Does any other switchers get frustrated learning OSX?

[bowlman23]

I've been playing with my new mac, and I feel annoyed because I don't understand it completely. Even installing apps confuses me, because I don't get if you drag the dmg file to the applications folder. After that, do you put it in the trash? Also, when I'm in the finder and I'm running Firefox, it shows it in the window with an eject button. Why is this? I thought it was just a normal app?

Sorry for the rant. I'm just confused and I'm really proficient in windows, so not knowing what I'm doing is frustrating. You know?

 

[dtravis7]

You are running the application from the DMG. Double click the DMG and it will mount on the desktop. Open it, Drag the Application from the DMG and drop it (The Application) in the Applications folder. Then close the DMG and throw it in the trash. Be sure to UnMount the DMG first or it will not delete. You can also save the DMG in case you need to reinstall, but that is up to you.

To recap. Lets say you have Firefox.dmg. Double Click on it, A new White Folder will mount on the desktop. That White Folder is like a Disk Drive. Open that and inside will be the FireFox Application. Drag that Firefox into the applications folder. Then close the White Disk Drive and throw it in the trash, which un-mounts it. Then take the Firefox.DMG and either save it somewhere for later reinstall or drag it into the trash for deletion.

Hope this helps.


This example right here is the best I have ever seen.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=414703&postcount=5

 

[MaDDoG]

Hi bowlman....interesting name. As DT7 says it is pretty easy. I have a folder on my desktop and keep the files in it in case I need to re install one day. I have found bucketloads of interesting and useful apps at places like
http://www.macupdate.com/hotpicks.php
http://www.pure-mac.com/
just to name a couple.

I have been involved with Macs for about 4 months now and love them. Thats not sy I don't like PC's and Windows, I just prefer the style and simplicity of my Mac Book Pro. And hey, whats a virus.

Keep at it and you will enjoy it soon.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

I used to work for Microsoft and I know more about Windows OS'es than most people.

I bought this MBP back in November and found it to be so easy that it borders on the ridiculous.

There is a great Switchers guide out there called "Switching to the Mac, The Missing Manual" If you are having any difficulty, I highly recommend it. After using my Mac for a couple of weeks, I got the book to learn the details that I hadn't yet discovered. It is very well written and easy to understand.

 

[flowrider]

I just bought my first Mac a month ago after a looooong time with PC's. Definitely takes some getting used to especially if you were a power user on a PC. I remember when I was in University a long time ago and I couldn't figure out how to eject my floppy disc. I sat there for a good half hour trying to figure out where the eject button was!!! Finally I gave up, lost some manliness and asked the girl in the next row!

 

[dadsgravy]

I don't know how helpful this will be, but here is a link to the switch 101 guide:

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

Apples website has a ton of information. You can also use the help feature built into your mac. If you are having trouble with downloading applications let's say, you can click on help on the tool bar and type "download" into the search field and it will bring up a list of possible topics. The built in help feature works very well and also has a ton of tips and info. It's a good place to turn to if you get frustrated with your mac. Here's a little sample of a help search:

 

[jaline]

Here is something someone posted on another website:

"When you switch from PC to Mac, especially with using iTunes and iPhoto, you have to stop thinking in terms of files and their actual folder location and start thinking in terms of the programs themselves being sort of portals through which you access the files and organize them extensively in terms of their metadata.

IOW, as soon as you import a song or photo, on a Mac you'll never again (most likely) need to worry about trying to find the actual file in its folder - if you need a copy of it somewhere, just drag-drop it from the app itself. You can organize your entire music/photo collection to the Nth degree in terms of all the metadata (date, genre, tags, title, album/playlist location, etc.), and its honestly a lot easier than dealing with the actual files directly. You kind of just need to learn to let the Mac's apps do the work for you, if that makes any sense. But the more you try and think of a Mac in PC terms and try to force it to work like one, the more you'll end up frustrated.

Macs are much more normal and 'organic' that way - what you actually want to do is look at a picture or listen to a song, not open a folder and double-click on an mp3 or jpg file. iTunes and iPhoto makes that possible and incredibly simple, but only if you learn to work *with* them rather than against them. If that makes any sense at all... you really do have to internalize a whole different way of looking at computing in order to "get" a Mac."

 

[Mace]

Jaline gave excellent advice. I introduced a friend of mine to Apple via my MBP, shortly after she bought a macbook herself. A few days ago she called to tell me iphoto was acting up and she was getting these error messages. Long story short, she'd gone into the folders of her pictures and moved them all around and such instead of doing that inside iphoto, which iphoto didn't like too much.
I grabbed the missing manual book when I got my MBP and I've since given it to my father to read and study. It's very easy to digest and it's really fun to learn all kinds of neat little tips and tricks.
You'll soon come to realize that you're use to thinking of things in a complicated fashion which is why a sizeable amount of people, myself included, have had some bumps in the road to learning OS X.

 

[jaline]

I do have to admit, I'm already frustrated when I'm just reading about the various differences between Windows and Mac OS X. I know for a fact that some of the things that I could do in Windows but can't do to the same extent in Mac will initially bother me, but hopefully that will pass.

For example, mass renaming of files, minimizing things, renaming and moving around files within a folder instead of within the program used to open them, etc. You need to download a separate program or tool to do some of these. This is probably the reason why Macs are considered to be more for "regular people", which is good, don't get me wrong, but I also liked some of the more complex capabilities of Windows and being able to just get right into those folders. I'm sure I'll see them more evenly once my system arrives.