Setting up a new Mac - options?

[Cassady]

Salutations!

My Mac Mini should be arriving tomorrow, if all goes well.

This will be the 1st time I've ever owned a desktop and laptop, to be used/in use - simultaneously. And the first time I've had two computers running OSX.

Couple of questions that I'm hoping to have some suggestions for!

1.) Which store?
My MBP, iPhone and iPad are running through the US store.
The SO's iPad and iPhone, and the two young-un's iPad's are running through the ZA store.

Is it relatively simple/at all possible to set-up a Jekyll & Hyde Mini, with two separate accounts, split between the two stores? If it's possible - is it advisable? Anyone run something similar?

2.) Apps - licensing.

On my account's side of things - presumably logging into my Apple account will see apps bought through the MAS download onto the new Mac? In retrospect - this is quite useful.

Some of my most-used apps were bought direct - and I guess I'll have to take them 1 by 1, and see what can be activated, and what will require an additional license? Am I correct in saying I shouldn't run any risk downloading the install file, and trying to activate on the new Mac with the same license code - it will either work, or it won't? No real chance of borking something with the original installation?

3.) OSX

Upgrading to Yosemite a no-brainer? Any particular benefit in sticking with ML?

4.) iTunes

All my music ripped of my CDs etc., are on my MBP.
When I log in to iTunes on the new Mac - purchases will be pulled over onto the new Mac as well. Is there any risk in synching my iPad/iPhone with two Macs - or is it generally preferable to keep it synching only with 1 library/Mac?

5.) Any other suggestions?

Given I will now have a TB of storage (albeit on a slow spindle HDD) - will look at adding SSD storage going forward. Apart from dumping media on to it - and XBMC, thereby replacing my AT2 - I'll connect the Mini to the HDTV - what other possible things do some of you use the Mini for? I see some peeps talk about using it as their TM Hub - presumably over the air/wifi? Is that viable, speed wise?

Many thanks!

 

[itareanlnotani]

* Buy more ram * (assuming its not the brand new Mac Mini which uses soldered).

1) I use the US store, as stuff like iWorks/iLife is free, but they still charge money for that in .za store.
Doesn't really matter as much for the desktops though, as you can download stuff from anywhere, it doesn't have to come from the store..
A lot of stuff isn't even in the store..
You do have to go to System Preferences/ Security and Privacy / Allow apps downloaded from Anywhere though, which is a slight annoyance. While you're in there, probably want to set the mouse scrolling to normal instead of upside down (the new default, sigh).

2) Stuff you've bought will be downloadable again / installable again, Apple aren't complete nazi's unlike MS, so should be fine.

3) Upgrade to Yosemite.

4) Can't really sync with 2 machines, its still a pain in the ass when you have multiple laptops / desktops and iPhones.
Best is to sync to one and stick to it.
(Well, you can sync to both, but its not going to copy music etc over)

Music - suggest stick it on a shared medium - either a network share or similar, then link to it from the other mac.
Tip - iTunes / Preferences / Advanced - Uncheck copy music to iTunes folder when adding to library, otherwise it wastes disk space with copies you don't need.

I have most of my stuff on HP N54L NAS's (12TB in ZFS per box) per NAS as network shares. The Mac's just link to them. I usually use Plex+sickbeard for video media side, but it can be a pain to setup right. I have about 40TB odd of media files now.
I have one for TV, one for Movies, one for VM's...(ESXi box), but; I digress.

5) I also use my Mini as the TV, although my newer 4k sets have android built in, so its getting more redundant as I can just run Plex on the tv's directly now.
Make sure that the grounding for box the tv and the mac mini are the same.
Eg put both on the same power bar, as hdmi gets a bit funky when grounding issues occur.

SSD's just aren't reliable long term - make sure you have backups. They're less reliable than spinning media.
I have a bunch of SSD in use, but I also make sure that everything is backed up (Time Machine or rsync). SSD's tend to die without warning, vs HDD's which usually will give some sort of audio warnings that they're failing. My usual rule of thumb is replace spinning drives after 3 years, as thats typical lifespan. Anything after that is suspect. SSD's I use till they die. Which can be as little as 2-3 months, or as long as 2 years (my longest lasting one). My 2012 Air has been through 4 SSD's now. 2 motherboards, and Apple is replacing it now, as they dropped it whilst replacing the motherboard again. Thank insert diety I'm oversea's and don't have to deal with the nimrods at Core... Hoping I'll get that before I head back to SA.


Some suggestions on Software.

Try Teleport out for controlling one mac from the other http://www.abyssoft.com/software/teleport/
( I usually end up with remote desktop full screen, and 3 finger swipe to the TV Mac though. )

Textwrangler for text editing / code stuff.
TransmissionBT for torrents (although SA throttles the crap out of torrents).
Hamachi for vpn networking (access your computer from elsewhere)
If you code, Brew (Homebrew) for all the useful ported linux stuff.
TheUnarchiver for zip/rar unpacking
VLC for playback or Plex (Plex will need its indexer running somewhere though, XBMC is also ok, but I prefer Plex these days).

 

[Grant]

Some suggestions on Software.

Try Teleport out for controlling one mac from the other http://www.abyssoft.com/software/teleport/
( I usually end up with remote desktop full screen, and 3 finger swipe to the TV Mac though. )

Textwrangler for text editing / code stuff.
TransmissionBT for torrents (although SA throttles the crap out of torrents).
Hamachi for vpn networking (access your computer from elsewhere)
If you code, Brew (Homebrew) for all the useful ported linux stuff.
TheUnarchiver for zip/rar unpacking
VLC for playback or Plex (Plex will need its indexer running somewhere though, XBMC is also ok, but I prefer Plex these days).

and of course "littlesitch" to deal with occasional licensing issues

 

[Cassady]

Thanks for help! Plenty of information here to work through.

One thing that still has me confused - assume that over on my MBP running Yosemite, I've gone and updated a bunch of apps. Did the same to those bought outside the MAS - do they remain backwards compatible? I.e if I wait with ML on the Mini - will the Yosemite readied apps still work as they should/did on ML?

 

[itareanlnotani]

Sure.

No real reason not to update though, unless you have hardware that doesn't support it.

 

[itareanlnotani]

Sure.

No real reason not to update though, unless you have hardware that doesn't support it.

 

[Cassady]

Struggling like hell to get BT keyboard recognised by the Mini. Trackpad no problem - but no go on the other. Removing batteries, restarting, and zip.

[Edit] Didn't realise you had to hold it in that long, to get the light flashing. That did the trick!

[Edit 2]: Not ML - Mavericks OSX 10.9.4. Sweet!

 

[Dean]

Sure.

No real reason not to update though, unless you have hardware that doesn't support it.

Only reason I can find to not update is the Bluetooth audio issues. My brand new BT headphones start skipping and completely freak out after a few minutes of playing from Yosemite. Had no issues the couple of days before I updated, nor with my phone.

It's a widely reported issue and one that's a serious ball-ache!

If you don't use BT audio, update without a doubt... Yosemite is a beauty