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'?"

Google

[itwerx]

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 [versiontracker.com] along with the Apple OSX download page [apple.com] will be your new friends...

Re:Google

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

control vs command

[Carthag]

I like how, on the Mac, it makes break vs copy in the terminal a no-brainer. On Windows, I'm always in doubt which modifier I should use to copy text from a terminal. Is it shift-del (maybe ctrl-ins, I forgot) or ctrl-c?

On MacOS X, cmd-c is copy, ctrl-c is break.

Unlearning

[commodoresloat]

The biggest thing you have to unlearn is the notion that most Windows users have that using your computer should be as much of a hassle as humanly possible. It will be difficult but you will have to actually get used to using the computer being a pleasant experience. Be careful -- programs may work as you expect them to rather than you having to figure out the most counterintuitive possible way of doing things in order to get it right. The icons are actually on the right side of the desktop, where they won't be covered up by every window you open! "Shut Down" is not under "Start"! Windows don't automatically fill the entire screen unless you want them to! Error messages, though not always very informative, do not come with a horrible blue screen and do not tell you cryptic things that don't make any sense at all. 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.

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.

Re:Unlearning

[bay43270]

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 X

Re:Unlearning

[i wanted another nam]

You know those times in XP when your computer just spontaneously restarts out of nowhere right in the middle of that lovely document you were composing?

You can disable that. Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > "Settings" under "Startup and Recovery"; Uncheck "Automatically Restart"

Of course, nobody knows about it because it takes a fuckin' 400-page novel to describe how to do it.

Re:Unlearning

[SmittyTheBold]

So how is having the computer lock on a blue screen better than having it restart? Does it mean the document is *not* lost?

The "Automatically Restart" option is certainly not a data-saving option, but it sure is good for getting you back to work in a timely fashion.

Re:Unlearning

[proj_2501]

Or, to put it a better way, OS/X uses much more of your desktop real estate. You will not be able to easily enjoy having your foreground application in the foreground as you might under Linux or Windows. Icons will clutter the screen irrespective of your foreground app.

Unless you do one of the following very easy things:
1.) Make your foreground windows bigger
2.) Make the dock auto-hide
3.) Quit the Finder

It's hidden somewhere else. Good luck finding it. Don't think you can right click for it either.

Yea

Mod parent TROLL

[revscat]

"The icons are actually on the right side of the desktop, where they won't be covered up by every window you open!"

Or, to put it a better way, OS/X uses much more of your desktop real estate. You will not be able to easily enjoy having your foreground application in the foreground as you might under Linux or Windows. Icons will clutter the screen irrespective of your foreground app.

Are you trying to imply that the icons in OS X are ALWAYS in the foreground? Cuz if you are, you are stupid. Just wonderin

Re:Mod parent TROLL

[CountBrass]

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.

simple

[RoadChris]

Buy a multi-button usb mouse. It will work like you want. I made the switch in a single day. You can too.

Re:simple

[Domini]

Just remember to make it logitech.... ;)

The windows drivers are slightly better than logitech ones IMHO, but the OS X native driver is all you will need, so go for the better mouse. (See my Journal...)

Re:simple

[Quobobo]

To be fair, he's getting an iBook, not a Mac desktop. I use a Logitech 6-button mouse with my Powerbook whenever it's at a desk, but it's simply not an option on the road.

Re:simple

[Hes Nikke]

quobobo said To be fair, he's getting an iBook, not a Mac desktop. I use a Logitech 6-button mouse with my Powerbook whenever it's at a desk, but it's simply not an option on the road.

but what *is* an option is SideTrack [ragingmenace.com].

i have that 6 button mouse built into my iBook thankyouverrymuch! (click, tap, +4 corner taps)

the only time i use the external mouse is when i'm using the 'book in bed, and using the track pad means contorting my arm (which hearts just thinking about it!)

To quobobo: what up? i haven't seen you around the 'net lately... shoot me an email!

Re:simple

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can get a mouse with five buttons (_plus_ scroll wheel), do it. Left and right operate as you'd expect. Scroll wheel operates as you'd expect (and you can tell Camino/Safari/Firefox to open tabs with a click of the scroll wheel, if you want.)

The extra three buttons? Expose. I have an Intellimouse Explorer; I've mapped the larger of the two buttons on the left side to "All open windows"; the smaller of the two buttons is "Show desktop". This is extremely useful. Apart from anything else, it means th

Re:simple

[norkakn]

I have my mousewheel click as apple click so that it works to open a link as a new tab.

It was really tempting to make it apple-V, but I still wouldn't be able to copy via highlighting

Re:simple

[nine-times]

I agree getting a multi-button mouse is a good idea. However, if you don't, or if you're using a laptop and don't want to carry a mouse around with you, get used to keyboard shortcuts.

