Moving to Mac — My First 3 Weeks
As it’s been three weeks since I made my transition to Mac and bought a 13-inch MacBook Pro, I thought it would be useful to share some thoughts on how it’s going so far.
One of my biggest concerns was adjusting to a touchpad after many years of using a TrackPoint. While the multi-finger touch options are really useful, especially for browsing and such, for heavy text work, I still keep reaching for my TrackPoint, because removing my hands from the keyboard for navigation doesn’t feel natural. I also find myself inadvertently zooming in and out because of the pinch motion.
I find the MacBook Pro’s keyboard to be functional, but the flat keys still don’t feel right to me as I have always liked a sturdy tactile IBM keyboard. At this point, I think I’ve nearly reached my same typing speeds, so I don’t believe it’s adversely affecting my productivity, but it still feels awkward.
Conversion to using the Cmd key from Ctrl for shortcuts hasn’t been a huge issue for me, but relearning the new shortcut keys for text selection is an ongoing process (thanks to everyone for the tips in the comments of my previous post). I’m also finding that having to use Fn+delete to match the behavior of my old delete key still trips me up quite a bit.
The screen is probably the most significant upgrade from my old laptop. Even though it’s smaller in size, the widescreen format and higher resolution let me see more of websites and documents, while the brightness and clarity of the display is just astounding compared to how my dull and off-color my old screen was. It’s a joy to work with and everything just seems to look better.
The hardware itself is quite light and manageable. I love how quickly it wakes up and makes itself ready to work. The long battery life is quite nice and while I haven’t really tested or timed how long it lasts I find that for my regular work flow it really won’t be an issue for me.
The biggest issue so far has been the change in software. While many of my day-to-day staples have Mac counterparts, they often work differently. Sometimes even just the UI differences are enough to just make me feel “off.” For the rest of my software, where a direct Mac counterpart isn’t available, I’m still finding replacements and learning them. I was prepared for it to be an ongoing process, though, and even though I am taking a productivity hit, it’s also giving me the opportunity to evaluate and review a lot of software that I had only been able to read about prior to my switch.
Overall I am finding the experience to be enjoyable and positive. There are a lot of quirks, a lot of frustrations, but some nice features and benefits as well. I can’t say I like it better than my PC, but I’m not hating it.
How was your transition to Mac? How long did it take for you to be hooked?
As a geek-n-training I’m considering making the move to Mac myself. This is great info. Thanks for sharing your experience. I am also a coach so I work with people in implementing changes in their work often. Having info like this helps to set and manage expectations of the transition.
Keep sharing, please!
~Linda
Thanks Linda. I’m not trying to fuel a pc/mac debate or anything I really am trying to document my experience so that it can help others who are considering the switch as well. Glad it is helping!
sb
Every laptop user should get a mouse and perhaps a travel mouse. When I use my macbook (I am a desktop G5 lumberjack guy) I want to punch my face in trying to use a trackpad thingy for anything related to work.
If I can suggest one add on that kicks ACE is Default Folder X. It remembers the last folder you where in so if your working on a project in several applications you don’t have to keep navigating back to the same folder. You can also set up Favs. It saves me sooo much time.
Thanks Jack – the only thing I can think of that I like less than moving my hands to a touchpad would be moving them to a mouse. I can see how in some tasks the more precise movements are nice but I haven’t had a mouse connected to a PC I use in years. Choice is a wonderful thing though!
I’ll take a look at Default Folder X. The big apps are easy to find, it really is the specific function utilities like this that make such a big productivity improvement. Thanks.
sb
Who talked about “connecting” a mouse. Wireless BT mice work great with the MacBooks :)
Well, it may be wireless but it’s still connected. And unfortunately it’s still a mouse.
Thanks :-)
sb
Our story and experience…
http://www.ithinkthisworldisperfect.com/2007/11/closing-window.html
Fantastic story – and thanks for the recommendations on the podcasts.
sb
I moved to Mac over 3 years ago cold turkey never having read a Mac manual or without a clue of what I was doing or if it would really work. I had reached productivity in less than a week.
