Some General Tips for Switch to Mac From Windows
Sales of Apple’s Macintosh computers have been growing much faster than PC sales overall, with many new Mac buyers switching from years of using Windows computers. For that reason, every month I get emails from readers asking about the differences in using the Windows and Macintosh operating systems.
While the Windows and Mac user interfaces are broadly similar, they do have subtle variations in day-to-day use that require some re-education for switchers. And because there are so many fewer Mac users than Windows users, help from friends and co-workers can be harder to obtain than it is for people switching the other way, to Windows from Mac.
So, here’s a quick tip sheet explaining a few of the most common differences in the daily use of Windows XP (MSFT), from which most people would be switching, and Apple’s (AAPL) Mac OS X Leopard, which switchers would be adopting.
This column isn’t an argument for making the switch to a Mac, merely an attempt to help those who have done so, or who are considering doing so. Of course, all Macs currently sold can run Windows and Windows programs concurrently with the Mac operating system. But this guide is for folks who intend to use their Macs primarily with Leopard, not Windows.
Menu Bars: In Windows, each program typically has its own menu bar. On the Mac, there’s a single menu bar at the top of the screen that changes, depending on which program you are actively using.
Task Bar: The equivalent of the Windows XP Task Bar on the Mac is the Dock. Unlike the Task Bar, which primarily holds icons representing open windows, the Mac Dock primarily holds icons of programs you use most often. To place a program onto the Dock, you just drag its icon there. To remove it, you just drag its icon off the Dock and it disappears in a puff of animated smoke.
Start Menu: There is no Start Menu on a Mac. Its functions are divided between the Dock and the Apple menu at the upper left of the Mac screen.
Control Panel: The Mac equivalent of the Windows Control Panel is called System Preferences, and it can be launched from either the Dock or the Apple menu.
Keyboard shortcuts: Common Windows keyboard commands, such as Ctrl-S for Save, Ctrl-P for Print, and many others, are also available on the Mac. However, instead of using the Control key, they use the Mac’s Command key, which bears either a cloverlike symbol or an Apple logo. So, on the Mac, for instance, Command-S is for Save.
Quitting programs: In Windows, you can quit a program by clicking on the red “X” in a square at the upper right corner of the window you’re using. But on the Mac, if you click on the equivalent button — a red “X” in a circle in the upper left corner — you are merely closing the window, not quitting the program. To quit the program, you must either select Quit from the leftmost menu or press the Command and “Q” keys together.
Maximizing windows: When you click on the blue maximize button in Windows XP, the window you are viewing occupies the whole screen. In Leopard, the equivalent button — a green circle at the upper left — increases a small window’s size to a footprint deemed optimal for its contents, which isn’t always the whole screen.
Switching programs: One common way to switch among running programs in Windows XP is to press Alt and Tab together. This displays icons of each running program and allows you to switch among them. On a Mac, the same trick can be performed by pressing the Command and Tab keys together. The Mac also has a terrific feature called Expose, which shows every open window at once, in miniature form, so you can navigate among them. You can trigger Expose in a number of ways, but the most common is to hit either the F9 key or the dedicated Expose key, depending on your Mac model.
Right-clicking: Contrary to common belief, the Mac has a right-click menu function, just like Windows. Most desktop Macs now come with a mouse that allows right-clicking, and you can use almost any two-button USB mouse with any modern Mac. If you are using a Mac laptop, which has only one button under the track pad, you can simulate a right-click by either holding down the Control key when you click, or by placing two fingers on the track pad while clicking. The latter technique, which I favor, must first be turned on in System Preferences.
Screen: Your desktop picture and screen saver on a Mac are set via a System Preference called Desktop & Screen Saver. Screen resolution is set in the Displays System Preference. In Windows XP, all of these things are included in the Display control panel.
For more information, Apple offers two Web sites. One is called Mac 101, and is at apple.com/support/mac101. The other is called Switch 101, and is at apple.com/support/switch101.
- Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.
Comments
Walter,
My father (age=87) thinks you are a god. Maybe, just maybe, he might switch.
,dave
Posted by Dave Barnes at July 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 pmSweet article. Can I recommend mentioning Spotlight though? It’s a very, very useful feature of the OS, especially for those that have already used Vista’s search bar in the Start menu.
Posted by Samir Talwar at July 3rd, 2008 at 6:38 amIf you are lucky enough to live close to an Apple store, they offer a great program called One to One, which is personal training. For just $99 a year you can come in up to once a week for training on your Mac. My neighbor just got her first Mac and it’s amazing what she has learned so far. She says that the trainers are very patient and make the lessons on what she wants to do with her laptop. She hardly calls me anymore with computer questions. It’s a bargain!
Posted by Brandon Heart at July 3rd, 2008 at 7:23 amI would not be without Smart Scroll on my Mac.
http://marcmoini.com/sx_en.html
Posted by RON NORRIS at July 3rd, 2008 at 7:48 amMac users may not be as scarce as one might think. A recent survey claims that Apple owns 80% of the market for “premium PC’s,” which the survey defines as PC’s costing more than $1000. This figure is much more in line with observed reality than the miniscule number that is usually quoted.
Posted by Alan Sanders at July 3rd, 2008 at 11:09 amI thought it worth adding the dock also shows all open programs, not just favorites. Any program that is open has a blue dot under it. Any program that is open but not saved to the dock can be easily added at the time by right clicking. The dock icons also provide a quick and easy way to quit programs by simply right clicking them. On a single button old fashioned mac mouse righting clicking functionality is added by holding the “control” key as you click.