On windows, I've been more of a "right-click, copy, right-click, paste" sort of guy, whereas, on the mac, with no right click, I go for the command-c, command-v stuff.

I know, it sounds trivial, but there are a lot of useful key-combos on a mac. For all the complaints of a one-button mouse, I find with the key-combos, the lack of extra buttons doesn't slow me down. In fact, one benefit is that the key-combos are much more consistant in OS X than windows. Command-Q always quits. Always. Every program. Command-S always saves. Windows has this sort of thing, but there are quite a bit of programs that don't cohere to the convention in Windows.

Otherwise, this is the advice I can think to muster (yes, I'm thread-hijacking):

• OS X and Windows have a lot of the same applications. MS Office, Macromedia/Adobe suites, stuff like that. So, if you used these apps, get the OSX version of the same apps, and you'll feel at home. In many cases, there's little difference.
• Watch out for resource forks. If you aren't familiar with resource forks, it's some extra metadata that tells the OS what kind of file it is and how to deal with it. If you want to use unix commands, be careful when moving, copying, or compressing files, because you can lose the resource fork, which makes the file useless unless you can repair the resource fork. It's a pain. There are ways around this, but you may have to do some research and experiment (Helios Xtar [helios.de] comes to mind for tar).
• Some good sites for technical info: Mike's Mac OS X...Tips [bombich.com] (home of Carbon Copy Cloner) and mac OS X hints [macosxhints.com] (really helpful)
• A lot of things are similar. When you'd normally go looking for Winzip, use Stuffit. When looking for Firefox, adjust, and realize you want Camino. Explorer and Finder work similarly. If you're looking for Outlook, the Mail, Addressbook, iCal combo will probably meet your needs. The Control Panel in Windows is "System Preferences". It's not going to be hard to figure out, and the Mac alternatives are usually going to be at least as good as Windows.
• The dock may take some getting used to. Closing a window does not mean you've exited the application. If you want to know if an application is running, look at the dock. If the icon for the application has a little black triangle underneath it, it's running. To quit an application, make sure you have it running as the top-most application (it's name will be on the top bar, right next to the Apple icon) and press command-Q. (there are a couple of other ways to do this, but like I said, get used to keyboard shortcuts)
• Don't spend very long trying to quit out of that little blue smiley face at the end of your dock. That's the finder. It's always running.
• The "command" key is the one that has an apple on it (next to "alt" and the spacebar).
• When you look in menus for keyboard shortcuts, you'll see funny symbols. What I mean is, if you click on "File", one of the options will be "Save" and next to "Save" will be a funny clover-leaf symbol, and then an "S". This means "command S"The little clover-leaf is the command key. (usually, the command key has both a clover-leaf-looking symbol and the Apple logo on the keyboard, so this one shouldn't be too hard). An up arrow isn't up, it's shift. The third symbol, which I can't even figure out how to explain what it looks like, that means "alt".
• All data goes in your home folder. Your program preferences are in the Library folder, which goes in your home folder. It's kinda unix-like, easy to deal with, a lot better than Windows.
• In fact, as a user, you can pretty much ignore the Library and System Fold

Re:simple

[nine-times]

Is there no such thing as keyboard shortcuts on a pc? I mean come on... is that the huge selling point of a mac? `I can use apple button + c to copy'

Geeze, quit your confrontational attitude. What I was saying was, if you're going to use a one button mouse, I would advise brushing up on your keyboard combos, because that's how you'll keep the one-button mouse from slowing you down.

In addition, I stand by my claim that Mac keyboard shortcuts are more consistant than Windows shortcuts. Can you tell me th

Re:simple

[Juanvaldes]

Apple has a fairly complete list of short cuts in the their HIG [apple.com]. Defiantly worth checking out.

Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[mh101]

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.

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. :) 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?

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.

Re:Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[mh101]

Found one! :) It's at http://www.oxygen-inc.com/premium/InsaniSoft/iEx.h tm [oxygen-inc.com]. Not quite as cool as Expose, since it only shows thumbnails and not resized windows that are still being updated, only smaller... but it's a start, and it's free!

Re:Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[Anonymous Coward]

I have Expose set to activate when I flick the mouse into the lower left.

It feels really silly when I'm on KDE or Windows and I do the same thing .. and nothing happens .. and I think to myself "How the hell do Windows users get any work done?"

I love opening a bunch of SSH sessions, start a long program in each, then just flick the mouse and watch them all for activity. Throw in a quicktime movie for good measure too. :-)

Expose alone is worth the "price of admission" to the mac. If anybody comes up with

Re:Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[onya]

> "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?