Thanks Tom – you must be a lot smarter than me. It’s not that I’m not productive but still not where I was. Working on it though.
sb
LOL Get ready for your door to get kicked open by Apples Secret Police. They’ll bust in take all your Macbooks cus you’re one of those evil BLOGGERS! Heh. Well, keep us posted how that goes for ya. Insted of going Mac I went Ubuntu. Using the same one year old Windows Vista laptop it feels like new for free. I will never go Apple cus in the name of freedom, and in the spirit of not supporting the evilest companies I’ll never own an Apple product.
Thanks for the tip – I’ll be on the look out for them ;-)
sb
What a sad, misinformed post. Of course, it was sent anonymously, since the poster is unwilling to be held accountable for their words.
Hmm, I must be doing something wrong with Ubuntu. None of my PCs feels like new for free. On the 7 year old Toshiba the floppy drive is still broken, and the screen still blanks when the wind changes direction. On my parents’ not so old Toshiba (sold in the UK with Vista and 512MB of memory — ouch) all the USB ports are still blown. On the 384MB HP the missing 128MB of RAM remains missing despite some prodding, and the DVD drive is still error prone.
Cool story, bro.
I made the same transition you are making about a year ago, also moving to a 13″ MacBook Pro. I’ve also been a long term Thinkpad user so the absence of the track stick took some time to adjust too. As evidence of how my transition has gone, a few months ago we bought a new iMac for my wife to use and my iPad is pre-ordered here in Canada for arrival next week. I still have three Windows 7 machines but they seldom get used now, instead I prefer to use the Mac.
The move made me look at alternative Office suites and I’m still flipping between email clients looking for the non-existant perfect client. I’ve discovered apps like Mailplane, Postbox, Mac Journal, Fluid, NetNewsWire, OmniFocus and Things along the way. The only Windows applications that I still sort of miss is Outlook paired with OneNote. OneNote 2007 will install and run well using Crossover Office but lacks the integration with Outlook. I’m looking forward to seeing Office 2011 for Mac with its new version of Outlook and I think I’ll also appreciate the addition of the ribbon that I grew to like while using Office 2007 on Windows.
All in all I am very happy I made the move to Mac. I was a long time Windows user and toyed with moving to Linux but in the end OS X seems to give me the best of all worlds in terms of software availability, security and the best user experience for me in my humble opinion.
As another hands-on-keyboard fiend: get QuickSilver. It is one of those small tools that change & improve everything.
I’ve got Quicksilver, Alfred and Butler lined up for evaluation. Trying to get a handle on native / built in functionality to see what I’m missing first.
Thanks
sb
Scott,
Can you go over some of the apps you have in that pic, other than tweetdeck what are they? I’m curious about the blog platform in the background behind yojimbo that you have up?!
I’m looking for a better way to manage files as I just switched over as well and have been having some difficulties organizing!
Hi David,
I’ll be doing app by app comparisons coming up really soon but you’re seeing MarsEdit for offline blogging. I like it better than Blogo but am still not completely sold on it.
http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/
Yojimbo is information management and seems to be the best of the bunch that I’ve looked at so far. I store some frequently used images and all my .pdf files in it. It also has meeting notes, snippets, and bookmarks, read later sort of stuff.
http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/
I don’t have a ton of local files so file management isn’t usually a big issue but I imagine there are some nice options. I’ll make a note to check them out for a review.
Couple of others on my todo list to look at are Alfred and Butler for launching and search.
Hope that helps.
sb
I did made a move in 1996 did not want to wait for windows to get better,never look back,OSX does everything Windows will and in my opinion it does it better and end result is always the same unlike windows where you can do same thing but it can end up differently each time.And it just works each and every day and I don’t have to scratch my head and think what went wrong this time,I even tried Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro and although huge improvement over previous windows still not a match for OSX Snow Leopard.I have restarted Win 7 three times and desktop each and every time look different,and that was fresh install with no additional software.Sometimes gadgets load sometimes only some and sometimes not at all.Explorer 8 rather not mentioning it.Yes you pay premium for Apple but what you get in return – well Apple then looks like a bargain after few days of using it.
Thanks for the comments Jiri. It’s fascinating to hear everyone’s varying opinions.
sb
Scott wrote: “For the rest of my software, where a direct Mac counterpart isn’t available, I’m still finding replacements”
Specifically, what software?
