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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'?"
There are a number of conversion utilities/packages which I will let you Google for. :)
Otherwise just don't expect it to be like Windows.
And VersionTracker along with the Apple OSX download page will be your new friends...
Buy a multi-button usb mouse. It will work like you want. I made the switch in a single day. You can too.
I got myself a PowerMac a month or so ago. I've found that there were actually more things I had to temporarily unlearn going back to work, than I had to unlearn going to the Mac.
:) Aside from the eye candy (or iCandy?) aspect, that's a very useful feature - one keystroke, and you can see _every_ open window at once. A related question... anyone know of a free Expose clone for Windows XP?
One of the main things I had to unlearn on the Mac was pressing home/end to go to the beginning/end of a line - in OSX, they go to top and bottom of the document. Ctrl-left/right arrows are what are used instead.
But after only having had my Mac a few days, I started doing Mac things without thinking. I kept (and still do!) reaching for the F9 key. You'll see what I mean soon enough.
I think the biggest issue for me was switching my Windows iTunes library over to Mac iTunes, since even though my music is stored on a shared network drive, Apple's pathnames are different than Windows.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
http://www.apple.com/switch/ talks about switching from Mac to PC, and includes answers to FAQ's on pages like: http://www.apple.com/switch/questions/ and http://www.apple.com/switch/questions/index2.shtml
Just about any USB mouse will work on a Mac, so if you have an existing USB multi button mouse on a PC, try it and you may find it works fine (and the Mac will allow to set the right button to do contextual menus etc).
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy and intuitive everything is on the Mac Platform. When I switched (about a year ago now). I'd say within a week I'd totally forgotten all of my windows ways and was happily hitting up the Apple key to get at the context menus.
Congratulations on your iBook purchase, you'll be one of us "holier than thou" Mac snobs that you've always hated in no time!
"I wish I had a Kryptonite cross, because then you could keep both Dracula AND Superman away." --Jack Handy
I've helped quite a few friends make the switch. They're pretty happy users as far as I can tell!
The best thing you can do is make friends with other Mac users, especially true Mac geeks. If they've been using Mac OS X for long enough and they're real geeks, they'll have a lot of great answers for you and be able to personally recommend solutions to your problems because they've run into those things and tried a few solutions themselves.
Don't get a book. No one actually reads them after they buy them.
Also, if there's something you're used to on your PC (like your two-button mouse), there's often times a good equivalent or an exact equivalent on the Mac. Using a Mac doesn't mean giving up absolutely everything that was nice about the PC (even though, as a good Zealot, I would claim that list is somewhat short).
I use this Logitech mouse on both of my Macs, and I love it. Very basic and cheap, but it never fails me and I get the two buttons and scroll wheel that Apple didn't automatically include.
If senility was a race, I would win.
Your network should just work. OS X out of the box is set to use DHCP. It is easy to configure the networking parameters if necessary, and it supports network profiles so you can have different settings for home, work, and at the lanparty or whatever. Through Samba, it supports Windows file sharing. There is a "Network" pane in Finder that lets you browse your network similar to Network Neighborhood. You can also mount NFS, SMB, FTP, and other wacky filesystems. It is as easy as going to Go->Connect to Server... in Finder (or Cmd-K).
Is your printer USB? Does it work with CUPS? If OS X doesn't directly support your printer, slam it into one of your Windows machines and use networked printing. OS X can do it via CUPS' IPP, LPD, etc.
I would suggest grabbing a Microsoft Intellmouse Optical with scroll wheel, though. I can't stand the Apple mouse.
You might want to throw iTunes on all your Windows machines and take advantage of Rendezvous, so you can play all your music on all your machines.
I would also suggest getting Microsoft Office 2004 for OS X if you do any work that involves word processing, slideshows, spreadsheeting and charting, etc. It is a very slick package and I like it much better than Office for Windows. Oddly enough, the features in the OS X version are slightly different.
Some third-party software you might consider getting (check for it on VersionTracker.com):
* OSXvnc - So you can connect to your Mac remotely. Might not be as important on a laptop.
* Quicksilver: A really nice application launcher that lets you just hit Cmd-Space and start typing the name of any app, contact, photo, etc on your system to open it.
* SSHKeychain: Never enter a SSH passphrase again
* Remote Desktop Connection (http://www.microsoft.com/mac): Good for connecting to your XP machines from your Mac.
* Roxio Toast Titanium: Decent CD/DVD burning software
* If you like multiple desktops, get Desktop Manager
* Chicken of the VNC: A VNC client
* Camino: If you don't like Safari for some reason, this is Mozilla with a pretty Aqua UI
I went from being an Apple hater from the pre-OS X days to now loving my Apple PowerMac G5. Recently, I even got sucked in enough to buy an iPod, Apple Cinema Display, etc. I hope you enjoy your purchase.