When you purchase a mac it will likely come with a Mighty mouse. In system preferences/keyboard & mouse/mouse you can choose to have the top button, or side buttons, run the app switcher. So with a single click you can choose the program of your choice that is running. Even though the option is not available with a standard pc mouse, the app switcher will continue to function from the top wheel if originally set with a mighty mouse. This is the same function that is accessed with the command + tab keys, just easier many times. While your in mouse preferences be sure to turn on the right click as default setting have both right and left click as primary, change the right to secondary. The mighty mouse does not appear to have 2 buttons for right and left click, but it does angle depending on which side of the mouse you push.
One last very important tip is the firewall in mac OS X is not on by default when shipped. You need to go to system preferences/security/firewall to change this.
As far as Mac users switching to Windows..lol..we don’t lose many!
Posted by David Miers at July 3rd, 2008 at 1:16 pmI am a long…. time PC user and purchased the new iMac in January. LOVE IT!!!! You could not pay me to switch back. I am still learning with “One to One” but absolutely love it. It is easy to use and I LOVE the parental control options that it offers. I no longer worry about my kids finding sites that they should not be on. The Spotlight feature is fantastic too. I also really like Finder with the “Cover Flow” option that you can see the file or document before you open it. I am working on converting several friends too. They have seen it and really like it.
Posted by Kelley Sipsey at July 3rd, 2008 at 2:18 pmOne argument I often hear from Windows people is that menus belong to an application so should be in the window. This is logical programmer’s thinking, but Apple thinks different. Well for one thing that wastes screen space because every window requires menu space. But there is a much more fundamental reason - Mac menus are much faster for the user. It’s called Fitts’ Law and is expounded by Bruce Tognazzini at: http://www.asktog.com/basics/f.....l#fittsLaw
What this means is that an object (the menu) at the top of the screen is infinitely big in the up direction. Thus a user needs only flick the mouse upwards and has an easy-to-hit target. In Windows, the user must carefully position the mouse over the menu before clicking. The claim (backed by some tests) is that Mac users are five times faster hitting menus than Windows users. It is probably why Windows users much more rely on so-called keyboard shortcuts, which aren’t even shortcuts compared to the shortcuts on the Mac.
Ian
Posted by Ian Joyner at July 3rd, 2008 at 8:15 pmI switched last December. My concern at the time was the learning curve after using Windows all my life (I’m 64). Within hours I was up and running and had no problems what so ever. I believe that the iMac I purchased was one of the best investments I have made and even today it still amazes me.
Posted by Allan Sherman at July 3rd, 2008 at 9:01 pmOne thing I miss from Windows is the ability to change a window size from any edge; Is there a Mac add on for this?
And how can I set up short cut keys for arbitrary menu items, (such as “add a link”)??
And, can you get a “back” button for Safari on the MightyMouse!
I was Mac since 84, till PC’s drove their way in through the 90″s. Been stuck with a Thinkpad for a while, but just got my MBA, and it is a marvel of engineering all around.
Posted by John Smith at July 3rd, 2008 at 10:05 pmI just took the plunge and made the switch exactly one month ago today. Being sensible, and having a severe aversion to “Buyer’s Remorse,” I did about 5 months of researching whether to buy a new PC or switch over to a Mac. I have been PC since the days when Winblows ran in DOS, but I could not bring myself to run Microsoft’s latest piece of vaporware on anything I would ever own.
Posted by Doreen L. Culligan at July 3rd, 2008 at 11:49 pmI absolutely LOVE my iMac. I am continually amazed by the engineering and quality inherent in every aspect of my Mac, and I am equally impressed with its aesthetically pleasing appearance. The ONLY regret I have is not switching over sooner!
I have a Macbook and love many things about it but haven’t been able to switch away from Windows as my main OS because of email search. In particular, the Mac does not seem to adequately support searching attachments. Vista/Outlook does this very well but the only solutions I’ve seen for the Mac are kludgy and inconvenient at best.
It’s rather strange that the Mac appears so inferior in this respect because generally speaking, desktop search via spotlight is one of the Mac’s strengths. If anybody knows of a simple solution that allows one to search through their email, including the text within attachments, I would love to see it.
Posted by William Stasior at July 4th, 2008 at 12:20 amI have a tip for Apple. Update the Mac mini soon. There are a lot of “switchers” waiting.
Posted by ralph mocha at July 4th, 2008 at 7:41 amWilliam Stasior
Regarding searching through your mail and attatchments, have you tried spotlight? I am pretty sure it will crawl into the content of your files on your disk, including attachments. I don’t believe mail’s internal find does that.
Posted by Bob Kins at July 4th, 2008 at 9:19 amIn addition to Spotlight, which I believe is easily faster for opening applications than clicking through Start > Programs, you also didn’t mention the status menus on the right side of the menubar. These are equivalent to icons in Windows’ System Tray on the right side of the Task Bar.
Finally, in addition to the Dock, the Apple menu, and Spotlight, the Mac simplifies file/program opening by making them easily accessible in the Finder via the Go menu.
Posted by Ben Rosenthal at July 4th, 2008 at 10:16 amI wanted to buy a laptop and did not want to buy one with Vista on it…and on one day I thought ‘I will buy a Mac”. I am really happy with my MacbookPro The only thing that i miss is a spellingcontrole (e-mail and Pages) in different languages.
Posted by yvonne schram at July 4th, 2008 at 10:28 amI need that for my study Spanish. I don’t want to buy Microsoft Word for Mac as i don’t want to put any Microsoft stuff on my laptop. Nevertheless, I like the laptop a lot!!!
These sound like some healthy tips… I constantly have close friends and family trying to get me to switch to a Mac.
“You’ll love the Dock!” they say. (I already have a dock in Windows, called RocketDock; it works fine).
“You’ll love that it doesn’t crash!” (My Windows doesn’t crash)
“Safari is great!” (I already used Safari on Windows; didn’t like it)
But I’ll be sure and head back this way if I ever decide to switch.