Dave,
The couple that come to mind right off are ActiveWords for launching, snippet management and just general awesomeness. BlogDesk for offline blog composition, Connected Text for info management / personal knowledge base and Winamp for media management.
I’ll be starting my app by app comparisons next week so will be relying on all of your comments for the good suggestions.
Thanks
sb
Hi Scott,
I made the switch two years ago but spent a good six months doing research about the Mac and to make sure I could get software that I needed.
Like you, the initial transition wasn’t very hard – it was mostly getting used to how things are done the Mac vs. Windows. Even today, I sometimes try to use Windows short-cuts as years of CRTL+ are yet to be replaced by CMD+. But, over time, many of the peculiarities of the Mac OS grew on me.
I only notice how much I enjoy my Mac when I have to use Windows again. For a while, I was forced to use Windows and it just made me appreciate how OSX “just works”. In fact, I’m finding that I’m becoming a “dumber” user of computers simply because I don’t have to figure out work-arounds or hacks to make my computer work. Trying to use Vista/Windows7 makes me feel like I’m trying to learn how to use a computer all over again.
You should revisit these series of posts in about six months time, try using a Windows machine for a few days and then reflect on the experience to see if you have any “regrets”. I know that I sure don’t and I’m trying to convince my employer to let me switch to my Mac because I am more productive using it than the Windows laptop they are trying to give me. So far, I’ve resisted.
Hans.
Thanks for the comments. In my experience my PC worked quite well so my sense is that occasionally moving back would be similar to this transition in that things just work differently. It’s that I’m trained to work in one fashion and a different environment is just that – different.
Whether it is actually better I’m still going to need some time to decide ;-)
sb
Bet you any money that you will fire up your Windows box, get a million pop-ups needing your attention, will encounter at least one problem with a patch or update, maybe even have something that just stopped working for no apparent reason… you will feel “bugged.”
Then you will truly appreciate your Mac.
I just moved to the Mac myself a little over two weeks ago, after two years on Ubuntu and four years of Windows before that. OS X is just amazing. Some of its aspects take a little getting used to, such as page up, page down, home and end (it’s fn + arrow keys in some programs, cmd + arrow keys in others). Overall, though, I’m surprised at how easy it was to adapt to OS X. I’m having no trouble so far. I also loved how switching my keyboard to the Dvorak layout was a trivial task. I have to agree with you on the keyboard keys themselves, though. On my old computer I used this cheap but nice A4Tech keyboard, which my Mac can’t properly detect, perhaps because it wasn’t made for OS X. I’m thinking of buying the Apple Wireless Keyboard and the Magic Mouse sometime soon.
The little teeny Apple keyboards have no appeal to me, especially since they don’t have the integrated touchpad. I’m not really a mouse guy.
I have a really nice IBM external keyboard but I haven’t connected it yet, trying to give the whole experience a fair shot before I replace / change things too much.
thanks
sb
I love the supreme irony of those PC users who say they will never buy an Apple product because of Apple’s “supreme evil.”. What the heck do you think Microsoft has long been rated as? Ultimately the whole “evil” thing is retarded, Every company looks after their own best interests. Some tech companies go about it like a Ballmer bull in a china shop and thus are reviled for their less than sensitive or tactful way of being too obvious about it. MS has become much more irrelevant because of their irrelevancy to technology at large. It’s actually easy to predict the future, harder to implement it in a way or paradigm that makes sense. Apple has been much better in this area than Microsoft can eve be. Gates is completely overrated as a visionary. Most of us have been better at predicting future technology than he has. I mean I can predict a lot of things too but how those things will come to pass are the hitch. In some ways it’s a matter of taste and style for which Gates has said he wished he had Steve Jobs gift in is area. At any rate buy a computer for what’s right for you and stop evaluating tech companies on a moral basis, none of them have secret Lucifer shrines. In that respect they’re ALL “evil” as they must be to stay alive.
Yes, I’ve got pretty significant issues with both Apple and MS as orgs so I’m really trying to focus on the product, the productivity and the usefulness of each rather than the company, philosophy etc.