Re:Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[Brandybuck]

by running everything in maximised, and switching between apps using the taskbar

Before people start laughing, consider the truth of it. I've had to use Windows more and more at work, and I've discovered that running everything maximized is just so much easier on that braindead system. Even though I have a larger monitor and higher resolution than at home. That's because task switching is the ONLY way to manage your windows on Windows.

I really wish it had "snap-to" windows, shading, middle-click to lower a window, etc. I routinely have a half a dozen or more windows open on my FreeBSD/KDE desktop. Not minimized but open. And they're all easy to manage even without Expose, Kompose, or similar tools.

Re:Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[JHromadka]

The big thing I had to learn:

• Create a folder called Test. Put some files here.
• Go to another location and create another folder called Test. Put some different files here.
• Drag the first Test folder to where the 2nd one is and drop it there. OS X will ask you if you want to replace the contents.

OS X replaces all the contents of the folder, not just copies over the different files.

Re:Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[drdink]

What? I'm a visually impaired user and depend on key combonations for the most part. While it is true that there are less key combos in OS X, they aren't horrible. In fact, a lot of them just need enabled. Keyboard access is an option. With the work being done on Universal Access, I've seen a little bit of improvement in the key combo access as well.
The printer and scanner bit is good advice, but I'm currently looking for a new printer and any of the ones I've been interested in tout OS X support. It doesn't appear to be that big of a problem for new stuff.
I'm not sure what you're talking about with the VPN bit. OS X supports L2TP over IPsec and PPTP out of the box. The Cisco VPN Client is also available for OS X. Search for it at VersionTracker.

Re:Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[drsmithy]

What? I'm a visually impaired user and depend on key combonations for the most part. While it is true that there are less key combos in OS X, they aren't horrible. In fact, a lot of them just need enabled. Keyboard access is an option. With the work being done on Universal Access, I've seen a little bit of improvement in the key combo access as well.

I suspect what he means is the results of certain key combos are 'weird' to non-Mac users. For example, 'Home' and 'End' in most PC environments takes the cur

Re:Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[drsmithy]

I suppose I could tell you that you can bind a keyboard shortcut to any menu item in any application on OSX, but that probably wouldn't count, now would it?

Not really, since the important difference is on OS X you have to go and manually bind all those keys whereas on Windows they're just *there* and work consistently across nearly every application (and will be the same on every Windows box you sit in front of). I mean, it's OK to have to learn complicated stuff on Windows, but on a Mac it's supposed to b

Re:Learning/Unlearning goes both ways!

[Nugget]

it's a chord instead of a dedicated key, but Fn-Delete does this.

Try Apple's Switch Page

[finnatic]

http://www.apple.com/switch/ [apple.com] talks about switching from Mac to PC, and includes answers to FAQ's on pages like: http://www.apple.com/switch/questions/ [apple.com] and http://www.apple.com/switch/questions/index2.shtml [apple.com]

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).

Re:Try Apple's Switch Page

[hype7]

The web is definitely your friend when it comes to switching. The parent links will help.

MacNN Forums [macnn.com]
xlr8yourmac.com's forums [xlr8yourmac.com]
MacFixIt Forums [macfixitforums.com]
MacWorld Forums [macworld.com]

That should be a good start. You'll find that the Mac community is more than willing to go out of its way to help you, especially if you're a new convert. Just tell people you've switched from Windows, you'll get all the help you'll ever need.

Apple have support forums too, they're worth a look, especially to track bugs - people normally go whinge over there.

Finally, as someone mentioned, VersionTracker [versiontracker.com] and MacUpdate [macupdate.com] are the places to search for software. Even if you don't know the name of the software, type in what kind of thing you're looking for (eg MP3) and you're bound to find something of use.

Good luck, and most of all, have fun :)

-- james

Re:Try Apple's Switch Page

[diamondsw]

A couple of notes on those forums - MacNN tends to have a lot of noise to signal, and a LOT of immature people. You'll start to realize that Slashdot really *is* a better bunch. :) MacFixit, while an *excellent* site, requires a membership these days to search the archives or post in their forums. Still for a switcher it may be worth your while, and the folks there are very knowlegeable.

I highly recommend MacUpdate for software updates (and for finding a utility to do x-y-z), MacMinute for news (if you car

Re:Try Apple's Switch Page

[megabulk3000]

Ars Technica's Macintoshian Achaia [arstechnica.com] is the best of the Mac discusssion forums, I think, and there's plenty of info for switchers.

Re:Try Apple's Switch Page

[thecampbeln]

http://www.apple.com/switch/ [apple.com] talks about switching from Mac to PC

Uh... was hosting a Mac > PC switch page a condition of the investment money they got from Microsoft in the late 90's?