Posted by Saint Seminole at July 4th, 2008 at 10:31 amjust a few basic essentials I think should be mentioned:
A very quick and handy way to run an app: Press Command-spacebar, type the first few letters of the app’s name, press return.
My lifeline on the mac. Something I really could not live without: Exposé. I’ve set it to two active corners on the screen. It’s genius!
And to Yvonne: The beautiful thing about mac is that it has spell and grammar check in any language you want built in by default! Unlike Microsoft, where your OS is only in one language and stuff like Word, you buy one language version and then have to buy additional proofing tools for other languages. Talk about expensive..
Posted by japie jopie at July 4th, 2008 at 4:24 pmHow to use it on a mac: e.g. in Mail, just go to Edit >> spelling and grammar >> Show spelling and grammar >> on the bottom of the popup window, there’s a drop down list with any language you like.
Also you can change the language of the whole OS from system preferences, without even restarting the computer.
Oh and another thing. Walt, regarding keyboard shortcuts, you could have mentioned, that Apple came up with those in the first place. Microsoft took that from the Mac OS, not the other way around.
Posted by japie jopie at July 4th, 2008 at 4:41 pmI switched from pc to Mac a couple of months ago and I am so loving it!!! I have gone through a few pc’s and laptops and when the last one failed me during a paper, I decided that I would spend the money for a macbook and forget about pc’s. I have NO regrets on that decision!!!! I love it and I love to see other people sitting in starbucks or borders on theirs…if i have questions i can go to them for help…i just helped another mac user the other day!!!
Posted by demetria warren at July 4th, 2008 at 5:14 pmlove the article
just need to say that since i’ve been using MAC my workflow has become 100 times faster to a point that the other day i got all my work done in less than 2 hours and then spent 20 minutes walking around my room because i had nothing to do, i’d never finished my work so fast on a windows in order to have spare time. if every one switched to MAC the information flow on this planet would quadruple if not more.
one thing that is really worth mentioning and personal at the same time is that i am a dyslexic and cant spell to save my life, but with a MAC i’ll never have to worry about that again, because in ANY text field on any program its got a spell checker and i think thats just AMAZING. thats besides the 10000 useful everyday features.
Posted by axel cooper at July 4th, 2008 at 6:53 pmSpotlight: if you can’t actually remember the name of the application you want, or where you put it, type into Spotlight “kind:app” and it will list all your applications.
Posted by Ian Joyner at July 4th, 2008 at 8:16 pmI use a macbook, and the two button scroll is in itself a reason to buy an apple laptop. When using windows laptops I keep forgetting that I can’t do a two finger scroll or use the shortcuts. After using a mac for seven months, I can never go back. Same goes for Iwork 08 over word and powerpoint.
here’s a hint for anyone who has iwork 08 but is disappointed in lack of clip art, my macbook came with a trial version of office, I just copied all of the clip art that came with it and when the trial version expired, I lost the programs but was able to keep the clip art
Posted by Travis Hutchinson at July 4th, 2008 at 8:22 pmYou can find an excellent free switchers tutorial at MacProVideo, as well as other quality video tutorials… Highly recommended!
http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/xpToLeopard
Posted by Steve Smith at July 4th, 2008 at 9:00 pmto : Saint Seminole, about windows so called “dock”
and so called “not crashing” yea have a windows OS that NEVER crashed, its the windows DVD its been on my shelf for years now and its never crashed at all lolllllllllllllll,
here is one simple reason why MAC is just simple UltraSuperior, i have a 4- inch monitor and a 19 inch on the side, i use Expose and have 2 Row’s and 3 columns set up while running Photoshop, Aperture, Vuze, Iphoto, Yahoo messenger, Mail, iTunes, and at least 3 Finder windows at any given time
and i they ALL run smooth as silk.
if u even thought of doing that on a windows machine i honestly think it would explode or something.
and this is the first time i use most of the keyboard for once i am actually using the F1 through F12 key’s i all ways thought they never did anything on windows for the end user.
iLife, iwork, Finder, Dock, Expose, Mail, they can run your social and professional life on your MAC no questions asked, you will never need anything else.
Posted by axel cooper at July 4th, 2008 at 9:39 pmI’m a recent mac convert. its not that much of a learning curve, i’m finding, things “just work”. this is without a doubt something im going to get my family members to get.
Posted by Phillip Partipilo at July 5th, 2008 at 2:01 amWhile I appreciate the article because it’ll save people time to have answers to these common questions. However, inadvertently, this has a drop your “PC” (they’re all PCs… or what, are they servers or terminals?) and get a Mac advertisement twist to it.
Posted by Juan Bermudez at July 5th, 2008 at 3:09 amI never switched, I purchased a Mac. I think a lot of people, certainly this new crowd of Mac users doesn’t “switch”, they purchase an Apple branded PC with a really nice proprietary version of Linux (UNIX rather, yes). Using marketing hype i.e. “the switch fantasy” for this article is unfortunate.
I do like Mac OS X, it’s very useful, elegant and all of that. Apple also has other first party apps that I miss having when I’m on a PC as well. What I’ve seen too many times, however, is that when you get non-techies to convert to Mac, you haven’t solved their problems, you’ve postponed them. I think it’s rather unrealistic to assume that you should get familiar with a Mac and that this is a skill that easily replaces proficiency with a PC.
Another note, Apple is not some little underdog, it’s a huge monopoly and it’s a very noticeable fact once you use them for a while. Oh, you don’t like paying $800.00 for a motherboard? Well… tough.
I have zero appreciation for the fact that you can only buy fancy looking, rather slow (for some of us), and expensive hardware. I like having the option, I just don’t like the lack of choice. The snobbery of the brand has left me cold as a customer (was spending about $4k+ a year for around 2-3 years with them).
The tired arguments of the Windows fanatics don’t really work, but if I’m any indication, a brand new crop of more legitimate arguments will start to surface once more so-called “switchers” join the discussion.