Thanks
sb
I’ve never used anything but a Mac at work, but they are switching us to PCs soon and I’m dreading it. I have 2 PCs at home but unplugged them a few years back, so no experience with Vista/windows7. Macs are dependable, intuitive and relatively consistent. Strangely, some of the iLife software is pretty weak.
Thanks – I honestly haven’t given more than a cursory glance to the iLife software as none of it really is part of my work routine or requirements. One day I do want to get my guitar all connected to Garage Band but it’s not a big deal to me.
sb
I gotta tell you Drew, the transition from Mac to PC is tough. I made that transition when I got out of college and had to sit in front of a PC 8 hours day. This was back in ’96. I ruined my PC several time, cursed at it incessantly, burned bill gates dolls in effigy.
But now, 14 years later, and after using the two OSs simultaneously for the time, I like my PCs more. It’s crazy. I’m the outlier.
Sometimes I think there’s really no difference between using the two systems, and sometimes they seem a world apart.
If there’s any difference, I’d say that OSX provides you with a very very short distance between two points that you need to traverse, by default. However Windows lets you learn and make the journey on your own. So I think most people struggle to find the shortest distance between those two points – but if you are the persistent type to optimize that journey, you’ll find in the end that Windows provides you the most organic means to get your tasks done.
I’m sorry for being all conceptual and metaphorical, but I, like many people, have spent a significant portion of my adult life sitting in front of a computer, so these ideas have been formed from well over 10000 hours of screen time.
Drew – it’s not that bad, at least you’ll get Win7. I use WinXP at work (not by choice) and MacOS X at home (I’ve played a little with Win7 and Ubuntu as well). My biggest pet peeve with XP is our standard at work is 32-bit SP3, which makes 3 of the 4 Xeon Nehalem processor cores and 3 of the installed 6GB RAM useless in an otherwise spiffy Dell Precision T3500, made bog slow by a 9-year old OS. A Core i7 iMac feels lightning fast by comparison, even if it has slightly inferior hardware specs. The difference? OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
I just bought an Intel i7, 17in MacBook Pro a couple weeks ago, after being a PC developer for 23 years. It’s mostly been great, and I LOVE the hardware, and the gestures in OS X. But since I develop for both the PC and the iPhone world, I still have to use a large number of Windows apps like Visual Studio, and my Adobe Production Studio and Flash Builder licenses are PC-only. The hardest part was getting BootCamp set up with two additional data partitions – the BootCamp Assistant is brain-dead. I am using Parallels to run the BootCamp partion as a virtual machine, but integrating that has been the biggest pain. Parallels has a bug where OneNote files on a shared volume are locked, and I keep having to re-activate Windows 7 and Office every time I switch back and forth from Boot Camp to Parallels, and now my Adobe Production Studio activation has been messed up – reporting to Adobe that I am running the SW on 3 machines, when in fact I only have it on my desktop and the MacBook. But those problems all stem from the fact that I am using the same Windows partition from both BootCamp and Parallels, if I weren’t trying to do that, it would mostly be smooth sailing at this point. I’ve pretty much resigned myself to never running Microsoft or Adobe products from Parallels – which means I have to reboot to use them. Oh well.
“I keep having to re-activate Windows 7 and Office every time I switch back and forth from Boot Camp to Parallels”
I used to have similar issues when I was using Parallels v3. Upgrading to Parallels v5 solved the problems and can boot to bootcamp then later back to Parallels w/o any issues.
I switched to Mac this past December. For it it was the best thing I did. Having an iPhone convenced me to switch along with having problems with my vista computer for the 100th time. I took me about a week to get used to using Mac os. I am so glad I switch and kick myself for not switching earlier. It took a while to get used to the filing system and shortcuts like you but now I am full at it.
Scott,
I made a simliar switch for home use. We got a 21″ iMac and right around the same time got a Windows 7 laptop for work.
There are few things I really miss, I can’t find replacements for Livewriter or Feeddemon that are free. And the paid apps I have found are not as good. Activewords is another one I was using a ton that just does not have anything close for Mac.
I love the hardware, OS X is great, but certainly not head and shoulders better then Win7. I would say they both have their strenght and weaknesses for users like me. None is clearly superior than the other IMHO.
For home use I like the total fit of iMovie, iPhoto etc… They work nicely together.
