For the first time ever I’m going to blog a technical computery-type thingy.
I’ve recently moved to an Apple computer, mainly because their notebooks are small, well built and their battery life is longer than most windows laptops. The tipping point was the fact that you can now run Windows natively on Intel Macs, which means that two of the programmes I have to use in a Windows environment (N6 and SPSS) can now sit on the Windows partition.
I had suspected that the move to another operating system might slow productivity, but the integration and intuitive feel of MAC OS X is superb making the move less painful than I thought – if you do make the move invest in The Missing Manual. For the first time ever, I have my computer, address books, email and calender working together effectively – my avoidance of Outlook on the PC has always complicated management of personal information. With the addition of a third party piece of software I now can synchronise to my Windows Mobile 5 device. Even Microsoft Office for the Mac appears better than the Windows version, as does the reference software Endnote. After four to five weeks I have virtually abandoned the use of Windows. When plugged in a external monitor Mac OS X effortlessly spans the desktop across them, something I have been unable to achieve with successive PCs. All I have to do now is finish my thesis on it.
However, I did hit a problem when I attempted to install a HP PSC 1350 across my network. Mac OS X does not carry as extensive a list of printer drivers, and it was impossible to connect the printer. Here is the solution, which you may be reading because Google brought you here.
1. Ensure you printer name on the Windows machine contains no spaces or special characters.
2. Get the latest HPIJS drivers from linuxprinting.org and the ESP Ghostscript interpreter.
3. Follow the instructions Printing to a printer on a Windows XP PC from a Mac running 10.4.x at iFelix.
4. BEFORE you attempt to print anything from the Mac, go to your Windows box and open the printer’s properties. Go to the Ports tab and de-select “Enable bidirectional support”.
If you do not do this last point, you will find that when you print from the Mac, the printer will make lots of noise, blink at you, then fold its arms and refuse to co-operate. The item you wish had printed will then be left endlessly spooling, preventing any other printing. You will not be able to remove it easily. You will learn to hate the words “Remote Downlevel Document”.
2 Comments
Timely, I just purchased a MacBook Pro today and beginning the migration back. Mac 1987-1998, PC 1999-present, and now glad to be back.
I moved to Mac about 18 months ago and have never looked back. I think the best way to give credit to OS X is by comparing the problems.
On the PC I could not get broadband to work, Windows XP crashed when I plugged in a USB device and I regularly had to mess about in Regedit to fix annoying issues when programs didn’t uninstall the rubbish they splattered over the HD.
On the Mac I can’t get Mail to hide automatically when I log in – now this really annoys me sometimes but in comparison to the PC issues I was having I think I’ll take Mail not auto-hiding every time.