First gripe: The mouse, the mighty mouse is horrific, and has a surprising learning curve. Try telling someone that the $1500.00 computer you just recommended to them needs a new mouse that doesn’t match (or they can just have frustration).
Biggest gripe: They don’t know how partner with other companies. They’ve gone head to head with Adobe products, though it is a meaningful partner. Their best software partner is Microsoft, that’s just how bad they are with partners. The mighty mouse should have simply been a nice logitech made mouse from the very beginning.
Ironically, I can’t see too many things wrong with Vista (particularly compared to Mac OS). I find that driver support for basic things is not as rich as for Windows. For example, my Apple store purchased Canon inkjet does not support duplex printing and other options in Mac OS, they only support all the features of the product within Windows.
It’s also worth noting for the veteran “switcher” that the application for Vista called Switcher is a very powerful tool that really does have feature parity with Expose.
Whenever I have a problem in Vista I constantly remind myself that this thing I’m having problems with wouldn’t even be remotely possible for Mac OS (without using the awesome VMFusion I mean). For example, you have a hard time running RainbowSix Vegas… well, it’s not possible to play it on a Mac, unless you have $3k to throw away on it. Or how about something even closer to home, you want to install and use your “old” Adobe CS2, but it doesn’t quite run right in Vista 64-bit, well, CS2 for Apple is PowerPC only software so it’s even worse for Apple.
Too much negative publicity on standard PCs, they are so much cheaper and flexible. I do think there is an ethical responsibility for the media to start being a little less passionate about the issue. I just purchased a Quad-Core intel with 4GB RAM (expandable to 8), and a Radeon 4850 for under $800.00 and though i would gladly pay Apple $100 or even $200.00 to purchase a license for Mac OS X for it, I would not switch it for an iMac or a Mac Mini at the same price.
Every platform will start showing its blemishes after some use. Mac OS X certainly has its share of blemishes and Apple as a computer company even more so.
I have turned into a MAC-fan since 12 months
Posted by Andre van der Lans at July 5th, 2008 at 5:43 amMy MacBook Pro is really a great computer!
The sad part is that I have to use Windows via Bootcamp because I use AutoCad in my job.
On the day that there will be an alternative for this, I will be the first one to jump on it.
I will be very happy to get rid of the unstable Windows OS.
Under Apple Macintosh OS the window is for documents, whereas in Microsoft Windows the window is used both for applications and documents. This application-centric metaphor of Windows creates confusion and the application quits when the last document using the application is closed. Also, the application-centric metaphor of Windows does not use the display real-estate efficiently.
Posted by Venkata Ramayya at July 5th, 2008 at 10:57 amContary to popular belief, Apple, “Mac”, is still Windows-oriented GUI(Graphical User Interface), and MS does not own the name “windows”. There is MS-windows, i.e. “windows” by MS. There are “windows” by Apple, and a few others. MS and Apple are not the only players, contrary to popular belief. There are many manufacturers who manufacture “windows”, as in real life.
Love,
Posted by Mark Light at July 5th, 2008 at 11:10 amMark Light “not to be confused with ‘Zuckerberg’, ever…it’s not that ‘complicated’ to tell us apart”
P.S. If you are ever in Berkeley, CA, let me know and we can do lunch, or something.
Posted by Mark Light at July 5th, 2008 at 11:11 amOne con that I just found out about is that I can’t watch Netflix movies instantly on my Mac because Apple has issues with, like Juan said, dealing with other companies, so there is some issue with 3rd party license. Wish I would have known this was going to be a problem before I “switched.”
Posted by Vanessa Vazquez at July 5th, 2008 at 11:40 amThanks for the tips. I’ve been a Mac user for a while, but didn’t know about that trick to activate right mouse button options. Very handy!
@VanessaVazquez - Actually the reason you can’t watch Netflix movies has nothing to do with how Apple deals with other companies. It’s because Netflix haven’t begun using a DRM that will work on Macs. There are DRM programs out there that will work on Mac besides the version Apple uses in iTunes which they do not license. Netflix is laying the blame on the studios for not approving them, but having worked on this project I know that they just need to pick a DRM, pitch it to the studios and they’ll approve it.
Posted by Wendy Peters at July 6th, 2008 at 3:00 amLOVE YOUR ARTICLES AND YOUR READERS COMMENTS!! HOWEVER, I HAVE 20/20 VISION AND THE TYPE -FACE YOU ARE USING IS BOTH SMALL AND HARD TO READ!!
Posted by john austin at July 6th, 2008 at 1:06 pmI RECOMMEND YOU MAKE TYPE-FACE EITHER LARGER OR DARKER OR BOTH.
THANK YOU JOHN AUSTIN
RE: Juan Bermudez at July 5th, 2008 at 3:09 am.
There’s an old aphorism that goes: “Sometimes it’s better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are stupid, rather than opening it and confirming it.”
Posted by George McLauchlin at July 6th, 2008 at 1:27 pmYour FUD screed, based on misinformation, partial truths and your own ill-informed prejudices used WAY too much oxygen.
Mossberg is one of the LEAST partisan columnists out there. Maybe you should get Homeland Security involved. Mossberger and Apple are obviously anti-American conspirators secreting WMDs hither and yon. What is your major malfunction Private PC?
@Wendy Peters - Isn’t the onus of the burden on Apple, though? Ostensibly, the purpose of an OS is a platform upon which applications and files can be deployed and read. Being that there is this thing, Netflix, which does not work on OSX, shouldn’t Apple try to remedy that problem and play nice with others? Isn’t that the burden that the switcher ad’s placed on Microsoft with the launch of Vista (i.e. lack of support for particular drivers)? I actually agree with that objection and am happy so see Microsoft remedy that problem. However, it also serves as evidence of the truth in lack of support for non-Apple devices from other posters. It seems that there is just a bit of slippery logic in your post that is a problem from my perspective.
