Optimizing Mac hardware & software

May 7, 2009 9:03 AM

Mac software questions : Has anyone seen some good open source implementation of sloppy focus on the Mac? What are the good rss readers? I've found that I waste less time online (mefi) if I read rss feeds under Mail.app instead of reading rss feeds from Safari's bookmark bar or checking sites manually. Mail.app however rather stupidly fails to display author information, which seems important.

Mac hardware questions : What's the best way to get a high powered desktop Mac? I guess the first answer is buy any cinema displays except Apple's since all use exactly the same hardware. I suppose the deeper answer must be an OX x86 running on a powerful PC. What about buying Apple motherboards? Does this improve life much? Can you easily use other better PC video & raid cards? I know Apple's nVidia video & raid cards are considered much inferior to similarly priced PC hardware.
posted by jeffburdges to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Wow these are a lot of questions.

1. This was #3 answer for googling OS X Sloppy focus. Basically you enter these commands into the terminal:

   For sloppy focus in Terminal: defaults write com.apple.Terminal FocusFollowsMouse -string YES For X11 windows: defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_ffm true Everywhere else use Codetek Virtual Desktop

   I guess it's what you're used to be it seems to me that clicking in a window's text element to get focus is better. I would recommend you try out the interface as is. Soon clicking in the window you want to activate will become second nature. I mean, this only really applies for text entry anyway, since anything clickable automatically gets focus. I'm sort of wracking my brain to think of circumstances where you'd want to be able to switch from window to window using the mouse but actual clicking is too onerous. I mean, if you don't want to click, switch between windows using ⌘-` (command-tilde, command-shift-tilde to reverse)
2. There are loads and loads of excellent RSS readers for OS X. Any googling along the lines of best open source os x applications is going to return one of the better readers.
3. The best way to get a high powered desktop Mac is to buy the top model. It's perfectly doable to set up a Hackintosh and it is getting easier to do, but Apple has zero interest in end users running the OS on anything but Mac computers, and no doubt they'll keep working to make it hard to hack their software. It's remotely possible that Apple motherboards are available on some kind of black market, but other than that the only way to get a motherboard is by removing it from a computer, so I fail to see how you could possibly get your hands on a motherboard for less money than an actual computer. The most powerful Mac is going to be the Mac Pro, which I think allows you to install whatever graphic cards you want so long as there are drivers for them.
And next time, don't ask so many questions. Or, make your question more general.

posted by Deathalicious at 9:32 AM on May 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You're kind of all over the place and that doesn't really make for good questions or good answers but I'll give it a shot.

RSS: I believe NetNewsWire is the most popular OS X RSS reader. I prefer and use NewsFire.

Hardware: kind of hard to figure out what you're looking for here. Display choice is pretty incidental to a high powered desktop. The easiest way is to buy a Mac Pro. That supports the company that makes the operating system so that would fit some definitions of best. There's always used and refurbished machines if best to you means less money. Mac Pro's are quite powerful but I would guess a majority of them out there are significantly underutilized so don't buy one unless you do need the power and features. You can also go the hackintosh route but people into that seem to be doing that more as a hobby than for a productivity machine. Some people flash the firmware on graphics cards to make them Mac compatible. As an aside I did see a thread somewhere once by a guy that built a Mac Pro using genuine Apple parts, but sourced all over the place (eBay, repair shops, etc). He saved a few hundred dollars but invested a lot of time.
posted by 6550 at 9:34 AM on May 7, 2009 [1 favorite]