Beware, Nugget is watching... See?
...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.
The other replies refer you to the Apple Switch site and it is valuable. The Versiontracker site and the versiontracker suite are well worth the annual fee. You will have Apple's automatic software update for OS and Apple Apps and then you have the versiontracker product that supports BOTH Apple and third-party apps. It's invaluable.
I really find the OSXlist a great resource.
If you have Micro$oft data, bite the bullet and buy their office suite (if you can claim student or educator status, the price for three installs is below $200.00) and you have transparent exchange between platforms.
As for the problems that will crop up, the best utilities are Techtool Pro 4, xupport and Diskwarrior.
Networking, printing and email are a snap. If your printer isn't supported in native OSX 10.3.5 then look into the free CUPS and GIMP print apps. I can print to anything but a daisywheel....
I like Logitech trackballs over 3 button / scroll-wheel rodents - but I own and use all. A Right-Click is CTRL-Click on the single button rodent.
Finally, get a copy of the keyboard shortcuts (Xupport has a list) and learn them. The productivity increase is at least 10:1 when you learn the shortcuts.
Enjoy!
How to uninstall a program.
I looked everywhere. No friggin uninstallers for practically anything. There was the occasional one from the odd app., but most programs had nothing.
Then I asked someone. You throw the Application icon away. That's it. The vast majority of the apps. files are stored within a package which appears as the app. icon. aside from a few preference files, there's nothing else left.
No hidden DLL's, no registry to clean. It was freaky.
2. You will learn keystrokes. The GUI is clean and simple but to do things really quick you learn keystrokes.
3. Less icons. I think is due to the nature of executables but there are fewer icons. In Windows almost every file is an icon (unless hidden). In Mac, the only icons that you see with applications are the ones you need to click on to execute.
4. Adopt Unix user conventions. OS X is based on Unix. You need to have a root (admin) account and an everyday use account. If you need to do anything that requires admin privileges (installing software), OS X will ask you for your admin password seamlessly.
5. Be hands off when installing hardware. The operating system will recognize and install without much intervention. Although Windows has gotten better about this, I feel it asks me too many questions about what it needs to do. If it doesn't recognize it, check on whether it is properly installed.
6. If you really want to tinker, learn Unix and open a terminal window.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Important URLs:
Important Apps:
That's the jist of things i give them. Besides that. play with expose. it is godlike. i recommend setting the screen corners for maximum efficiency. Besides that, the best thing you can do is to just play around with the apps and system until you're comfortable
- tristan
My advice as someone who switched about a year ago is quite simple.
:)
Just switch. Stop using your PC immediately. If there's something you think you can only do on your PC, you're probably wrong. In my experience, I was able to find freeware mac programs to do the tasks I was accustomed to doing on the PC in a matter of minutes (oh the joys of drag-and-drop to install)
Of course, for me, this wasn't exactly volluntary for me, as the Hard Drive in my PC semi-crashed two weeks after I got the mac (was able to get data off thank god, but the drive was toasted).
Had I not switched to my mac (and just had my PC laptop on me), I'd be scrambling to replace the drive immediately. I eventually replaced it about 8 months later
Honestly, if you try to use the two in tandem, you will instinctively clutch to the PC with which you're more familiar, and you'll end up being less happy in the long run.
And since it seems like the thing to do on this thread, here's a list of software I use
--OS X Mail -- the built-in mail client is top-notch and has awesome spam filtering. use it.
--MS Office -- It's actually BETTER on the mac. There's really no good alternative at the moment and I have no complaints.
--iTunes -- accept no substitutes
--Adium -- Equivilant to trillian on the pc but with a nicer interface and 100% free/GPL
--Transmit -- FTP client. Shareware. Don't know of any decent free ones.
--iCal -- another apple app. simply amazing calendar manager. very simple and powerful
--SubEthaEdit -- great simple text editor with syntax highlighting and a cool collaboration feature. Free.
--JEdit -- More complicated editor for the bigger PHP projects. For those of us afraid of emacs.
--QuickSilver OR LaunchBar -- interesting information organization/retreival tool. check them out. they're quite interesting
--Toast -- Commercial app for burning CDs. for 95% of data and audio CDs, OSX's built-in support is good enough, but Toast is nice to have for burning more obscure cd formats.
--Acquisition -- world's best P2P client ever. forget anything you ever knew about gnutella.
--Azureus -- Great BitTorrent client
--Safari/Firefox/IE -- All have their ups all have their downs. I use safari / firefox most of the time. safari has annoying javascript and css problems, but is otherwise perfect. firefox doesn't intergrate into the OS nicely. IE is outdated, but unlike the windows version, doesn't suck too badly.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
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.)
The largest problem for me was starting to trust that the machine would handle all my files correctly.... Seriously...