Re:Try Apple's Switch Page

[GoRK]

Speaking of mice and since you are getting an iBook, I'd recommend highly trying out SideTrack [ragingmenace.com], a replacement touchpad driver that adds TONS of useful features like a scroll area (horizonal and vertical) and up to 5 extra mouse buttons (center tap and 4 corners tap).

It also gives you several options of acceleration profiles; one of which is similar to PC trackpad accelerations if you are used to them.

Re:Try Apple's Switch Page

[pauldy]

Should read most modern. Some older usb pc mice will simply cause your machine mysteriously not to boot at all until they are removed.

Missing Manual...

[coldwd]

I'd say pick up a copy of David Pogue's excellent Missing Manual: Panther Edition. Amazon [amazon.com] has it for about $20, and I'm sure you could find it cheaper. Pogue has special sections in just about every chapter for people like yourself who are coming over from the windows world. Even after you've gotten used to OS X, the book is a very handy reference.

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!

M-I-C... K-E-Y...

[joshlewis]

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 [logitech.com] 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.

Re:M-I-C... K-E-Y...

[elmegil]

Don't get a book. No one actually reads them after they buy them.

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.

It is a fairly easy transition.

[drdink]

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.

Re:It is a fairly easy transition.

[randito]

Office for Mac is better than for windows in many respects and I do use work and excel for mac often, but if you ever use powerpoint, apple makes a similar product called keynote [apple.com] that is much much better. I also prefer the simplicity iCal and "Mail" over the feature-creap madness of outlook anyday. Actually, simplicity is the real reason we switched to mac, isn't it?

As a new mac user, i see this simple user interface in front of me and I start worrying about all of the work i am going to have to do to m

Some more APPS.

[Domini]

Some more apps:

FFView - Similar to IrfanView
iTerm - like putty for windows.
DVDattache - same as windows one
iGetter - like flash download accel.

Some tips:

Get a 3 button mouse and a microsoft USB internet keyboard... then load the MS keyboard software to config the keyboard... works like a charm... don't bother with loading any other mouse drivers (logitech or MS)

Also, just get a thawte freemail certificate instead of using SSH, and you won't need SSH apps...

Also, there are no replacements for a good mov

Re:It is a fairly easy transition.

[raga]

Drdink's list of apps is a good start. I have a list of OS X software I made for two of my "switcher" friends, and now that you are in the same boat, here it is.

These are all the free (as in beer) applications I use all the time:

WireTap [ambrosiasw.com]: Save an audio file of any sound being played on the Mac by any other application.

DVDBackup [wormintheapple.gr]: Great for backing up DVDs (while removing region coding, CSS encryption, and Macrovision encryption.) You'll still need Toast to burn the DVDs though.

PixelNhance [caffeinesoft.com]: A must-have to tinker with the color/brightness/contrast etc. of your digital pictures.

Pixen [opensword.org]: The best pixel-level editor on any platform.

MorphX [norrkross.com]: Morphs one image into another.

SnapNDrag [yellowmug.com]: For screen captures (Grab is another basic screen capture utility that comes bundled with OSX).

Galerie [myriad-online.com]: Puts your photos in a nice album-type gallery of web pages for being served by a web server.

LaTex Equation Editor [lse.ac.uk] and Tex Fog [mac.com]: The equation editors I use. Requires Tex/LaTex to be installed..

And if you are into LaTex, you'll also want CPlot [uni-goettingen.de]: A parametric equation plotter.

CyberDuck [unizh.ch]: Open source S/FTP client. (Other FTP clients for OSX include osXigen, Transmit, Fetch, Fugu...).

Onyx [titanium.free.fr]: A must-have system utility.

MenuMeter [ragingmenace.com]: Another must-have system info utility. Excellent.

Books [aetherial.net]: A library software (book database).

Xnippets [mactelligence.com]: A decent information organiser.

Carbon Copy Cloner [bombich.com]: Backup software. (Donationware)

A few apps I have gladly paid money to use:

ChartSmith [blacksmith.com]: Wonderfull for making all kinds of charts you have ever thought of (and some you haven't).

EvoCAM [evological.com]: Great app to record/play (or otherwise control) a Firewire/USB camera hooked to your Mac. Well worth the shareware price. (Also checkout their other offerings - ImageDV and VideoScope)

Intaglio [purgatorydesign.com]: The 2D vector drawing/CAD program of my choice for simple CAD/ technical drawings.

Keynote [apple.com]: A (much better than) PowerPoint replacement from Apple. I use this all the time. (When it came out originally, I paid $$ for it; I heard Apple is bundling it with iLife now?)

Little Snitch [obdev.at]: Keeps tabs on any stealth connections being made to/from your Mac, Shareware.

