Slashdot Mirror
Windows to Mac Migration Guide/Advice?
Harpa wonders: "Having spent more years than I care to count living and working with various Windows machines, I'm about to get my first Apple (an iBook). While eagerly waiting for the machine to be shipped, I'm starting to realize that changes I'm going to have to deal with may involve more than getting used to one less mouse button!I'm wondering if any Slashdot folk can help. What does an old-time Windows user have to learn/unlearn? To what extent can my Apple live happily with my existing PC's, my printer, my network? Everything I've found so far seems to be either geared for people who've never used a computer before or for existing Mac users. Is there any info available that supports us 'converts'?"
Buy a multi-button usb mouse. It will work like you want. I made the switch in a single day. You can too.
Right after you get your copy of MS Office!
...with a few linux and *bsd PCs and such...and windows occasionally...
[opinion]
the one button mouse is okay most of the time. Some programs (ie Shake) will require a mouse with more than one button. Those are rare though, and I think you'll quickly learn how to use control+click as a substitute.
The one upside about the one button mouse is that its great for both people who mouse with their right and left hands. Microsoft mice and such rarely are comfortable for the minority of people who are left handed mousers.
[/opinion]
The one huge bizarre difference between OS X and Windows would be the interface. Application windows won't have menu bars for the most part in each window, the three buttons (close/minimize/shrink) are on opposite sides, the dock is a bigger version of those little icons next to the start menu you can click (forgot what those were called), the menu bar could be considered the less customizable Mac equivalent.
Icons are on the opposite side of the screen (along the right, not the left) generally unless you move the icons, and windows-only wallpaper will be useless.
On the flip side, I find that the Mac community (sans the n00bs) is absolutely wonderful to go to help for, but just make sure to google first. Mac developers and programs for the Mac are absolutely gorgeous. Once in a while you'll come across something that won't quite be the same, like FCP or Blender, but thats rare.
There's also the BSD foundation, which is quite handy. If you're used to working with *BSD or Linux, you'll feel right at home. for development theres the free xcode tools, gcc, et cetera. if you want, there's also gentoo for mac os x (basically just portage), darwinports, and fink to make your life easier
It'll probably take around a week or so to get used to it. But after you switch, you'll wish you could use it all the time (: Good luck, and nice machine.
I'd say that if you're somewhat familiar with Linux/BSD you'll be very comfortable in OS X. Just start in the Terminal and work your way out. If you want your traditional UNIXy tools, install the Fink project (which often leaves much to be desired, especially when installing fink itself, but it'll get the job done)
For me, other essentials include Adium (a multi-protocol instant messenger), Firefox (sorry Safari) USB Overdrive (I find USB mice to move much too slowly even at max system settings), and Meteorologist (little weather-sensing menubar app).
macosxhints also has a good number of tips and tricks that you might want to through.
Other than that, I can't think of any real problems I had migrating over. It takes a few days to get used to, but it really is fairly intuitive. Try to experiment a bit, particularly with your normal 'window' habits. You may find you like to do things a different way. I used to run everything maximized, now I don't ever run something maximized anymore, despite having a smaller screen. I couldn't tell you why, it just feels more comfortable to do things this way for me. If you have any question, just remember there's a 'help' command in every application, the help docs are usually very nice.
Random and weird software I've written.
> "How the hell do Windows users get any work done?"
by running everything in maximised, and switching between apps using the taskbar.
i didn't see the big deal about expose until i saw the way most mac users use thier computers, with a bazillion overlapping windows all over the screen.
now expose for my desk would be usefull, where the hell are those damn keys anyway?
Because after all, once you blow something up and your system is down, it's so EASY to get to online documentation.....
Books have saved my ass so many times it's not funny. Get a book. Pogue's "Missing Manual" series is pretty darn good.
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
Seriously. Apple is the only company that even comes close to getting drag and drop right. This tends to cause a problem with Windows users I've trained because they are used to having to have a specialized app or process for doing everything, so they do things like assume they need to go buy Roxio Toast because they don't have any CD burning software. It never occurs to them to try just dragging some files into the CD. A key idea in working with MacOS, especially the Finder, is that they try hard to maintain the illusion that something's representation in the GUI is in fact the thing itself. Hence, you add files to a CD by adding those files to the CD.