Over all I am happy with our purchase but I have to say the Mac and OSX does not live up to all the hype.
Well that is for everyone if Windows is what you prefer that is fine,if it is Apple that is fine too.But you will not regret going for Apple.Yes you can do all this in Windows but Apple gives you that special treatment that you are using something special and if that is all satisfaction that there is using OSX (there is lot more than that) well is is worth every penny the feeling of sitting silently at late night and just play with Mac all in silence,and when you wake up in the morning it will work just the same (which with Windows you can be 100 % that sure) what else you can ask for?
I switched to MacBook Pro couple of months from Windows/ThinkPad/Trackpoint(9 yrs at IBM :). I never thought I could get me to use the Trackpad, I was wrong. I could never get me to use trackpad on non-mac laptop, but the touchpad on the MacBooks are just awesome, it took me a day to forget trackpoint, it is just so intuitive.
I agree the screen just felt like a huge leap, its so beautiful and everything just pops up, compared to Thinkpads.
I have blogged about my experience & move to HacMac :) – http://kapilisrani.com/post/567812612/move-to-hack-mac
Seems to me if the author switched to a new Windows laptop this article would read mostly the same. ;)
I think in a lot of cases you are right – new, faster, different keyboard, probably different navigation hardware.
Guess they aren’t really all that different after all…
thanks,
sb
Use QuicKeys to create macros assigned to a preferred key combination. You can use a specific key combination to standardize the same function among applications, for example. You can reassign keystokes from the Control Panel as well, but I prefer to use QuicKeys.
Glad you are liking the Mac. The feel of the keys is simply an adjustment. As for the software, that was my concern when I switched, but I honestly don’t have one piece of microsoft software on my machine. Actually I don’t even “see” or think Windows software anymore. Been a OSX user for 4 years and counting now… It just works.
When I switched to mac two years ago I did the research on the software before I bought. That way I knew exactly what I needed to buy and use. Two application I could not immediately find replacements for I ran with VM fusion which worked awesome. That gave me time to find good viable replacements. The switch was easy and being a power user the switch was really nice. With the new apple mouses in the last couple month life got even better. Don’t miss a thing about PC and cannot believe I waited so long to switch. My life could have been so much better with a mac years ago. Glad I made the switch, I also switched all my family including my 85 year old grandma, friends and two businesses. Macs rock.
Thanks Scott. It’s been an enlightening experience if nothing else. For all the years I ran a PC I never missed anything about a Mac though ;-)
I’ve been hesitant to recommend to family without the experience myself, and think for some of them the changes might just add to their frustration. I’ll probably give some demos though.
Thanks for the comments – sounds like we approached this similarly.
sb
About 3 years ago I got my first Macbook Pro. I believe my experience was similar to yours and the main inconvenience was familiarity.
After about the 6 month mark, was when I think I was completely comfortable with my mac, and started using the window key accidentally on my windows machine when I should have hit the CTRL key.
Three years on, I hardly ever boot up my Windows 7 desktop PC at home. I do most of my work on a windows PC though, so I’ve adapted pretty well to using both systems regularly.
To be honest with you, a Windows 7 system’s interface is as good as a Mac OS X one. I honestly am satisfied using either. The bit that tips my next purchase in Apple’s favor is the hardware and support. Apple products just feel well built and designed. It’s like a Mercedes to a Toyota, both are excellent car makes. But there is a subjective ‘feel’ that is associated with each.
Keep using your mac, and eventually when you do need to use their support, you’ll see the difference. That is what won me over in the end.
I support users at a major university and have seen many switch to Macs in recent years. Your experience parallels what I typically see – a period of adjustment in which people learn the new shortcuts and the new software.
Once that is past, generally in 2-4 weeks, they have been 100% pleased, finding their productivity increased as ease of use is better and down time/annoyances are dramatically less. I’ve never had a person ask to switch back.
As the IT staff, I like it, too, as I spend far fewer of my hours fixing the predictable stream of problems from my dwindling collection of Windows users (XP/Vista/7).
Not sure that is good job security though. ;)
Welcome to the Mac my friend. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the experience a lot more soon enough!