Intuem [intuem.com]: Nice MIDI app with a clean interface. (GarageBand, one of Apple's iLife apps, is great for Audio/MIDI as well, but I find it limiting for my purpose because it does not do MIDI-out to my keyboard/synth.)

cheers- raga

as a bigtime mac user...

[applegoddess]

...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 [metadistribution.org] (basically just portage), darwinports [opendarwin.org], and fink [sf.net] 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.

Not a significant task

[grolaw]

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!

Re:Not a significant task

[nordicfrost]

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....

Yes, he CUPS is a very cool system.My GF's iBook wasn't very supportive of her multi-function HP printer / fax / scanner / coffemaker. But after some googling and the Apple discussion boards I found a rather easy solution to the problem. Just install the open source HP drivers. My point here is: it is very easy to do make the system do things it really isn't me

Crossplatform productivity suit: OpenOffice.org

[SgtChaireBourne]

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.

Not true. I've had several versions of MS-Office for Macintosh as well as OpenOffice.org Buying MS-Office does not guarantee transparent exchange between platforms. (One 90% Macintosh dept. where I worked used to get problems with munged MS-Office documents until we taught the secretarie

Re:Crossplatform productivity suit: OpenOffice.org

[ZigMonty]

Shame that OO.org is such a load of garbage on the mac, eh? MS Office 2004, on the other hand, is actually pretty good.

tips&tricks for e-mail and software

[davids-world.com]

I have put together a list of software [reitter-it-media.de] that I recommend using (for common tasks), after evaluating several alternatives. Also, there is a detailed discussion [reitter-it-media.de] about how I moved my mail archives over to the Mac, with pointers to appropriate helper software. Admittedly, some of this might be easier nowadays. Hope it helps.

As a switcher myself...

[Cecil]

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 [adiumx.com] (a multi-protocol instant messenger), Firefox [mozilla.org] (sorry Safari) USB Overdrive [usboverdrive.com] (I find USB mice to move much too slowly even at max system settings), and Meteorologist [sourceforge.net] (little weather-sensing menubar app).

macosxhints [macosxhints.com] 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.

Biggest thing that threw me for a loop.

[Alcimedes]

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.

Re:Biggest thing that threw me for a loop.

[nordicfrost]

I agree. The uninstalling of apps is so radically different, you could argue it is the biggest HID / OS difference between Windows (and for that sake, Linux) and Mac OS. This is the kinda a feature that make you go: "THAT'S IT? It can't be it's too simple!". And maybe it is. It is annoyingly simple.

You don't want that program? Throw it in the thrash!
vs.
You don't want that program? Start > Programs > Control panel > Uninstall > Find program > Yes, I'm sure > Automatic uninstall > Wai

Re:Biggest thing that threw me for a loop.

[womby]

DLLs on the Mac live inside the Application, the application icon on a mac is in fact a folder that when double clicked launches the real application contained within.

This .app folder is called a bundle dir and should contain everything the app needs to run, the system handles shared DLLs in an interesting way, every app includes the DLLs inside its bundle but if multiple apps use the same DLLs the OS will use the one already resident in memory. Early on this caused a significant performance hit when launching apps and now the system will run a Pre-Binding process that will search all bundles for there DLLs and keep them in a central lookup cache.

There are also frameworks, which are essentially collections of DLLs in there own bundle dir, these are like the DLLs in the windows system dir and can be used by any app, it is quite rare for 3rd parties to install frameworks as the standard DLL handling covers most of the benefits that a 3rd part would gain.

Probably more information than you required to answer your question.

Two bits of advice....

[huchida]

I can't imagine you're really going to come across any problems you can't figure out on your own as far as switching goes... Except that you may be S.O.L. as far as drivers go, especially for sub-name-brand peripherals.

BUT as an iBook owner I heartily recommend two things:

This [iskin.com] keyboard protector. Buy it now and use it. White keyboards get very gross very fast, and it's impossible to clean dirt, pet hair and whatever else out from under the keys. And believe me, that stuff will show.

And if you're d

Re:Two bits of advice....

[anothy]

despite all the warnings, a co-worker and i have both tried this patch, and had no ill effects. does exactly what it's supposed to. very much worth it, in my mind.

Re:Two bits of advice....

[Artega VH]

I'm writing this comment from the screen enabled by this patch.. on an 800mhz 12inch ibook..

Only downside is that graphic intensive things are a tad slower.. but for using office (what I do most of the time) its perfect...

I'd only be careful on older ibooks, anything new can easily handle it.

Some tips

[UnknowingFool]

1. Menu Bar presence. It almost never goes away. Unlike Windows minimizing a window does not minimize the application. The application's menu bar almost always stays up at the top.

