A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.
‹Socrates›
Atlantis: the domain of the Stingray
30Mar
2016
Wed
16:10
author: Stingray
category: MacBook
comments: 1
[GRAV]
Ubuntu Linux Google Chrome (25.0.1364.172)
Geoffrey
31Mar2016/00:24
[184.96.184.221]
trackbacks: 0

A New (to me) Computer Means a New Category

my first real adventure with Mac OSX

About three weeks ago, I walk into my office to see a note and a white object under it on my desk. "Dear Pastor, I found this cheap at a thrift store," the note read (or something like that). "If you can get it to work, it's yours." Under the note was a late-2009 model 13" MacBook.

I had always said that I would never buy a Mac, but I wouldn't turn one down if it was given to me. I don't think I've ever said it out loud outside of my family. Well, it happened.

Cosmetically, it shows signs of use. There are scratches and a few chips in the shell. The hinges are a little loose, so the screen can shake back a forth a little. And while it might not qualify as cosmetic, the computer says that the battery needs to be serviced; it still holds 75% of its capacity, which gives me about 3 hours of battery life, and seems to work just fine.

The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo, which is what these used. It's supposed to have a 250GB HDD and 2GB of RAM, but both of those are doubled in this machine.

It currently has OSX 10.10.0—Yosemite installed on it. There are newer versions of Yosemite and I can upgrade it to 10.11.5—El Capitan. From all appearances, the machine was wiped clean and restored to factory settings before being sold or given to the thrift store.

I like some of the features it has. I can pinch to zoom on the touch pad like on a smartphone screen. It uses two- and three-fingered gestures on the touch pad for certain features, like page scrolling and desktop functions. It connects to the 5GHz band of our wireless router—I didn't realize that was around in 2009, but I am either wrong or it was upgraded on this machine.

I am finding, however, that there is little in the way of open source software available for it, at least for things I would use. Perhaps I'm spoiled for having used linux for so long. It's not that I have a problem paying someone for their work, if I can afford it and want or need what they're selling. I'm just noticing that there is not as much free stuff for Mac like there is for linux.

I haven't yet upgraded to El Capitan. As I discover more features, learn my way around this Mac, and finally upgrade, I'll likely blog about it. Of course, this category might see as much use as the Ubuntu category.

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