HELP! Need advice re: computer stuff.

[Phillycat]

So let's say, hypothetically, that...erm, a BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS got a Macbook and didn't want to pay for the word processing program to go with it. And let's say the, uh HANDSOME PRINCE found a copy of it to download that Apple wasn't totally aware of, ahem. And let's say the prince put it on the princess's Macbook and then she didn't use it for a couple of weeks and then when she opened the program it asked her to register Pages and she completely without any thought whatsoever sent the registration in with her name and email address.

Yes, the beautiful princess is a fucking moron. That's not the point.

How much trouble could the beautiful princess, the handsome prince, and their collective computer equipment be in?

[DS1]

1. Pack you bags, cat

:hide:



(chances are you'll be fine)

[Phillycat]

2. *sigh of relief*

I was thinking federal pound-you-in-the-ass prison for sure. :scared:

[Orrex]

3. (((REDACTED)))

This happened to a friend of mine who <<<REDACTED>>>, and I can tell you that <<<REDACTED>>> as long as you don't <<<REDACTED>>>. And remember that the most important part is <<<REDACTED>>>. Even then, if all else fails, you can always <<<REDACTED>>>.

I hope this helps. You can follow up with the company by <<<REDACTED>>>.

[Sugar Smack]

4. Your friend the princess is probably OK.

My friend did the same about 5 years ago; her brother's best friend's cousin loaned him/her the program & she/he/they seem(s) to be alright & walking about freely.

:P :D

[hobbit709]

5. You can always get OpenOffice-it's free

[NJmaverick]

6. Why use pirated software when there is quality FREE software?

This gives you a quality office suite and it doesn't cost a dime and is perfectly legal.

http://www.openoffice.org/index.html

[begin_within]

7. Here's a page of free open source software for Mac

http://www.opensourcemac.org/

There are tons more, the ones on the above page are just some of the popular ones. Of the ones on the page I use Firefox, Thunderbird and Cyberduck on daily basis, VLC and Audacity from time to time. The only one on that page I didn't care for was NVu because it's un-Mac-like. The word processing programs offered are Bean, NeoOffice and AbiWord, but I have not tried any of those. I use Tex-Edit Plus, a shareware program, constantly for editing text and it has many features for processing text but it is not a word processing or desktop publishing program. I think Thunderbird is better for e-mail than Apple's Mail program, and Firefox is better than Apple's Safari for web browsing. There are many other great programs, though, that are free or cheap. Try http://versionTracker.com, click Mac OSX and type in the type of software you are looking for.

As far as registering Apple's Pages without having bought it, I wouldn't worry too much about it, but if you are worried, just uninstall the program. Maybe Apple will send you an upgrade offer in a year or so and you can legitimately buy it. I think Apple is just happy to have the money you spent on the MacBook. If you want to send more money to Apple, buy the AppleCare extended warranty plan. That will extend your warranty for 3 years after the date you purchased the MacBook and it will eliminate any worries you may have over the cost of repairs if (while rare) might become necessary at that time. Apple will not allow you to extend their warranty after that 3-year anniversary, though, I found that out the hard way.

[Phillycat]

9. Thank you for all the info!

I really appreciate it. We already do have the open-source Firefox on there (You and I must be the only people on earth who don't really love Safari - I am very attached to my Firefox!) but I didn't think to look for open-source word processing programs. Thanks again.

[begin_within]

14. I like the look and feel of Safari very much; it's just that

my version of Safari crashes a lot (1.3.2) because I'm still at Mac OSX 10.3.9. Maybe the latest version of Safari is more stable, but I can't run it unless I upgrade to the latest OS. Many web sites with some kind of content make Safari crash or just slow down dramatically. But the look and feel of it is perfectly in tune with the overall look and feel of the Mac, obviously, since they came from the same company. One thing about Firefox I like is that it can save a complete web page with the graphics, so if you save it to disk and later open it again on your computer, it looks the same as when you were at the web site, and not just an ugly, bare-bones text page with a lot of missing graphics.

[Pierre.Suave]

8. You probably have me on ignore, but...

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO USE OPENOFFICE ON YOUR MAC.

Use NeoOffice instead, trust me, it is the same thing without all the HOOPS you will have to go through to get OPEN OFFICE to run.

http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

[DS1]

10. I thought Macs 'just worked'

What are these "hoops"? It's JAVA, it should run on all systems the same..

[Pierre.Suave]

11. They work great when you dont try to install Winblows software on them...

Open Office was written for a PC in a winblows environment.

To get it to work on a mac you can go through all the hassle of installing X11 and all the other hoops, or, you can just download the Mac port, NeoOffice, click install and be done with it.

personally, I will go with NeoOffice. NeoOffice also has a lot of the nifty mac features available to it that Open Office does not, because of its winblowness.

[DS1]

12. uh huh

excuses excuses

[Pierre.Suave]

13. LOL

yeah, details I know. Occasionally they are important.

[DS1]

15. they're best freshly removed from ass

:think:

[Pierre.Suave]

16. LOL, yeah, thats what I meant...

:rofl:

[begin_within]

18. Thanks

I was in the process of downloading OpenOffice to check it out, when I read your post. (A 159 Mb download for an office suite - now that's Windows-esque if anything is.) I have canceled the download and I'll check out NeoOffice instead.

[Pierre.Suave]

19. You are welcome

You would have been cursing the day you ever thought it was a good idea if you had downloaded it, then tried to get it working.

trust me.

[Phillycat]

20. I can't see who you're responding to

but that picture is hilarious. :D

[Pierre.Suave]

17. I use NeoOffice

Edit, its icon is the sailing ship thing in between Skype and iDVD

[begin_within]

21. Cool dock - what are all the programs?

[Pierre.Suave]

22. It is an old screenshot, but lessee...

finder
dashboard
quicksilver
mail
safari
camino
ichat
address book
itunes
iphoto
imovie
idvd
NeoOffice
skype
calendar
cssedit
cyberduck
photobooth
system preferences
automator
trash