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.

Re:Some tips

[pauldy]

I just thought I could explain what seems like a frivolous claim in #3 here. Mac has always been an object oriented operating system. I was based around the idea of resources used by applications that didn't need to clutter the file system. This was done initially with a resource fork in all files that contained the resources and a separate fork for data. This means icons, sounds, everything can be in the application. They have stuck with this in OS X and have modified the application of the concept a bit but it uses the same principles. This is part of the reason why you have less external resource files in the mac than you do in windows.

Re:Some tips

[Yaztromo]

Adopt Unix user conventions. OS X is based on Unix. You need to have a root (admin) account and an everyday use account.

Just a clarification here. On OS X, there is a distinction between "Admin" and "root".

Any user can be an Admin, allowing them to do things as if they were root (when their password is supplied). Effectively it's the same as being setup for sudo access on a Unix system with sudo available.

"root" is something completely different, as it's a specific account -- one that doesn't really

Re:Some tips

[drsmithy]

Just a clarification here. On OS X, there is a distinction between "Admin" and "root".

Well, really, there's not (because in the underlying unix system, there's not - you're either root or you're a normal user).

An "Admin" is just someone who has write permissions to a few extra directories (like Applications) and is in the correct group to be able to sudo. Once an "admin" sudos or authenticates to one of those password prompts, they are running as root. This is something a lot of Mac users don't seem to

Re:Some tips

[Yaztromo]

Again, the root account doesn't need to exist/be usable on its own for a user to get root privileges.

That's just what I was tryin to get at. You can be an "Admin" user without that user being "root" -- they can effectively take on root privledges as they need them, but without the problems associated of actually being root at all times.

Thanks for helping to amplify that distinction.

Yaz.

Apple key vs. ctrl key

[Macgrrl]

As someone who switches between W2K at work and OSX at home on a daily basis, the biggest ongoing problem I have is keyboard shortcuts - I'm forever using the wrong modifier key

Switcher links

[OmniVector]

I've probably switched about a dozen people by now. so here's some of the things i show them when they first start.

Important URLs:

• Mac Rumors [macrumors.com] - Good rumors website
• Mac Slash [macslash.com] - Slashdot like mac news site
• Mac News Bytes [macnewsbytes.com] - Good quick links to mac related articles
• Version Tracker [versiontracker.com] - Software update website. Kind of like download.com for mac.
• Mac Update [macupdate.com] - Similar to versiontracker.com
• Mac OS X Hints [macosxhints.com] - Good tips site for beginners and experienced people alike.
• Think Secret [thinksecret.com] - Another good rumors site. Very accurate, most of the time.
• Emulation.net [emulation.net] - Links to game emulation for mac

Important Apps:

• Adium [adiumx.com] - Multi-protocol IM client
• Byte Controller [digitalhybrid.net] - Good itunes hotkey/menu pager applet
• Camino [mozilla.org] - Nice mac based gecko browser.
• Colloquy [colloquy.info] - Webkit based IRC client. not too newbish.
• Cyberduck [cyberduck.ch] - SFTP/FTP client for os x
• Desktop Manager [sf.net] - Multi desktop app for os x
• Apple X11 Server [apple.com] - Apple's integrated X11 server. you'd want this for the next two items
• Fink [sf.net] - UNIX software for your mac
• Gimp.app [sf.net] - decent free photo editor
• Handbrake [m0k.org] - DVD to mpeg4 ripper
• iTerm [sf.net] - Multi tabbed terminal
• Logorrhea [spiny.com] - iChat log viewer/searcher/indexer
• Meteorologist [sf.net] - Weather applet for the menu bar
• Menu Meters [ragingmenace.com] - Menu applet for cpu usage, net usage, and more.
• Mplayer OS X [sf.net] - This app will play just about any media format in existance
• Poisoned [gottsilla.net] - GiFT (Kazaa) and mldonkey based P2P mac client.
• Quicksilver [blacktree.com] - Very cool file/application/url/itunes/etc/etc/etc indexing program. It's like spotlight, only here TODAY and free!
• VLC [videolan.org] - Another good video playing app. Nice to have a backup sometimes if mplayer doesn't play a file (which is very very rare).

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

just switch!

[moosesocks]

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.

Re:just switch!

[ZackSchil]

RBrowserLite [rbrowser.com] is a stellar freeware FTP client.

Drag 'n Drop

[Bastian]

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.)

Re:Drag 'n Drop

[Seraphim_72]

As a non Mac person (not true - I own a Mac 512 to this day) who every so often has to deal with a users Mac, I would like to ask you a question.