@ McLaughlin - Name a single productive thing that you added to this discussion in your post, that wasn’t just a flame against someone you disagree with? A couple things to consider:
Posted by Matt Gayetsky at July 6th, 2008 at 2:00 pm(1) How does typing waste oxygen?
(2) How DO you run CS2 on your intel-based Mac, and why is this PC-propaganda?
(3) Is Walt non-partisan? Based on my reading, I’d put him in the Mac camp, and he’d be proud to acknowledge his biases in that direction. Being biased isn’t a bad thing, as long as it’s not acknowledged as situated from a given perspective.
Dear Juan Bermudez,
I put 4GB or RAM in my iMac for under $100 dollars via NewEgg. I’m hoping for your sake you didn’t put that memory in a Windows XP box because unless it is the unstable 64-bit verions you can only see about 3.2GB of your memory using Windows XP.
I agree about the mouse but I would like to point out that I’ve got a drawer full of free mice from other folks like Dell and HP. I’ve attached a high end Logitech mouse to my iMac and it works just fine.
I’ve been doing software development for the past 20 years and I switched to Mac because it isn’t a MAC anymore IMHO.
It is a high end 64-bit Unix workstation with a gorgeous GUI that will allow me to run virtually via VM WARE all of my other OS systems and NEVER crash.
So how many software companies are still ‘breathing’ on the MS platform? Adobe has been on the MAC for decades and Apple partners with everyone very well.
Apple runs Java, Perl and even has an Apache Web Server that ships with the OS how about MS?
MS not only DOES NOT work well with other companies but they have to BUY their way in to compete when nobody wants the competition. So for example the Zune destroyed how many companies that had partnered with MS in music? How about anti-virus software? When MS got in that space and started hiding OS details in Vista from the major players that was when I decided it was time to leave the Island known as Redmond. How about virtualization? MS started up a software division doing that now while Apple just works with software companies who wish to provide it for the Mac.
Do you EVER see MS giving all of the software development tools for free and allowing you to really have access to the API?
I was very happy with XP and gave Vista a chance. MS did spin for 7 years and all they did was clone the Mac. Why would I want the half baked clone that limits me when I can by the original that works FLAWLESSLY?
Apple has come out with a major OS release almost every year in the last 5 years.
MS took 7 years and shipped a bomb. If MS wants me to use anything besides Windows XP they will have to raise the bar WAY above OS X 10.5.
I made a choice to choose the best OS AND computer HW availabe to me at the time I purchased a computer.
Get over the fact that MS lost my business. I made a VERY educated choice with an open mind. Maybe you should open your mind a little and see the other side of the coin. Not all of us are games.
By the way, why don’t you do some research and ask why (Bungie) the company that built Halo 3 for MS decided to leave the fold?
Cheers,
Posted by Ed Tidwell at July 6th, 2008 at 3:28 pmJust got my first Mac on July 4th after using Windows PCs for a dozen years. I was very familiar with Windows, to the point where I’ve become sort of the family’s amateur tech support department — software how-tos, hardware upgrades, etc. I have no experience with Vista, so I have no opinion on it. But as far as moving to a new, unfamiliar Mac:
I was worried about switching to a whole new OS and starting over from scratch. I thought it would be like learning a whole new language — like someone who writes physics textbooks in English suddenly struggling to read The Pokey Little Puppy in German. (Okay, I’m not “physics textbook” smart, but you get the idea.)
I plugged in my iMac and called my ISP to set up my account on my new computer (assuming it would be a hassle and a half). I had the phone in one hand, and with my other I started clicking through the setup process displayed on the screen. A minute or two later I was on line, and I hung up the phone. Never mind needing help — I didn’t even need any thought.
The next day I got brave and tried to set up a basic wireless network, which I’d never done before (hey, I said I was the family’s amateur tech support, keyword: amateur). Got an AirPort Express, plugged it in per the simple instructions, and now the modem and printer are wireless. The printer required some troubleshooting (known issues with the printer driver); downloading and installing new drivers was far easier on the iMac.
My computer-illiterate husband, who didn’t know anything other than Windows even existed until he saw one of those PC-Mac commercials and asked me what a Mac was, likes the iMac. I had to tell him it’s Safari instead of Explorer, and use command-Q to exit, instead of the X in the corner of the window. Everything else he figured out on his own in minutes.
There’s plenty of other stuff I’ve done in the last couple of days — downloading and installing plugins and widgets, fiddling with System Preferences, etc. But this comment has gone on long enough, don’t you think?
Shorter version: I had no clue how easy this would be. I love it.
Posted by Karen Cannon at July 6th, 2008 at 3:47 pmHope noone forgot Yvonne Schram’s questions about Macintosh and the need for Multilingual Support.
If a Macintosh’s OS is installed to include multilingual and unicode support Roman character languages and non-Roman character languages are supported, to include CJK, Cyrillic, Thai and others. They just work.
Unless there is an absolute ‘corporate’ need to install a Microsoft Office Suite, more flexible and obviously less expensive options exist.
The Neooffice variant of OpenOffice.org is a very flexible alternative, and you can’t beat the price. It is very intefgrated with OS X as far as use is concerned.
http://www.neooffice.org
It is JAVA based, so slow to start, but so flexible, and includes good .pdf export and you can have any number of different language versions, if you need to read all the labels in a different language, too.
There are also other more costly, but less of a bother than MS. Office for Mac available, too. With Neooffice/Openoffice someone can share documents among MS windows, OS X and Linux/Unix.