Need to e-mail someone's address book info to a co-worker, but you don't have your mail app open? Try dragging that person's name from your address book to the Mail app icon in the dock. Kinda cool how it automagically opens mail and starts a blank e-mail with a vcard containing the contact's info already in there as an attatchment. If your coworker has a Mac, he/she can just drag that attatchment's icon straight from Mail to the Address Book - no need to save it first. Similarly, you can IM an image you see on the Web to a friend by just dragging that image from your web browser to iChat.
Granted, a lot of this Drag and Drop coolness has become a bit bastardized on OS X, but it's still mostly there and I'd say it's the single largest difference between Windows and OS X.
(That one button mouse thing is mostly a cosmetic issue; you can buy a two (or 3) button mouse, and if you're on a laptop and don't have a mouse plugged in it's just as easly to hold down the Splat key and click to get your right clicks. Still, I agree that if they're going to do things like offering X11 bundled with the OS they should get a clue and at least make an option to get your laptop with 3 buttons underneath the touchpad.)
I use Linux and Mac about 50% of my time each. Each has its own peculiarities and its own strength but Macs were designed to be operated using keyboard shortcuts.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Mac is way more different from Windows than other *nix systems are. You're going
to find thousands of little things you never imagined would be different. Taken
individually, none of them are a big deal.
As for the mouse, spend the ten bucks and get yourself a USB scrollmouse. Most
major Mac software knows how to use the extra buttons (including a middle button)
if you have them, so if you're accustomed to a multibutton mouse, get one. One
less difference to get used to.
The things that will bug you are much more subtle differences...
* You switch between windows on Windows, but on a Mac you switch between apps.
* On Windows if you close an app's last window, it exits; on a Mac, it doesn't.
(This was really annoying on classic versions, because doubleclicking the
app's desktop shortcut subsequently didn't open a window. OS X fixes this.)
* You can only resize a window from the lower-right-hand corner.
* There is no maximize. There's a "resize", but it's nothing like the same.
(On the plus side, you get windowshading, which Windows lacks.)
* The filesystem is arranged rather differently. (I don't mean the lowlevel
technical details, but rather where different types of files are kept.)
Everything you know about where things are on the hard drive -- forget it.
* Menubars work rather differently.
I'm really just scratching the surface here. Everything is different, from
how you open zip files to the fundamental dissimilarity of the dock to the
Windows taskbar. There's a reason Mac people don't like Windows: it's
nothing like what they're used to.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
There are very few crashes for normal users of Macs, and the ones that do occur generally affect only the program crashing rather than bringing down the whole machine.
I love my mac, but I've heard this from several sources and it just isn't true. When my mac goes down, it goes down hard. My screen is darkened and a message appears in at least 4 languages telling me I must power off my computer. (Grey screen of death?). Although this has only happened to me 3-4 times in the past two years, I have two XP machines, neither of which has given me a BSOD (ever). Maybe I'm just the odd case, but as far as I can tell the Mac OS X isn't any more stable than XP.
That said, I plan on replacing my XP machines with Macs as I get the chance. The benefits defiantly outweigh the costs.
Icons will clutter the screen irrespective of your foreground app.
But isn't that the point of desktop? You can drop things to it if you so choose? You don't have to place icons on the desktop. Unlike Windows which clutters desktop with almost every shortcut and crap, it's up to the user how to use the desktop. If it's cluttered, it's your own damn fault.
It's hidden somewhere else. Good luck finding it. Don't think you can right click for it either.
Mac menu hierarchy, from left to right is:
System - Application - File - Edit - App specific menus - Window - Help.
"Shut Down", "Restart", "Force Quit..." are system functions. Gee, where could that be?
Steve Jobs decided that your desktop wallpaper is much more important than any kind of work you might want to be using your computer for. You'll basically need to open an application then go through another procedure to maximise it, instead of the typical "launch an app, use the app" approach most people prefer.
By invoking Steve Jobs, it's clear that you are trolling.
Believe it or not, Windows way is stupid. Most apps don't need the whole screen for itself. Notice how you have lots of margins when you use Word. Should you cover the whole screen with Minesweeper then? Mac desktop is always available unless you choose not to make it so. This facilitate doing thing such as drag and drop to the desktop quickly. For example, I find your post amusing and I can just highlight it and drag 'n drop it to my desktop to make a text clip that I may file away or drag and paste it to a text editor later. I don't have to fumble looking for a place to drop the text clip. Easy as pie.