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

Last I tried I could not burn a multi-session disk without third party software. Is (was) this true? If I pop in a cd, drag a file over, burn it, eject it, and repeat, will it work? No f

Re:Drag 'n Drop

[drsmithy]

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.

Sounds like you're another one of these people who hasn't changed the way they use Windows since Windows 3.1 (or maybe Windows 95) - like all those people wh

apps and file formats

[b17bmbr]

one thing that you'll need to consider is file formats. textedit does a fair job of reading/writing .doc files, and if you really need to, OO.org or even abiword will help. you probably have lots of emails. mail.app uses mbox format, and you'll need to import them. most apps for windows have mac counterparts, but your licenses won't transfer. so, you're screwed there. you can easily connect a 2 button mouse and it "just works". i am on my second ibook, (first a G3 700, now a G4 800) both 12" variety.

Learn to trust the Mac with your files

[wimbor]

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..

Two things to learn

[MoneyT]

1) Windows are not Applications. When you open an application in OS X, generaly a window will apear containing a new instance of the program. When you close the window however, this does not close the program. You have to specificaly quit the application.

2) Maximize means expland to fit the window contents, not expand to fill the screen.

I highly suggest you head over to anandtech.com and checkout the macdates section of his weblog. It has a lot of information in the entries and the comments.

Keyboard bindings

[Devil's Avocado]

One of the most annoying things for me when I switched to OS X was the fact that various keys like Home, End, PageUp, and PageDown didn't work like I wanted them to. Luckily, there's an easy way to customize the key bindings for all Cocoa apps (which is most everything I use). Rather than repeat the info here I'll just refer you to the three blog entries I wrote on the subject: First [idyll.org], Second [idyll.org], and Third [idyll.org].

Other OS X annoyances:

• You can only resize windows from the lower-right corner
• There's no simple way

Re:Keyboard bindings

[HeghmoH]

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.

Re:Keyboard bindings

[anothy]

as noted, you can achieve much of what you're looking for WRT keyboard shortcuts by turning on one option. but really, you're better off just learning to use the mouse effectively. there's some great articles on asktog.com about mouse vs. keyboard activity. short summary: people tend strongly to say the keyboard's faster, but a stopwatch consistently says the mouse is faster, and there's solid psychological reasons why.

this is, of course, not an option for everyone, particularly folks with physical disabil

Re:Keyboard bindings

[Senjaz]

A quick response to your points:

1. True, and anoying. Mac OS 9 windows could be dragged/moved by their border which was useful, more so than being able to resize since its a more common opperation. But Mac OS X doesn't allow resize and only offers drag by border in metal windows.

2. Yes their is. Switch on full keyboard access in System Preferences, then one of the F keys will highlight the menu bar for keyboard access if the standard keyboard shortcuts are not enough.

This feature was only added in Mac OS

Take Control E-Books

[mrob2002]

The 'Take Control' e-books cover an excellent range of topics, and are published as PDF files for $5 or $10 each.

They cover things like take control of buying a mac, take control of your airport network, take control of your mail app, take control of customising panther, etc.

They're generally pretty short, but they're focused on one topic, and will cover that one topic in much more detail than a chapter in a bigger book would.

They're also published by the people who do the excellent Tidbits magazine.

And if you plan to program...

[GrahamCox]

...don't forget that Apple ship their development tools with every system for free. And they are good ones, you don't need anything else. Writing Cocoa apps with Objective C is the most productive way to program on any modern platform, by such a huge margin it's just not funny.

RealBASIC doesn't count. (Even if it did, Cocoa is still much quicker).

I can't believe how much time I've wasted over the years on C++, just bowing and scraping to the language and the compiler. I've seen the light brother!!! :)

How to switch to Apple.

[Domini]

Learn to use a 3 button mouse, since most mac users use 3 button mice instead of the standard one.

Get used to a centralized consistent address book, and not one per application.

Get used to *not* installing drivers for every. single. hardware device.

Get used to a lack of crashes, even when suspending/sleeping.

Oh, and get used to suspend actually working.

Then also get used to pretty fonts and visual effects that do not get in the way.

Also get used to just dragging apps to your hard drive to install, and

Re:How to switch to Apple.

[Domini]

I switched about 8 months ago, and for work I switched back to windows a month ago.

This only highlighted all the problems for me again, and I have reverted to the Mac again.

I have a P800 phone and an iPod... and they are practically useless when it comes to syncing on windows... first there is the driver nightmare, and then there is the address book maze which is windows.... most of my contacts get lost.

Besides the fact that I cannot use multiple clients on windows, since they all use different contacts.

Make a "Start" menu

[PygmySurfer]

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.

