[Snoweagle]

Thank you for the reply Snoweagle.

I am still using Yosemite, and have not upgraded to El Capitan yet. I am not sure I *need* to upgrade to El Capitan yet. What would you say are the benefits of moving to El Capitan?

I will check out the 'Disk Utility" in Yosemite, thank you.

I always upgrade to the latest OS and El Capitan is a little speedier with some UI improvements. Looks pretty good too.