As for maximize it, most apps "remember" where and how big the previous windows are. I don't have to resize Safari or Word windows every time.
The rest of you fallacies are typical trolling comments.
Mouse buttons? Buy any 3-button USB mouse and plug it in. No driver necessary. Keyboard shortcuts? You can customize it. MP3? Mac's been there from the get go. Whatever dude. This is a typical response from one who never uses a Mac.
I made the switch recently - bought a Powerbook after years of working with Windows and some dinking around on Linux. After the hype, I was expecting great things from OS X. While I deffinitly appreciate its Unix functionality, I have been deeply dissapointed by the GUI. It pains me to say that Windows still makes the best desktop out there.
My biggest complaint, naturally, is the lack of a second mouse button. Sure Control + click generally works, but it requires a second hand, and, on many applications, the resulting context menu is often very much lacking. I guess its because Mac developers aren't expecting people to use a second mouse button - or the Contrh + click hack - so they don't bother putting anything usefull in the context menus. In Safari, if you control-click, you get 4 options - as compared to more than a dozen if you right click in either Firefox or Internet Explorer on Windows. Some folks will try to sell you on the lack of options being a feature - simplicity, clean interface, or whatever - but I don't buy it. I want to be able to right click on an image in my browser and select "Properties" and there are the image properties. That doesn't work on Safari, which is one of the reasons its a poor browser to use as a development tool.
Another thing I dislike about the Macintosh GUI is the inability to maximize windows. You can't do it. They have one of those little gumdrop buttons on their windows that makes it look like you should be able to maximize a window, but it doesn't work. It just makes it bigger, according to whatever arbitrary size was picked by the developer of the application. Mac lovers will tell you otherwise, that maximizing windows is a bad thing, because it breaks up the metaphoracle desktop interface chi, or whatever. These people are delusional. I've used Windows long enough to understand that maximizing a window is the best way to not be visually distracted by desktop background clutter. Moreover, not being able to maximize a window makes it too easy - especially when using a notebook track pad - to accidentally click on one of the background windows and have it pop up in you face unexpectedly, obscuring whatever it was you were trying to do. That pisses me off. A similar problem occurs when you are trying to scroll a window using OS X's scroll bars - which are pretty, but way too thin. If you miss the scroll bar by two pixels, you wind up clicking on the background window - and it pops up in your face, causing you to swear audibly while trying to find your window again. Maybe its my fault for being uncoordinated, I don't have that problem when using maximized windows.
Another problem - the Finder is just weak in comparison to Windows Explorer or even the Konqueror on KDE. Mind you - the default Windows Explorer sucks pretty hard, but if you figure out how to configure it right, it can be a strong and usefull tool. I havn't figured out how to configure the finder in to something usefull yet - it still won't show me a decent file-tree structure, and I find myself having to guess at what subdirectory I'm in. Maybe there is a better way I could be using it, I don't know, but I thought the whole point of the Mac user interface was that it was supposed to be easy.
And it is pretty easy - if you want to do things exactly the way the Mac interface designers expect you to. Trouble is, they designed it with the expectation that you are a non-computer savy grandmother or art student, or something like that. But power users who switched for the unix goodies are left high and dry by the limitations of the user interface. I'm still awaiting a computer that will excell in both the desktop AND command line interfaces. OS X ain't it.
SpyDock: Scientific Python in a Docker container
Noooooooooooooooooo!
This question is how to migrate from Windows to the Mac, not buy a Mac and use it the same silly way that Windows does. Go and download Quicksilver. If you know how to type at least 3 or 4 characters you can use Quicksilver. Trust me, there is no better way to launch an application.
Btw, yes, I do have my Applications folder in my dock, but I don't remember the last time I used it. I'm guessing that its for the rare time that I use some program that I don't use that much and can't remember the name of it, but like I said, I don't remember when that was.
Actually it sizes the Window to display all the content: ie it makes it as big as it needs to be and no more. I found this disconcerting for a long time but always thought it made sense and I'm getting used to it.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.