Re:Make a "Start" menu

[mstra]

I did this myself - although after a while, my Applications folder got so huge that ctrl-clicking on it took too long (I'm really impatient).

So I created a new folder and populated it with aliases of the apps I care about (but don't care about enough to let them live permanently in the Dock). I put this folder in the Dock, and voila!

Re:Make a "Start" menu

[hackstraw]

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 [blacktree.com]. 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.

dos and don'ts on a Mac

[karnat10]

do...

• use Drop Drawers [sigsoftware.com] as a Dock supplement or replacement
• use MPlayer [sourceforge.net] as your media player
• read macosxhints [macosxhints.com] when you need advice

don't...

• use anti-virus software - it's not necessary
• use Internet Explorer - it's crap
• use Windows Media Player - not even your worst enemy deserves this crap

Mouse Expose'

[Blankzoid]

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.

data paradigm and users

[supercobrajet428]

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)

I did that this summer

[magefile]

1.) If you know Unix, you'll be right at home 2.) Minimize/Maximize/Close are on the left, not the right. You'll constantly be confusing the two (and on your Windows boxes, too) 3.) Your current Windows hardware should work fine on the network. Maybe a minor hassle to set up (not always, esp. if you use DHCP), but not much of one. 4.) If you don't like modified-clicking with the apple or control modifier, you can buy a standard two-button USB mouse (with scroll wheel if desired) and plug it in.

harpa, I was there too

[theolein]

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 [macosxhints.com]. The MacNN forums [macnn.com] also offer really good help for newcomers.

Lastly, good luck.

Some tips for Windows to Mac switchers

[ecklesweb]

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!

interesting comments

[justforaday]

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.

Be prepared to suffer

[b-baggins]

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.

Get Ready for GUI Dissapointment

[spike2131]

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.

Another way to quit apps

[The Infamous Grimace]

So far people have mentioned that apps under OS X generally don't quit when you close the window, although there are exceptions (System Preferences come to mind), but rather remain loaded in memory until you 'Command-Q' or 'File->Quit'. But that can get a little confusing. Here's what you need to know to surely quit that app - click on the Dock icon, but don't release the button; hold it until a menu pops up. If it says 'Show in Finder', well, then the app ain't running. But if the app is running, then you will get a menu that, at the very least, will have a 'Quit' option at the bottom. Personally, I dislike the Dock, but this is one feature that is quite handy. One can quit any running app at any time from any other app, regardless of the number of windows related to that app. Sure, you can do this in Windows by closing out all app-related windows in the task bar, but it ain't as elegant or easy.

(tig)

Re:Unlearn

[Anonymous Coward]

Right after you get your copy of MS Office!

Re:Too late now

[NanoGator]

"What if the answer indicates that you were better off sticking with Windows? (I know, on Slashdot that conclusion isn't possible.)"

For a laptop? Nah. I'm assuming he's not planning on doing a lot of gaming on it. (though the Apple store does have a small shelf of games on it that aren't half bad...) He's likely to do fine on a Mac. Switching to Mac from Windows isn't as hard on people as switching to Linux from Windows. Apple did a fine job of that.

Re:Too late now

[ClosedSource]

I wasn't thinking about gaming. My point was that if you're going to change OS's, shouldn't there be a reason? Despite the "offtopic" moderation it's just common sense that one investigate the difficulty of making a switch before rather than after a purchase.

Re:Get Used To Being a Zealot

[itwerx]

Internet Explorer : FireFox, Safari, Camino, Opera

Kazaa : Any of a dozen or so different P2P apps (Google for "OSX" and whatever P2P network you're trying to use)

Windows Media Player : Mplayer works just fine

Microsoft Office Version X : OpenOffice-X, Microsoft Office-X

zMUD : dunno (not a MUDder)

Games : dunno (not a gamer) but I've seen some sites dedicated to Mac gaming. Google is your friend...

Napster : iTunes (duh! :)

Re:Here some hints

[man_ls]

Microsoft Virtual PC 2005 for Mac is a damn good emulation layer for X86. You can install any OS in it...and the emulated PC can generally talk to the host PC through extensions or TCP/IP if you are so inclined -- so you can transfer data.

Re:the mouse is my biggest hang up

[ZackSchil]

What about the Finder's Column view [cthome.net]? I mean, not bothering to look is one thing but not clicking a button that's right there the whole time is just lazy.

Re:Keyboard shortcuts

[Dot.Com.CEO]

What in the name of god are you talking about? Have you ever sat in front of a Mac? Almost every single action is accessible through a keyboard shortcut. What's more, Apple's design guidelines keep things similar across different apps, so you'll always use Command-, to access preferences.

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.

Re:There is no compatibility issue...

[nuggetman]

For the love of god man, use a line break or two or thirty