I've always been very 'file-centered', meaning that I wanted to have control of where my files would go on a hard drive. In DOS and later Windows you had to... or you lost track of everything. If I copied digital pictures to my Windows machine, I would copy them myself to the correct location, and then tell my photo editing program where they are located.
The drag and drop functions of iPhoto and iTunes take care of your files for you, so you work the other way around. You let the application handle the file copying and archiving. These programs are meant to be very easy for users. A lot of functions on the Mac work that way, and I really had to get used to this.
In the beginning I would try to copy pictures myself to the correct directory, only to find that when I imported them in iPhoto, not a link but the entire file was put into the iPhoto library. I really had to 'unlearn' wanting control these actions myself..
Another thing that will be difficult to get used to is the lack of viruses. I've always envied Windows folks who get to come to work on the day a big virus is going on and basically sit around and do nothing until the virus is cleaned up.... So you'll have to get used to not having as many days off; then again, you'll be more productive, so you'll be able to leave work early.
In short, be prepared to smile a lot when you're using your computer. A lot of users find it difficult at first, but it gets easier.
There's no simple way to focus the menu from the keyboard like when you hit the "Alt" key in Windows or Linux.
In System Prefs, select Keyboand & Mouse, Keyboard Shortcuts tab, and check "Turn on full keyboard access". Press control-F1 to get into the menu, type the first letter(s) of a menu item to activate it.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
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.
One of the things I haven't seen here that I like to do is drag the Applications folder to the right-hand side of the Dock (Between the Trash and the bar that separates open apps from the other dock items). Once you've done that, Ctrl-Click (or Right-click) on the Applications icon in the dock, and you'll get a nice pop-up menu of all the Applications available on your system. You can repeat this with any folder, so you can easily get to the contents, without having to drill-down through Finder windows.
One tip I have not seen here is this: Assuming that you go with an aftermarket mouse. And assuming that this mouse has the clickable wheel. I suggest you configure said clickable wheel to execute the F9 function of expose' (all windows). This has resulted in a HUGE increase in productivity for me. It makes the already wonderful Expose' twice as natural and speedy. I can find any of a dozens windows in less than a second. If you go with a mouse with even more buttons, the F11 feature is nice to have at your fingertips also.
One thing I find very different is that Windows and it's associated applications force the user to think of their info as being stored in files, whereas many Mac OS X apps (iPhoto, iCal, iTunes, etc - esp the Apple apps) really make life easier for you if you can start to think of things just in terms of data - this is a song, this is a picture, this is a movie - rather than files.
Some 'swithcers' find it frustrating that they have songs that they listen to in iTunes that stop being part of iTunes when they move the files around. Here's a hint - DON'T MOVE THE FILES AROUND. Turn on the "copy files for me" preference and let iTunes worry about where the files ARE, you just need to listen to SONGS. When you import new music from a CD it's all right in your library, if you get a new song (through some unknown process) drag the song off [someplace like the desktop], and drop it in your iTunes library - iTunes will copy it to the music library for you (you can do this with multiple songs at once) and you don't have to know where it goes or when it's done.
That's just one example.
Just pretty much stop thinking about files altogether or you may end up being frustrated with where everything is and how hard it is to manage everything yourself. The beauty of it is that Apple knows how hard it is to manage a filesystem by yourself, so they set most things up to do it for you.
Also, set up an Administrator account, and an everyday use account, and a Guest account. This is the minimum for any machine (it only takes a second to do and it really easy)
The adminstrator account will be used very rarely. I hardly ever use mine.
The everyday account will be used 'everyday' for day-to-day stuff. If you need to install programs or change settings that require admin access, you'll either be prompted to enter the password (usually) or be asked to login as the administrator (less often) but either way you'll be aware that you're giving something administrative access to your machine and you might not always want that (depending on which program we're talking about or which setting change.)
The Guest account will have no password and will allow other people to use your machine without access to YOUR files (unless they're in your SHARED directory) and they won't be able to change any settings on your machine (unless you give them your admin password).
Some might say this is more complicated than using windows, setting up all these users, but the thing is with windows, although they do provide these different levels of security it's very poorly 'policy-ed' (?) You really can't do ANYTHING with windows without admnistrator access, so most people just set themselves up as the admin. Besides it's really not that complicated.
Another benefit of this users system is that it will force you to keep your files/info/data IN YOUR HOME DIRECTORY which a lot of people find a strange concept. USE YOUR HOME DIRECTORY. DON'T STORE FILES IN OTHER PLACES. It sounds authoritarian but it makes a lot of sense once you start doing it. You really shouldn't save things anywhere but inside your home directory, and if you're using your 'everyday' account, you'll be forced to do this.