Many seem to like QuickSilver for automation, I don’t. I tried it and it felt clunky to me. I much prefer “LaunchBar.” I almost never use the Dock anymore for app launching or the mouse looking up people in Addr. Book, or finding URLs, etc., keystrokes do it all.
Glad you’re enjoying it, Scott. I lasted eight months before switching back to Windows on the Macbook.
I think people have a false impression that Macs are problem free and ‘just work’. For the most part they do… but then so do decent laptops running Windows 7 and Vista. XP I’ll give you, hateful OS that it is.
In the end it was the software that did it for me. I’m used to Windows and find W7 to be really, really good. OS X was OK too but Office on a Mac isn’t as good as Office on a PC and all my educational and stats software is Windows based or simply doesn’t have a Mac alternative that’s as good.
I started using a Mac in college. As an art student doing video editing, it was not only logical, it was basically the only choice. At the same time, at home I used a PC, as well as when I snuck into the engineering lab to use the systems at odd hours.
When I left school, I used Macs for a little while doing production design work, but most of my employers standardized on PCs, and I kept a PC at home because the purchase cost was lower.
In 2003 I had a PC at work, but my PC laptop at home had suffered its third catastrophic disk failure in as many years. It was time to buy a new box, and for me Mac was the obvious choice. I was sick of the long boot times, the crappy hardware and the buggy software.
I bought a PowerBook, and the same month I bought a Dell for my parents. In 2008 my parents’ Dell was a doorstop, completely useless and bogged down with spyware and bots. I gave them my PowerBook which is still running today and purchased a MacBook Pro which I love.
The transition was fairly easy for me because I’d done so much back and forth earlier on. The thing that was most difficult for me is dealing with the mouse context menu, though CTRL+Click works just fine, it’s not as simple as right click. That’s why I still use an old Logitech MouseMan mouse.
Clay, it sounds like you might want to take a look at your System Preference for the trackpad. You can set it so you just tap with two fingers at once to get the contextual menu. Far simpler than a right click.
I have found that Mac and PC really do most of the same thing (with perhaps the exception of gaming), they just go about it differently.
Mac seems more polished and PC seems more customisable.
Mac sucks, just like Windows.
Fair summary – similar to my own experiences when I made the transition some 2 years ago. I only have a standard MacBook so actually prefer my old Vaio’s display. I still revert to that for any visually intensive stuff.
Have you tried the new Apple mouse yet? Superb.
@Scott
Possibilities
Winamp -> iTunes [Apple] + (Max+Rip+Tag+Play) [SBooth.org]
Connected Text -> DevonThink [devon-technologies.com]
BlogDesk -> MarsEdit [red-sweater.com] or Blogo [drinkbrainjuice.com]
Active Words -> Quicksilver, LaunchBar, CuteClips [cuteclips3.com], PathFinder [cocoatech.com]
If you’re looking for software for any particular task there are two sites you can check:
versiontracker.com
macupdate.com
Very useful, both of them.
Scott,
I am really enjoying hearing about your journey. I switched to Apple in 2002, but work exclusively on Windows for my job. So I bounce back and forth every weekday. I have found that I enjoy using my MacBook Pro for all the “fun” stuff I do. I use iWeb to run my little webpage hobby. I use GarageBand to tinker with song tracks (Nine Inch Nails has release entire albums in the format for fans to play with…awesome!). I really enjoy the usefulness of iMovie and iDVD for quick, amateur video authoring. And iPhoto is a decent product for simply storing, sorting and enjoying our world of digital pics. Since I am no pro at any of the things I mentioned, I have yet to drop the cash on the professional tools like Aperture, Adobe Creative Suite or the like. Apple did a fabulous job of making all these really fun things accessible to the masses.
On the flip side, Windows has a strong foothold. There are infinitely more tools out there to try. They can be less expensive. They can be as/more powerful. They can be easier to use if you are already familiar with the Windows way.
I have been called an apple “fanboy” far too many times to count. It used to bother me since I never attacked Windows. I actually recommended it to many people. But now I just sit back and enjoy my two worlds. I see the good and bad of both sides on a daily basis. I believe you are well on your way to seeing the merits of each. I imagine you will never truly “switch” you will merely adopt. In todays world of technology, there is truly room at our tables for two children. And, just for good measure, we can invite their obnoxious (j/k) cousin Linux over as well. He has his strong suits as well.
