Switcher Remorse

I just bought a 17" iMac with the ATI card in it. Its been 3 days and I am kind of missing Windows (Not something I thought I'd ever say). Biggest things I miss are my Windows Live Messenger, I have the Mac version 6.0 but it doesn't have A/V capability. I also used my PC a lot to chat on Msn chat network, I know its closed but had moved to Buzzen & Phreik which runs off the same ocx as Msn did. Theres a few other things but nothing I can't live without. I have installed Parallels for the main two things listed and feel I've kind of defeated my purpose of going to Mac. Any other switchers felt this a way?

Anyone know of a good IRC client that has a appealing GUI? I can enter Buzzen & Phreik through there but so far none of them seem to have a good GUI just BLAH and BLAND.

Tried aMsn for a substitute for Messenger, It worked half the time with the webcam but still prefer Mac Messenger. Will work around it until the new version comes out.

On the positive side, I have enjoyed everything else about Mac. Heres a list of my favorite things. Dock owns Task Bar, Photobooth keeps me amused for long periods of time, stability of OS X, iMac has been running since I hooked it up the first night. Front row is just mesmerizing, Spell check on everything is just too funny I now know how illiterate I am.

I apologize for writing a book here but help me out yall, I need some positive re-enforcement and suggestions to break the Windows habit.

i had a little of that too a few month ago. i guess i wasn't really trying to switch, i was trying to switch a mac to fit me.

pretty much all of what i need to do from day to day i can now do easily with a combination of apple and third party software. have you tried adium for chat? i like it quite a bit, but not sure if it supports voice...
also, as i understand it, mozilla's seamonkey acts as an irc client.

also, check these out, i think you'll find plenty of good reading here:

Switchers, what do you love most about your new Mac?

switchers - top 5 things you don't miss!

Feelings of Apple Disillusionment

A switcher's guide to OS X Software

Snak is the best irc client I've found and I've tried just about all of them.

I am not familiar with windows live messenger, however since switching to MAC love the iChat application. Have you given that a try?

Running Parallels isn't defeating the purpose of Mac OS, it's expanding it. With the new upcoming version of Parallels, you'll even be able to run Win apps on the desktop instead of keeping them trapped inside the virtual machine window. It will be almost flawlessly integrated. (keeping track of which apps require "apple+c" to cut versus which ones need "ctrl+v" to paste, and vice versa, is my only headache ).

The way I look at it, when I run WinXP on top of OS X it's more stable than what most people do ... which is run WinXP on top of DOS which is anything but stable.

I don't have a lot of "chat" experience so I can't do more than recommend you follow the advice of the other posters. Adium seems to be the class favorite.

Give it a few days, you'll begin feeling more comfortable with the way everything works and before you know it, you'll be a convert. Good luck!

I use this Irc client. Works well and is easy to set up.

http://jirc.hick.org/jirc/

adammg said:

Theres a few other things but nothing I can't live without. I have installed Parallels for the main two things listed and feel I've kind of defeated my purpose of going to Mac. Any other switchers felt this a way?

.

Click to expand...

Actually yes, I was initially dissapointed I couldn't entirely get rid of Windows and I also installed Parallels. I needed to run MS Money (as Quicken for Mac is utter toilet) and also my home town football team in the UK shows highlights and stuff, but ONLY works with IE 6 or better. I know that's terrible, but I subscribe to their service and so needed to have Windows.

However, running both isn't really a problem and I only boot up Windows to do my finances and watch weekend football highlights.

ToddG said:

The way I look at it, when I run WinXP on top of OS X it's more stable than what most people do ... which is run WinXP on top of DOS which is anything but stable.

Click to expand...

I hope you realize that WinXP has nothing to do with DOS. They did away with that at around the turn of the Millennium.

As for IRC chat, might I recommend X-Chat? I've used it before on Linux, and it seems to run the same on Mac. (Including my inexplicable inability to connect properly to IRC, no matter the client or OS)

Zoolook said:

and also my home town football team in the UK shows highlights and stuff, but ONLY works with IE 6 or better. I know that's terrible, but I subscribe to their service and so needed to have Windows.

Click to expand...

If you enable the Safari Debug Menu you can tell Safari to act as Windows IE 6 IIRC. At least you can avoid having to use that.

You should write to MSN, and Yahoo in their feedback pages. Tell them you want full messenger support in OSX.

baggss said:

If you enable the Safari Debug Menu you can tell Safari to act as Windows IE 6 IIRC. At least you can avoid having to use that.

Click to expand...

I might try that, but it's the combination of IE, WM10 and ActiveX... it really is a Microsoft crapfest.

Thanks for all yalls reponses, I'm going to keep trying stuff out. That Safari trick seems interesting, Not sure it'd solve my problem cause would still need Active X or be able to install a .exe file. I'mma keep Mac'in it. Yall will be seeing a lot of me in days to come.

Adam

There are websites built with only Windows machines compatibility in mind out there. The only thing left to do is complain to the website owners that all the Mac and Linux users are being left out.

The way the Mac is gaining market share right now, they'll have to do something sooner or later anyway.

I use mostly Skype which now supports Video too. iChat I use maybe once or twice a week also a great app

MacHeadCase said:

There are websites built with only Windows machines compatibility in mind out there. The only thing left to do is complain to the website owners that all the Mac and Linux users are being left out.

The way the Mac is gaining market share right now, they'll have to do something sooner or later anyway.

Click to expand...

This is soooo true and the sign of a very bad webmaster/coder. The good ones I know test their sites on every single machine and OS to be sure things are displaying properly and as planned. Of course CSS and Flash have made it easier but yes some just design/code on a PC and call it good.