MY only current complaint is the current limitation of Bonjour which keeps me from having a user friendly way to share and print
Posted by Dan Kloepper at July 6th, 2008 at 7:25 pmfrom all four of the above platforms in a single home network. Should not be a real problem since OS X is UNIX underneath. Please Apple make Bonjour work with Linux and Unix, too. Some of us have to deal with a multi-platform environment/network at home and at work and we’d prefer to take advantage of our Airport based USB printers and printers attached to Macintosh, both Intel and PPC.
OH, most of the time I don’t use Safari or Explorer, but Firefox, again cross-platform consistency. But with a Mac it is easy to have Firefox, Safari, Opera and Camino all open and in use at the same time. And cut and paste from each. Only use Explorer, when the Software at the other end will not talk to anything else. OH! if you are used to a multi-button mouse, or want one to play with the UNIX interior of OS X, most of the USB mice even the wireless ones work very well with OS X out of the box.
For William Stasior: you can use the “Find” command (cmd-f) command in most applications/programs as a general search-tool, to search for words, phrases and character-strings. This includes Apple’s Mail program. Assuming Mail is active, if you key in cmd-f then key in the search-term in the text window that appears in the upper right of the toolbar, Mail will search for that term in ALL your mailboxes. I just wish there was a way to restrict the search to a single mailbox.
Posted by Terry Mahoney at July 6th, 2008 at 8:38 pmYeap…Congrats to all the super-hip, super cool mac-switchers… you rock. I mean mac is the best, after all, everytime my computer is switched on apple.com says so! Thank God VM fusion has a pretty good product though, otherwise I would be completely depressed, because when I need to do some real work I can turn the good ‘ol XP on.
Someone already asked, but no mac whizz provided an answer yet…maybe Steve Jobs can enlist his buddy Woznak to solve a small ‘windows’ problem. Can we resize them at will? I mean could we arrange them just the way we want with one click not three or five?
And…the forward delete button, just one please, on MacBook Pros…please, pretty please? It’s not really going to prove that you are inferior to the PC’s if you adopt some of their better features… I mean we already know that apples are better whenever we sign to any apple dominated media.
And could you get rid of that useless enter key to the left of the arrow keys… no one really needs it there and if you hit by mistake when things are highlighted, text tends to disappear.
And… this is a hard request, quixotic almost, could every mac-switcher please get a credit line to buy peripherals that are most often 2-3x the price of the pc’s line - yes I know they are not as cool - but they do the job.
I did get this MacBook Pro and I find your article very helpful, because I was forced to get a mac and although I am underwhelmed and not impressed as far as the so-called intuitive nature of the Apple system, at least I know that roughly 2 years from now I know the apple software made by MS will catch up to what I had in the PC system, so it’s not that bad, and in the meantime, I can use VM Fusion and hope it doesn’t crash (like it did once already) with something that MS has available for the cheaper and so much easier… PC systems.
Posted by sean rodrick at July 6th, 2008 at 9:21 pmI also am a new convert who stuck with windows from Windows95 thru WindowsXP. I was shopping for a laptop and heard nothing but bad things about Vista and nothing but good things about Apple/Leopard. After a short test run at an apple store I got a macbook and am totally pleased with the product. A feature that I find useful that nobody has mentioned is the shortcut/zoom function.
If you press -control- and use a two finger scroll upwards, the entire screen will zoom in. Pressing -control- and using a two finger scroll downwards will zoom the screen back to normal. I only know how to use the feature using the trackpad on my macbook but assume the feature can be used with a mouse as well. I often use this feature to read small font on websites. It’s better than getting a pair of bifocals…
Posted by Jim Baker at July 6th, 2008 at 11:18 pm@David Miers
“While your in mouse preferences be sure to turn on the right click as default setting have both right and left click as primary, change the right to secondary. The mighty mouse does not appear to have 2 buttons for right and left click, but it does angle depending on which side of the mouse you push.”
If this is true on my iMac, then it is pure gold dust. I figured the Mighty Mouse would be more mighty that it’s initial appearances, but never figured out why Apple might call it that other than to be cutesy.
Thanks!!
Posted by Abner Germanow at July 7th, 2008 at 6:39 amMy company is a marketing consultancy for some pretty high-end clients. We use macs in the office, but we often work on-site and about 90% of the desktops are PCs. This can be a relatively painful experience, but there’s always an IT guy who can come and fix whatever ails the PC.
What’s really interesting is that over the past year or so I’ve made it a point to ask our contacts (senior level managers and C-level execs) what computer they use AT HOME. Easily three-quarters or more have Macs at home. That’s probably because they don’t have a tech guy who can come to the house at night and fix, remove spyware and viruses, etc. I think it says something about corporate America that the herd plays the PC game at work, but at home uses a little more intelligence.
Posted by Michael Finicky at July 7th, 2008 at 8:32 amOn Black Friday ‘07 my life would change forever. Got my Macbook from Apple. Been hearing nothing but amazing things about Apple and its products. Within minutes I was creating and personalizing. My Dell desktop has been collecting dust ever since. After my purchase I made several visits to my local Apple Store. Loved the experience there so much and the way they cater to ALL visitors that I am now part of an incredible family. Nothing makes me happier then to enrich customers lives. Whether they walk away with a Mac or not. Its NOT about pushing products its about educating and informing.
Posted by Jon Samuel at July 7th, 2008 at 4:17 pmA couple observations:
The Mighty Mouse stinks. But most people can afford to buy a $20-50 replacement. I have never been satisfied with the mice that came with my computers. I’ve always shopped for better mice.
Sean, sounds like you’re really frustrated! Possible answers to your questions:
1) Resizing windows, use the green button or click and hold on the lower right-hand corner of the window to resize. The Mac does NOT maximize windows full screen automatically and it never will. That’s a Microsoft thing. If you want it to cover the entire screen, you’ll have to position it that way.
2) The forward-delete button on a MacBook Pro: Hold down the function (fn) in the lower left corner and press the “delete” button.
