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Switcher Hangout (Windows to Mac)
Switching to a Mac
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<blockquote data-quote="Zoolook" data-source="post: 280235" data-attributes="member: 21101"><p>Hey mate - I am a Windows old timer too... built Windows PCs for about 9 years before switching. I'll try and address your questions.</p><p></p><p>1) A desktop Mac is just as easy to upgrade as a Windows PC in terms of new RAM, HDD and any external USB/Firewire drives. Upgrading the Motherboard, adding specialist Sound Cards or Video Cards is a little more limiting.</p><p></p><p>2) Macs handle disc drives a lot better than PCs, but it takes a little getting used to. Macs can see all the drives as a single volume (if you want), so your 'Music' folder can have data across 12 drives, but you'd see it in one folder via iTunes if you want. Having said that, I split my backup into Apps, Library (User and root), Pictures, Documents and Music onto different volumes (all FAT32 for maximum compatibility if the worse happens and I need to rescue stuff from a Windows machine or Linux machine). You could do what you did as well. I recommend you have at least one backup stored on FAT32 file system.</p><p></p><p>3) I cannot answer this because I dont have those apps, but just remember that ctr-c, ctr-v etc are the same, only you use the 'Apple' key rather than control. The Mac has great short cuts.</p><p></p><p>4) You will learn as you go along, but some of the short cuts are in the manual and others you'll find online. If you get an unresponsive app, just press 'Apple-Option-Esc' and you get a Force-Quit dialogue box. I have only ever needed to use this once (Firefox Beta 2) and it seems to work fine. The eequivalent of Task Manager is in the applications folder by default (press 'Apple-shift-A' to bring up, assuming you're in Finder. Go to the 'Utilities' folder and look up 'Activity Monitor'. This will show you everything thats going on and is similar to (but more detailed than) task manager. Of course you can simply put a shortcut on your dock for this app and there are widgets that show summaries of this that you can download and view with F12. This is also useful for seeing what is being run native (Intel) and Emulated (Rosetta/PowerPC)</p><p></p><p>5 and onwards.</p><p></p><p>This is personal taste. I didn't actually get rid of anything. There is not always a concept of uninstalling apps with the Mac (as you'll find out) and it's easy to leave lingering folders (same as Windows in some ways). Definitely check out the enthusiast sites for Mac tips. I have learned many things, but from a wide variety of sites, not just one. Google is your best friend here.</p><p></p><p>Let me know how you get on, email me for any questions.</p><p></p><p>**edit - One big tip, because this threw me for about a month. When you download a new app, you'll get a DMG file on your desktop (or where ever you saved it). You double click on it and usually you'll get a temporary drive mount on your desktop. In it, you'll see the file (executable) and occasionally txt files or documents. Now for about 4 weeks, I ran all my downloaded apps from this (I can hear the Mac veterans laughing). BUT... what you're supposed to do is this.</p><p></p><p>Copy (drag) the Executable to your applications folder, and any documents you want to save to your documents folder. You can then delete the DMG file (drag into the trash) AND unmount the temporary disk (again by dragging to the trash). You then run the app from the Applications folder. Also, from the applications foler, you can drag the app to your dock to create a shortcut.</p><p></p><p>Learning what copies and what creates short cuts in OS X by default is more of an art than a skill! So beware!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zoolook, post: 280235, member: 21101"] Hey mate - I am a Windows old timer too... built Windows PCs for about 9 years before switching. I'll try and address your questions. 1) A desktop Mac is just as easy to upgrade as a Windows PC in terms of new RAM, HDD and any external USB/Firewire drives. Upgrading the Motherboard, adding specialist Sound Cards or Video Cards is a little more limiting. 2) Macs handle disc drives a lot better than PCs, but it takes a little getting used to. Macs can see all the drives as a single volume (if you want), so your 'Music' folder can have data across 12 drives, but you'd see it in one folder via iTunes if you want. Having said that, I split my backup into Apps, Library (User and root), Pictures, Documents and Music onto different volumes (all FAT32 for maximum compatibility if the worse happens and I need to rescue stuff from a Windows machine or Linux machine). You could do what you did as well. I recommend you have at least one backup stored on FAT32 file system. 3) I cannot answer this because I dont have those apps, but just remember that ctr-c, ctr-v etc are the same, only you use the 'Apple' key rather than control. The Mac has great short cuts. 4) You will learn as you go along, but some of the short cuts are in the manual and others you'll find online. If you get an unresponsive app, just press 'Apple-Option-Esc' and you get a Force-Quit dialogue box. I have only ever needed to use this once (Firefox Beta 2) and it seems to work fine. The eequivalent of Task Manager is in the applications folder by default (press 'Apple-shift-A' to bring up, assuming you're in Finder. Go to the 'Utilities' folder and look up 'Activity Monitor'. This will show you everything thats going on and is similar to (but more detailed than) task manager. Of course you can simply put a shortcut on your dock for this app and there are widgets that show summaries of this that you can download and view with F12. This is also useful for seeing what is being run native (Intel) and Emulated (Rosetta/PowerPC) 5 and onwards. This is personal taste. I didn't actually get rid of anything. There is not always a concept of uninstalling apps with the Mac (as you'll find out) and it's easy to leave lingering folders (same as Windows in some ways). Definitely check out the enthusiast sites for Mac tips. I have learned many things, but from a wide variety of sites, not just one. Google is your best friend here. Let me know how you get on, email me for any questions. **edit - One big tip, because this threw me for about a month. When you download a new app, you'll get a DMG file on your desktop (or where ever you saved it). You double click on it and usually you'll get a temporary drive mount on your desktop. In it, you'll see the file (executable) and occasionally txt files or documents. Now for about 4 weeks, I ran all my downloaded apps from this (I can hear the Mac veterans laughing). BUT... what you're supposed to do is this. Copy (drag) the Executable to your applications folder, and any documents you want to save to your documents folder. You can then delete the DMG file (drag into the trash) AND unmount the temporary disk (again by dragging to the trash). You then run the app from the Applications folder. Also, from the applications foler, you can drag the app to your dock to create a shortcut. Learning what copies and what creates short cuts in OS X by default is more of an art than a skill! So beware! [/QUOTE]
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