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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'?"
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
it's easy enough to get used too. i took the plunge and bought an iBook about two months ago, and it's been smooth sailing so far.
dragging and dropping on the mac is cool - unlike windows, where for most everything but icons you have to copy paste, on the mac, you can actualy click and drag - and it works! the applications are mostly all integrated, and i've found myself doing things that would never work on windows.
another thing - the command key (the curly button with an apple on it) does most of the same functions as the ctrl butten on a pc keyboard - the ctrl button on the mac keyboard is what you use for right clicking. i'm sure it has some other purpose too, but oh well.
good luck!
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?
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.
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.
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.