3) The reason there’s an enter key on the MBP keyboard is that on the Mac enter has a different function from return. It’s a different key code. If you must get rid of it, look at “fkeys” at http://www.kodachi.com/software/fKeys/
**Caution**: Fkeys installs a kernel extension that could make your machine unstable (as any kernel extension could if it was buggy).
4) Peripherals: Many third party peripherals can be used with the Mac. I’m using a crappy eHome router that works just fine. Well, it works as well as it would in Win XP It was $30.
You can use most printers, keyboards, mice, USB hubs, USB microphones and other USB audio, switches, many USB cellular modems, and whatnot. There are peripherals that only have driver/software support for Windows. There are also Mac specific peripherals. Sometimes they are more expensive.
There’s not always a clear-cut advantage to using a Mac. You will likely be happy with a Mac if you use combinations of the following: Word/Excel/Powerpoint, the web, photography, camcorders, consumer software, pro design, publishing and video software, Photoshop, open-source software, music software, DVD creation, iPod, consumer Web creation such as iWeb or Adobe apps, Javascript and Java, calendar, many Google apps, Unix apps, some business software such as POS, SOHO accounting, etc.
If you’re an Access user, Quickbooks, Autocad, real estate agent, Exchange (although Mac solutions exist — with occasional issues), GPS (although Mac solutions exist), proprietary Microsoft apps, etc. you will likely need to run Windows in virtualization.
Also, if you love Windows and you’re not crazy about learning something different, you may be unhappy. The Mac operating system is very sophisticated and well designed, but it will not solve all your computing problems. Macs have goofy glitches sometimes just like any computer.
For me, I’m a Mac fanatic. I’m well-versed in the various versions of Windows (since 2.0!). I just like the Mac much better. At this point there is NOTHING I can’t do in Mac OS X that I want to do. And I think the Mac does most everything more smoothly and intuitively than Windows. But that’s my opinion. Not everyone will agree.
Have fun.
Bot
Posted by Ex2 Bot at July 8th, 2008 at 11:53 amMac Fanatic
I just received a MacBook Pro and am having trouble synchronizing the calendar and address book on my blackberry Curve with Entourage. After spending hours installing and uninstalling Pocket Mac any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by Beverly Lyons at July 8th, 2008 at 12:47 pmI didn’t see anyone mentioning the preview function for documents as a nice feature; just select a document and hit the space bar. It’ll let you check whether this is the doc you want without opening the application associated with it.
Posted by Rick Schoffelen at July 9th, 2008 at 12:44 amBeverly
Posted by Dean Lombard at July 9th, 2008 at 6:24 amUnfortunately Pocket Mac is a bit of a dud. I struggled with it for a year (I have an iPaq) before giving up. To their credit, they gave me a refund. I then bought their competitor, Missing Sync (www.markspace.com) and haven’t looked back. It’s fantastic.
Mind you, I was never able to completely uninstall Pocket Mac. I had to do an archive and clean install of the OS (Tiger at that time) to get it out of iSync
Good luck!
I was finally able to get PocketMac to work by synching with address book and ical as well as entourage and so my calendar is in ical and both address books in address book and entourage are working. Not elegant, but it works.
Posted by Beverly Lyons at July 11th, 2008 at 9:31 amJUAN: You’re certainly entitled to your opinion but you are in a VERY small minority of people who, once exposed to both MAC and WINDOWS PCs, don’t agree that MAC is the superior platform by a wide margin. I’m sorry, but you seem like that bitter customer who exists to complain about everything and will never be happy with anything. So much of your diatribe is factually inaccurate and applicable only to you that it makes no sense to post it here. It’s obvious you needed to vent but, come on, that’s what shrinks and toll free Microsoft customer support numbers are for.
VANESSA: This might sound cold but, the only person you should blame for your Netflix issue is you. It’s not up to Apple to do your homework or promote their competition. To be fair, Netflix does an excellent job of making it EXPLICITLY clear in several different places on their site that instant movie downloads are only viewable on Windows computers. The fact that they do not offer the service for Mac has nothing to do with Apple “not working well” with other companies, as WENDY points out in her comments. If your comment was correct, there would be no way Apple could have grown iTunes into the biggest legal digital entertainment hub on the internet. You are not bound to any contract with Netflix so you could drop their service at any time if you choose. Aside from music and music videos, iTunes offers an ever growing library of movies and TV series for download (purchase or rental) and viewing on your Mac (or Windows PC), iPod and AppleTV.
Personally, I switched from Windows to Mac at home five years ago. I used to belittle Mac users…until I became one. I have personally convinced two dozen friends, family members and co-workers to switch over the years. NONE of them has ever looked back. I still keep a Dell laptop with Windows Vista installed (because my employer bought it for me) and I hate using the thing. I turn on my Mac Book and I am up and running in less that 60 seconds. I turn on my newer Dell laptop and wait…and wait…and wait. It takes almost a full five minutes before the thing is up and running and finally able to recognize my home wireless network…and that’s when everything runs smoothly. I’ve even stripped out all the extra, useless junk that comes pre-packed with every Windows PC and the thing still runs like a turtle. Stick to your Windows computers if you must but, trust me, hop on a Mac and you’ll see why those of us who made the switch are very happy we did.
Posted by Ron Hebshie at July 19th, 2008 at 9:00 pmSEAN RODRICK: Maybe Microsoft can enlist you to write their next round of ads. I notice when Vista went bust (and if you see my previous post, you will know I speak from experience), those “WOW” ads that were everywhere for months suddenly disappeared. It’s such a shame that your ill-informed sarcasm is wasted in a forum dominated by those of us who are obviously just mindless Mac zombies. I’m sure I could respond with some equally pithy commentary that, unlike yours, would include a few facts but then why waste my Mac-infused brain cells on an idiot? So let me cut your rant down to size in plain English.
