Mac mini - stupid questions

[malbui]

A couple of dumb questions for the Mac users amongst you. I play with loads of machines (here in my playroom I'm running Fedora 7, Kubuntu, Solaris, XP and OpenBSD on various boxes) and I've been thinking about playing with a newish Mac for a while. I've got the chance to pick up a Mac mini that's a couple of years old for a risible price (I know a business that is clearing out), but before I do I need to know that I'm going to be able to use it without spending too much on additional infrastructure. So:

1) the beast is running 10.4 in German. Decent though my German is, I can't be bothered to have it in the GUI all day everyday so I'd like to change. Is it possible to change the language of the GUI (some websites indicate that it is, but I'm sufficiently unfamiliar with the environment to be absolutely certain), or would I have to be resigned to buying 10.5 retail and installing that?

2) I have all my current boxes running through an oldish KVM switch. Does anyone have any experience of using PS2 to USB adapters and still getting keyboards and mice to work through a KVM switch, or am I obliged to get a USB keyboard and mouse and find somewhere to stick them when not in use?

TIA

[elgarak]

I cannot help you with your second question, but as far as languages are concerned, I am fairly confident that all Mac OS X versions come with the full language support for all the languages available for that version.

My MacBook came with 10.4.10 pre-installed (bought in the US), and had full language support for German, and a whole lot of other languages, in it. Changing it is very easy, just changing the setting and log-out/log-in. At least, that's how it was for switching between English and German (which is the only thing I tried, being native German). Some of the more exotic languages with more complex fonts (Asian languages, for instance) may require an installation disc, but the 'standard' languages with normal Latin font should be changeable on the fly.

[malbui]

Thanks for that! I am very tempted by this, especially as it's a small enough box Mme Malbui might not notice it coming into the house :) - it's just that I don't want to see a cheap purchase suddenly becoming expensive because I've got to pay for extra stuff like new OS versions.

Actually, thinking about it I could always just stick with the German front-end in any case... it'd be good practice and I'd learn some vocabulary that way.

[GreNME]

I've had pretty good experience with a KVM and a USB-PS2 adapter so far, but that's in my server room at work with an 8-port Dell KVM, so that experience might not directly translate. I'm pretty sure most decent KVMs continue to send a "present" signal to the machine to keep it from assuming the keyboard and mouse have been removed, though.

[Terry]

didn't the old mac mini take PS\2 mouse and keyboard?

ETA: I have it on good authority that I just imagined this. Darn. Memory's the first thing to go, you know...

[jeremyp]

1) the beast is running 10.4 in German. Decent though my German is, I can't be bothered to have it in the GUI all day everyday so I'd like to change. Is it possible to change the language of the GUI (some websites indicate that it is, but I'm sufficiently unfamiliar with the environment to be absolutely certain)

Open System Preferences (probably the fourth option on the Apple menu) and select "International" (the icon on the top row with the flag). The window that opens will contain a list of languages with "Deutsch" at the top and "English" somewhere in it (hopefully). All you need to do is drag "English" to the top of the list, log out and log in again.

[BenBurch]

There are PS/2 -> USB cables that cost very little. See geeks.com.

[malbui]

Open System Preferences (probably the fourth option on the Apple menu) and select "International" (the icon on the top row with the flag). The window that opens will contain a list of languages with "Deutsch" at the top and "English" somewhere in it (hopefully). All you need to do is drag "English" to the top of the list, log out and log in again.


I should be getting the beast this weekend so I'll give it a go!

There are PS/2 -> USB cables that cost very little. See geeks.com.


Thanks. I know that such beasts exist - I was more interested in people's experiences with such adapters. My experiences have been... mixed.

[malbui]

Just in case anyone is interested.. I'm posting this from the beast now. Brought it home this afternoon, plugged it in, switched the UI into English, updated it to 10.4.11 and now I'm marvelling at it. Talk about easy.

I might be here all night.

[BenBurch]

Excellent!

VersionTracker.com should be one of your first stops to find s/w for it!

[malbui]

Excellent!

VersionTracker.com should be one of your first stops to find s/w for it!


Thanks for the link! Looks an interesting site! iLife08 is now installed and updates are coming down the pipe... as soon as they're done, I'll start seeing what else I can play with.

[elgarak]

Just in case anyone is interested.. I'm posting this from the beast now. Brought it home this afternoon, plugged it in, switched the UI into English, updated it to 10.4.11 and now I'm marvelling at it. Talk about easy.

I might be here all night.

Welcome to the Mac world :).

[malbui]

Welcome to the Mac world :).


I might never leave! I've already spent several hours making thrashy noises in Gareg Band that I should have spent doing more valuable stuff like housework.

[Kestrel]

Excellent!

VersionTracker.com should be one of your first stops to find s/w for it!

A somewhat more geeky site for Macintosh apps is HyperJeff's Archive (http://osx.hyperjeff.net/Apps/).

[mrich]

Another recommended site: TidBITS -- a free weekly Mac newsletter.

Located at www dot tidbits dot com

I now consider myself a power user, but have learned something useful from this site almost every week since I was a rank newbie a decade ago.

[mrich]

Also, welcome to the Mac -- I've used them for 20 years now, and the honeymoon continues.

I just bought a mini for my skeptical wife (skeptical about the need for a new computer, that is) and it won her over immediately by its speed, its size, and the huge amount of space freed up by moving the old computer out of her space.