Enjoy your continued discovery. I hope you get around to plugging in that guitar and jamming out. Do not miss some of the things Apple offers on the “fun” side. All work and no play… Well, you get the point.
I bought a MacBook Pro 15″ about two months ago, switching from Win7. Awesome Hardware! I’m a Microsoft consultant so I moved over with more than a little trepidation. I found it a great experience but didn’t like the look of MAC Office, found myself using VMWare Fusion to run Windows and determined that I was using Fusion and Windows apps more than I was using the MAC software. Plus, I was treating the machine like it was a princess, worried about every scratch and ding (the Mac mystique requires a pristine machine, afterall). I found myself missing the smallest things on Win7, such as Windows Snap (moving windows to the left and right of the screen to snap them to half screen). After two 2 weeks I returned it and am typing this in my new Lenovo ThinkPad T510 with 8gig of RAM, i7 Processor, 500 GB HD, etc. Even with this decked out ThinkPad and the return fee on the MAC, I STILL came out ahead on the price of the MAC. Plus, the edge of the MacBook Pro case really DID hurt my hands after 15 minutes of use. Why should I have to file down the edge of my laptop case so it won’t hurt me? I was impressed with the MAC hardware but needed a solid Windows machine that fit better into my lifestyle.
Thanks for your honest story with both the ups and downs of the switch.
I myself am wondering if a switch would be worthwhile. I hate my Dell laptop and would love to move to Mac for maybe 70% of my work and play. I’m pretty sure I would quickly adapt for those things.
For the other 30% I need to work with Internet Explorer, Sharepoint Designer, Office and some other Windows apps. I can’t find good examples of people using Windows on their Macs that frequently. Is it doable?
I´m thinking to make this same transition this year, probably till july … I´m thinking to buy in one time a Macbook Pro 13″, an Ipad and a iPod Touch (sorry, but don´t chamnge my Blackberry for an iphone).
In 1984, I went from an Apple IIe to a PC clone with DOS. That was hard. I went from that to a Mac SE in 1986. That was extremely easy. I have been using various combinations of Mac and Windows OSes ever since.
I’m currently using a 2008 MacBook Pro with OS X 10.6.3 and Windows XP Pro running under Parallels Desktop 5. I have an unwrapped package of Win 7 Pro, but need to upgrade to a 500 GB drive and 6GB RAM before I install it.
In short, I use the Mac because I like it a lot more than Windows, and I use Windows because some of my software isn’t available for the Mac OS. “Having it all” on one notebook is wonderful. I can run virtually anything I need to, and in my role as a trainer, I often need to run some pretty obscure stuff.
In general, Windows is frustrating to me, because it is simply a pretty face on a lot of geeky glop. Error messages are totally arcane… technically correct but functionally useless, so that only a programmer can understand them. On the Mac, error messages generally either tell you what went wrong, or what you must do to recover from the error. The elegance of the Mac OS extends many, many layers deep, yet you can still get to a UNIX command line if you need to.
Stability is another welcome thing about the Mac OS. My wife and I tend to leave our Macs on 24/7, putting them to sleep when not in use. I’ve never been able to do that with a Windows machine. But with OS X, you can leave a machine up for months and months without a restart.
Excellent article, it mirrors some of my early frustrations, I also liked the IBM style trackpoint and clicky keyboard, Fn-delete, etc.
As mentioned, podcasts are a great resource for new Mac users, and there are many of them on any possible topic. One great resource is ScreenCastsOnline, a series of video tutorials. It is a membership site, but there are quite a number of free videos as well. http://www.screencastsonline.com.
I wouldn’t bother with Quicksilver, it has been abandoned by its developer, who went to work for Google. I don’t use any launcher, just Spotlight and the Dock, but if you want one I have heard good things about Launchbar.