(PS All this info is based on my experience as a tech at a university where the school had no particular "Mac Policy" so the techs came up with one ourselves - ie: lots of practical experience)
Although I started off my desktop career in the late 80's with PC's using DOS and Windows 2.11, I've used Macs in DTP and grpahics jobs and Windows in programming jobs and in my last job was a Windows admin. At home I use both, but chiefly Macs with OSX.
The things I think you'll need to know:
1.As many others have stated, get a 3rd party multi button mouse. Right button works just as it does in Windows.
2.The GUI will probably seem easier after a while. It is definitely cleaner than Windows. You'll get used to the menu always at the top in no time as it's like a maximised app in windows.
3.The dock will be one of those things on the Mac that shows you a profound difference between Windows and OSX. Just drag apps that you want to have permanently there to it and others that you don't just drag off the dock. Drag 'n drop is a fundamental feature of the Mac.
4.Since there is no start menu, you might miss having your applications available at a click. Just drag the applications folder to the right side of the dock separator and you can then right click on the folder there to access your apps. This works with all folders.
5.You'll probably be using Expose extensively soon. Try the keys F9, F10 and F11 to get a fell for what it does. It's a great way of grabbing a file you need in an application.
6.Cmd-Tab is the way of switching applications. Both here and in Expose, drag and drop make it very useful.
7.OSX uses a lot of meta keys and combinations. Cmd, alt, ctrl, shift and the space bar in various combinations work in various ways, but usually consistantly in various apps, such as alt-drag in the finder to copy a file or cmd-click to select various non consecutive files in the finder.
8.The finder has a columns view that is not available in windows. Some prefer it, some don't. I do. try alt dragging the little area below the scroll bars.
9.The finder lets you place favourites in the area to the left. In order to navigate the finder by keyboard, use cmd-up arrow to move up the folder hierarchy.
10.Minimising places windows on the right side of the dock. alt-double click will place all that applications windows in the dock.
11.Cmd-h will hide an application from view, including its minimised windows form the dock.
12.What are control panels in windows are the system preferences in osx. The app with a light swtich icon. It is considerably simpler to use than Windows contorl panels.
13.The firewall is on by default, and networking services and file sharing are configured here and are fairly simple to do compared to windows. You'll be able to set up a windows share to get data from your windows computer.
14.Printer setup is also easy. Just plug it in usually.
15.You'll need a root account on rare occasions. This can be set up using the Netinfo manager utility in Applications->Utilities.
16.The terminal is a full fledged unix commandline environment and is extremely useful for power users. Bash is the default shell.
17.There are many many sites out there that offer advice and troubleshooting. One that springs to mind is osxhints. The MacNN forums also offer really good help for newcomers.
Lastly, good luck.
CTRL + click usually gives you a context menu like you'd expect wtih a right-click in Windows.
All shortcuts use the Apple key, not the CTRL key.
Closing a window does not quit the application. To quit ethe application, you have to, well, quit the application (almost always File/Quit or Apple+Q).
Menu bars are almost always attached to the top system menu bar, not to the window.
To find a file like you would with Start>Search (or Find depending on OS version), you click on Finder in the dock (bottom of the screen), and then type your search term in the field on the top right portion of any Finder window.
Terminal is the application that provides a command prompt like Start > Accessories > Command Prompt. However, this is a Unix prompt, not a DOS prompt!!!
System Settings is the application that is the equivalent to the Windows control panels. Get to System Settings from the Apple menu (top left of the screen - click on the apple icon).
Most folder have rough equivalents:
Program Files = Applications
My Documents = [username]/Documents
c:\ = Macintosh HD (or / in terminal)
c:\Windows = Library (that's a *real* rough equivalent)
If you have an app you use a lot and want on the doc, just drag its icon there. Don't want it on the dock any more? Just drag the icon off.
There is no good way to maximize a window in Mac world.
You probably want to "Hide" rather than minimize windows. Apple+H. That's just my preference.
Apple+Tab = CTRL+Tab
Somethings never change. F1 = Help.
Good luck!
Just had to chime in with a quick observation. As a longtime Mac user, I can't help but notice how many comments there are about how nicely drag-n-drop works, how uninstalling apps are easy, and just general ease of use of the OS itself [ie, the Mac way of doing things]. These are all the things that us Mac users were trying to get people to notice a decade or so ago. Instead we were told how the OS was too "childish" and "not really easier to use than Windows." Yes, the true multitasking wasn't there, nor was the command-line. However, all of these "niceties" that people seem to talk about nowadays have been there forever. Like I said, just a little observation I've made.
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
from a malady known as Windows-itis, a state of deep confusion and insecurity brought about by having things work too easily.
The main symptom is the continual vocalization of: That can't be right, it's too easy.
The cure is heavy exposure to OS X. Unfortunately, this has the side effect of producing Windows Intolerance. Symptoms of Windows Intolerance include a deep sense of dread when thinking of Windows, and physical illness when forced to actually interact with a Windows computer.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.