curious said:
For those of you that recently switched from Windows XT to Mac (not an older version of Windows, but XT)...
How difficult was the switch, really? (serious question -- not trying to be sarcastic)
Since lots of things are *different*, I'm betting that there were certain challenges, right? Some things that you found difficult, or frustrating? Any old PC habits that were hard to break?
I'm sure you recent switchers know what I'm getting at. Any comments or thoughts you can share would be appreciated.
Oh, and please don't say "Windows sucks" or anything like that. It really doesn't help me. Thanks.
Even with all my attempts to learn OS X at an Apple retail store and at my cousin's, nothing could have prepared me for switching from being a very advanced Windows user to a Mac user. Here are the difficulties I encountered along the way:
-Getting used to the idea of zooming my windows rather than maximizing them (This gets much better as you learn to use Expose)
-Losing my paranoia when it came to installing most applications simply by dragging the app into the Applications folder (and vice-versa for uninstalling them)
-Getting used to applications usually being in dmgs when downloaded; I never had to use disk images much on Windows.
-At the beginning it feels like you're using your mouse way too much, but as you get better you'll learn the extensive keyboard shortcuts in OS X.
-The lack of the Start Menu absolutely killed me the first two weeks. Spotlight helps alleviate this though, since now I only keep my frequently used apps in the Dock and rely on the very efficient Spotlight for everything else. As a temporary solution until you get used to it, though, press Shift-Command-A while in Finder to open the Applications Folder in a new window. Better yet, put the Applications folder in your Dock so you can just click it there.
-The three buttons being at the top-left of the window rather than the top-right, along with the skewing of the desktop to the right rather than the left like on Windows.
-Getting used to closing windows without quitting the applications
-Playing back my video files in a very enjoyable manner is something I fine tuned up until a few weeks ago. I can share my secrets to success with you if you so desire.
I'd say that about covers it. It usually helps to bring a safety blanket of some kind with you. For me, that was using Firefox as my default browser until I learned to appreciate Mac multitasking, which Firefox seems to be opposed to with its zoom button that acts like a maximize button. The memory efficiency could also be better on Firefox. That said, here are some applications that are essential:
-Adium (
http://www.adiumx.com) is the best instant messaging application I have ever used. It is very changeable and supports a ridiculous number of instant messaging clients. And it's freeware based on libGaim.
-VLC (
http://www.videolan.org) is a free media player that plays every file type out there except the Real Player files (download Real Player if you just as well) and the WMV files specifically encoded with the WMV3 codec. It plays DVDs also, by the way. Anyway, for those pesky WMVs...
-Flip4mac (
http://www.flip4mac.com) is a set of Quicktime components that enables WMV playback in Quicktime Player. It's nifty, and since Microsoft stopped supporting Windows media Player 9 for mac, they generously paid off the Flip4mac team to offer it for free.
-Stuffit Expander (
http://www.stuffit.com) will be essential if you want to uncompress anything, and pretty much every app you download will be in a disk image in a compressed file. make sure you get just Stuffit Expander, the free one.
There are also a couple of other things about Media playback in particular I can teach you how to do, like get Quicktime to play in fullscreen (though you can accomplish this with iTunes f you so desire). If you ever find need for those, just ask me. Congrats on the jump.