If you haven’t tried Spaces, it is to me the biggest increase in productivity. You can run everything full screen instead of dealing with overlapping windows. I use mail in one, Twitter in another, backup, iTunes, web browser, to do app, Notebook (for the same things you are using Yojimbo for, etc,
Some of the biggest pluses are not obvious. OS X has much better memory management. I once accidentally opened all 180 apps in my applications folder. My Mac did not crash. Imagine a Windows machine under the same circumstances
Also, if you are moving from one Mac to another, you drag your apps from the old machine to the new one, and they work. No having to uninstall/reinstall. Likewise if you have to reinstall your OS no need to call India and convince them that you are not pirating their OS.
Lastly, bookmark http://www.macheist.com. Every year they run a promotion where you complete tasks and get very good free software (dozens of apps) and then sell a very disoounted bundle – over $1000 worth of software for $39 last year, for example. and the apps themselves are great fun. Some of the best Mac apps – 1Password, DevonThink, Delicious Library, have been included even in the free apps.
My preference on the trackpad is to set it so that clicking while holding two fingers on the pad is a right click.
Maybe you’ve already discovered this, but here is one thing that I use every day that drove me nuts to not have in XP. (never tried 7 so can’t comment) In any “Save” or “Open” window where you need to navigate to a particular folder, if you already have the folder open in another Finder window, you can drag-n-drop the folder you want to save to, into the “Save” or “Open” window, which then jumps to that folder so you can save there. It doesn’t move the actual folder (which is what happens in XP), just navigates you there immediately. I use this trick ALL the time.
Scott,
Your “Moving to Mac — My First 3 Weeks” piece omitted I think a must have for any Mac User. Perhaps you are just unaware of this little gem and that is for new or existing users. I am referring to Flip4Mac that converts Window media files to run though QuickTime. In short, this little program is excellent and invaluable in todays cross platform world!
I have been contemplating shifting to a mac. Most of my friends who are mac lovers say- ” Once a mac user, always a mac user”. My only worry is that the macbook pro which I’m planning to buy for use in my office is going to be connected to 10 other PCs in windows networking. Would it work well? Moreover I don’t know if I will be able to use other softwares such as bassline popup ( for messaging internally in the office), Karen’s replicator etc in the new environment. Help.
I moved to Mac 10 months back. I was completely bored of the Windows and even though I hadn’t seen an Apple computer in my life before stepping into the Apple store (I’m from India where more than 90% people won”t even know if there’s an OS other than Windows—they are so hooked up to it).
I had went through several videos and reviews before I finally selected Macbook Pro 13″. Every single person around me told me not to buy an Apple computer since it is more than twice the price of a decent Windows computer loaded with Windows 7. I didn’t listen to anyone. I eventually bought my first laptop and since then I try not to use Windows, I just feel so constrained while using it. Mac is so much more superior than Windows. People in my class cannot work on their Windows laptops without connecting them to the power supply whereas I can go on for almost 6 to 7 hours on my Macbook without charging.
Since I had watched several videos of Macbooks the transition wasn’t very difficult but I must say I’m still exploring some typical applications and functions of Macbook.
I use three of the most popular OS — Windows, OS X and Android. Even though I use Android on a mobile device I still like OS X a lot. It looks very polished and glossy.
Hi Scott!
Thank you for sharing your experience. It’s been almost 3 months since I switched to Mac, from Windows 7. I must say I have enjoyed it a lot, with of course, a few hiccups.
In the screenshot you used for this post, I would want to know which apps are these:
1) The blog editor? It doesn’t look like Ecto!
2) There is an app the dock The icon has “te” in blue background. What’s that?
3) There is a app in the dock that has a rocket like icon. Which app is this?
Thanks!
1) MarsEdit – http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/
2) TextExpander – http://smilesoftware.com/TextExpander/ – Lets you define text macros that automatically expand as you type.
3) MarsEdit
Hi Praval,
The blog editor is MarsEdit – I looked at a few different ones but that was the one that worked best for me. I still find it generally confounding though – I miss the simplicity of BlogDesk on the PC. That is also the Rocket Icon you see over in the dock.
The te was text expander which I was trying at the time. I’ve since moved to TypeIt4Me which I prefer.
thanks
sb
Hi Scott – first of all, welcome to the Mac!
Second, I’m the developer of MarsEdit and I appreciate you giving it a try. Please feel free to drop me a line if you have suggestions or to elaborate on what aspects of the app you find to be confounding. I know there is still lots of room for improvement in the app.
Daniel