Sounds like you don’t really use a Mac, or at least have not touched one in a few years. Features like SPACES allow you to arrange and size your desktop windows any way you want until you’re blue in the face. Spaces is also fully customizable. Unlike that terrible animated window scroll feature in Vista, Apple’s actually works and is more than useless window dressing. You can say the same thing about DASHBOARD and WIDGETS on a Mac, an additional layer of functional, interactive mini-apps that can be called up and dismissed with one click of the mouse. Apple offered both DASHBOARD and WIDGETS for several years before Microsoft ripped them off (yet again) with GADGETS in Vista. As is typical of Windows, it was a pale, poorly conceived copy that most Vista users I know (me included) turned off after being annoyed by it. Go Microsoft!!
If your quibbles come down to some keys on a keyboard that you don’t like, here’s a mad cap idea: don’t use them. Keyboards are designed for multiple users and configurations. Those keys you don’t like might be useful to others.
Finally, your comment about peripherals is 100% baloney. As always, the dwindling numbers of PC die-hards have to fall back on outright lies in order to make their point. When I switched to Mac, ALL of my existing peripherals (printer, mouse, speakers, external drive, etc.) still worked just fine. I didn’t have to buy anything new except the computer itself. Because it was a Mac, the monitor and computer came as a single, integrated unit and I had 90% fewer wires, connections and cords. Point of fact, Apple offers a few key peripherals for their computers but most are made by third party vendors like HP, Bose, Canon, etc. If you find the Apple made ones are not to your liking, there are numerous alternatives at multiple price points readily available at most major electronics retailers in store and online (ever heard of Best Buy?). Additionally, virtually ALL peripherals, from keyboards to digital cameras and printers to input devices, are compatible with BOTH Windows and Mac. Same printer, same price…period. Where you will fine a difference is in the installation process. For the most part, you plug the item into a Mac and it’s up and running. Try doing that with a Windows PC…no, they like to torture you with one of their infamous “installation wizards” and a CD full of drivers to install. Next time you want to create fiction, do it on your blog…you know, somewhere where the Mac dominated media can’t point out your lies and misinformation.
Posted by Ron Hebshie at July 19th, 2008 at 9:42 pmSome time Ago My sisters who live in Houston Purchased a Mac, And I Just hate using it. One of the things I hate most about it is this whole x doesn’t quit the application thing that you mentioned. Every time the program closes instead of Quits I just want to find the guy invented it and choke him to Death. I don’t understand why anyone in their right mind would put an X there, and why it’s red. Red X means don’t do this unless your sure you want to do this, and is why in windows is correctly associated with Quit. Why not put a green check mark there instead. I For one would never click a green check mark to quit an application. I don’t get it was this guy trying to be Funny. Was he one those Practical Jokers who liked to play pranks on people. I Can see him now playing his prank. It would go something like this:
Look dude this guys going to push the red X thinking it’s going to Quit the Application. Look He Did it! Hey Bob the programs still running! No it’s no I pushed the red X! See all I have to do is push the Icon for the program on the Dock. The application opens and everyone laughs.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that’s absolutely Hilarious, and I Understand why someone would do it but why did they actually decide to to ship the Damn Operating System like that. If Someone did that at my company I would fire them right away. But no they’re not that stupid they know that people are going to be driven crazy by this feature, and they may have to go the Mac Store and ask why Applications aren’t Quitting when they push the Red Button with an X on It. Red as In Red Light which Means Stop, and X which Means don’t do this. I Mean seriously this is the most screwed up thing Ever.
Also I ROTFLMAO every time Someone on Here Says I Accidentally Quit the Application.
REALLY YOU PUSHED A BUTTON WITH A BIG FREAKING X ON IT AND YOUR SURPRISED THAT THE PROGRAM QUIT!!! WHAT DID YOU EXPECT IT TO DO KEEP RUNNING, OH WAIT THAT’S IT DOES ON YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM!!!! PLEASE CAN SOMEONE TELL ME THAT THEIR JUST KIDDING ABOUT ACCIDENTALLY QUITING APPLICATIONS!!!!!
PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
I MEAN I CAN UNDERSTAND HOW SOMEONE COULD ACCIDENTALLY CLOSE AN APPLICATION, BUT I NEVER THOUGHT SOMEONE WOULD ACTUALLY BE STUPID ENOUGH TO ACCIDENTALLY QUIT AN APPLICATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOOK WHAT YOU DID NOW I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Jose Olivas at August 3rd, 2008 at 12:30 amYou did not mention an important aspect for switchers:
Macs can run Windows applications, including Windows itself, and just as fast and stable, if not faster and stabler.
Think the reverse will ever be true? Never in your wildest dreams.
And, to the guy right above me, and to you too, Walt, I regret to inform you that you both must be hallucinating. There is no X in a red circle. There are three wet/shiny-looking buttons at the top left of every window, red, amber and green. None have an X in them.
And, we Mac users tend not to quit open apps, so we don’t need a Quit button staring at us all day. The multi-threading Intel processor is not taxed in the least by leaving unused apps open in the background.
Posted by Tom Prager at August 3rd, 2008 at 3:27 pmWilliam Stasser seems to have a problem searching attachment files in his email, claiming that attachments are not adequately supported by Spotlight.
I set up a quick experiment by sending an email to myself from work … attached was a Microsoft Word document containing containing a unique text phrase. When I got home, I fired up the iMac, started Mail, then started Spotlight and typed in the unique phrase. Spotlight found that phrase in the email attachment, and it happened so fast that I didn’t finish typing before the attachment was identified.
Spotlight was quick and efficient at finding a text phrase inside a file which was attached to an email message. Did I misunderstand his problem?
Posted by walt pinkston at August 7th, 2008 at 4:16 pm