Sage advice for the new Mac switcher

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cwa107


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So, what kind of data is chrome collecting exactly? My passwords, my history? And what are they doing with it? You're making me want to switch, despite the speed...

Passwords, no. History, search terms, browsing habits, those sort of things. These data points paint a picture of how you use the Internet and help to target advertising to you. On the surface, it's pretty innocuous, but it's still more data than a lot of people like to give out.

Chrome is a fast browser, but when the difference in rendering speeds amount to tenths of a second, it's really not noticeable under normal conditions. Although both Safari and Chrome handily outpace Firefox, I actually think Firefox "feels" faster since it doesn't paint each individual element of page while it's loading. Instead, it just renders it and pops it up immediately.

I've struggled to find a single compelling reason to switch to Chrome. The interface is pretty awful, it lacks the useful add-on library of Firefox, and it doesn't handle RSS feeds all that well (well, to be fair, nothing does it as well as Firefox). In my view, it's yet-another-webkit-browser, and not exactly a spectacular one at that.

I'd love to hear some of the reasons that Mac users use Chrome. There's got to be something I'm just not seeing. Between WebKit browsers, I'd say Safari offers more polish and features. Personally, I use Firefox just because I'm used to it, I also like its in-page searching, gesture support and RSS feed handling.
 
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I've struggled to find a single compelling reason to switch to Chrome. The interface is pretty awful, it lacks the useful add-on library of Firefox, and it doesn't handle RSS feeds all that well (well, to be fair, nothing does it as good as Firefox). In my view, it's yet-another-webkit-browser, and not exactly a spectacular one at that.

I'd love to hear some of the reasons that Mac users use Chrome. There's got to be something I'm just not seeing. Between WebKit browsers, I'd say Safari offers more polish and features. Personally, I use Firefox just because I'm used to it, I also like its in-page searching, gesture support and RSS feed handling.

I second all of that :)
 
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I'd love to hear some of the reasons that Mac users use Chrome. There's got to be something I'm just not seeing. Between WebKit browsers, I'd say Safari offers more polish and features. Personally, I use Firefox just because I'm used to it, I also like its in-page searching, gesture support and RSS feed handling.

Well, when I had Windows, Chrome was ten times faster than Safari for Windows and Firefox, and obviously the nightmare Microsoft likes to call internet explorer. It had a built in spell checker, and saved all of my passwords. The interface was clean and smooth, and the themes were great for eye candy. I fell in love with the browser :)
When I got my MacBook Pro, I used Safari for a couple minutes, then downloaded Chrome, and I just sort of fell into a pattern of clicking on Chrome instead of Safari. I suppose I should probably give Safari a fair shot on the osx operating system it was designed for... and I think I just might :)
 

cwa107


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Well, when I had Windows, Chrome was ten times faster than Safari for Windows and Firefox, and obviously the nightmare Microsoft likes to call internet explorer. It had a built in spell checker, and saved all of my passwords. The interface was clean and smooth, and the themes were great for eye candy. I fell in love with the browser :)
When I got my MacBook Pro, I used Safari for a couple minutes, then downloaded Chrome, and I just sort of fell into a pattern of clicking on Chrome instead of Safari. I suppose I should probably give Safari a fair shot on the osx operating system it was designed for... and I think I just might :)

Might want to give the Mac version of Firefox a go too. IMHO, it makes Safari look like a tinkertoy. Make sure you get the Ad Block Plus add-on.
 
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Might want to give the Mac version of Firefox a go too. IMHO, it makes Safari look like a tinkertoy. Make sure you get the Ad Block Plus add-on.

Firefox felt really slow on Windows Vista... is it going to be better in Snow Leopard? I'm not a really heavy add-on user, I mostly use the internet for personal things like Facebook, email, and YouTube, if that makes a difference... A little bit of torrents occasionally.
 

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Firefox felt really slow on Windows Vista...

Well, let's be fair. Is there anything that performs well on Vista?

is it going to be better in Snow Leopard?

It takes about twice as long to start as Safari for me, but once it's up, it feels every bit as fast. Fortunately, you don't really even need to install it. Just download it, open the disk image and give it a double-click. If you don't like it, just eject the disk image and move on.

I'm not a really heavy add-on user, I mostly use the internet for personal things like Facebook, email, and YouTube, if that makes a difference... A little bit of torrents occasionally.

Ad Block Plus is really one of the few add-ons I must have. It gets rid of all of the banner ads and stupid ad animations on just about every page I hit. It also avoids a lot of hassles like fake Anti-virus program ads that lead to malware (at least on Windows).
 
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Okay. Well, maybe nothing performs in vista, but Chrome did do okay for my 9 month sentence in the Windows Vista world :] I'm in Firefox now, and from what I've done (checked Facebook, checked Gmail, played a YouTube video) I actually really like it!
But I've liked almost everything I've tried on this computer =]
Thanks for the advice, and I'll definitely try that add on!
 
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Give the 3 finger swipe up and down a go in firefox ....it works as a quick page up and down to the top and bottom of the page.
A simple feature, but my favourite feature :)
 
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Give the 3 finger swipe up and down a go in firefox ....it works as a quick page up and down to the top and bottom of the page.
A simple feature, but my favourite feature :)

I love my trackpad even more now :)
I tried using my HP laptop today... yeah, umm, no way I can ever go back! Thank you!
 

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I love my trackpad even more now :)
I tried using my HP laptop today... yeah, umm, no way I can ever go back! Thank you!

Also, the pinch gesture zooms in and out (like the iPhone). Oh, and twisting switches tabs. Three-finger swipe goes back and forward too.

Another one I love: Hit the / key and then start typing and it searches within the page for the terms you type.

Have a news site you like? Click the RSS button in the address bar and then add it to your Bookmarks toolbar. Then, click the entry for it and it will drop down a menu with titles of the latest stories.

I could go on and on.... :D
 
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Also, the pinch gesture zooms in and out (like the iPhone). Oh, and twisting switches tabs. Three-finger swipe goes back and forward too.

Another one I love: Hit the / key and then start typing and it searches within the page for the terms you type.

Have a news site you like? Click the RSS button in the address bar and then add it to your Bookmarks toolbar. Then, click the entry for it and it will drop down a menu with titles of the latest stories.

I could go on and on.... :D

Knew the pinch gesture, what do you mean twisting? I love the news thing, and the search feature is definitely cool... I tried to twist and only managed to bring up my widgets. lol.
 

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Knew the pinch gesture, what do you mean twisting? I love the news thing, and the search feature is definitely cool... I tried to twist and only managed to bring up my widgets. lol.

I guess I haven't used it in awhile. It doesn't seem to be working for me at the moment. Normally you'd just put two fingers on the trackpad and twist them either clockwise or counter-clockwise to switch tabs. For whatever reason, I can't get it to work just now.
 
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I guess I haven't used it in awhile. It doesn't seem to be working for me at the moment. Normally you'd just put two fingers on the trackpad and twist them either clockwise or counter-clockwise to switch tabs. For whatever reason, I can't get it to work just now.

Well, that's all right, thanks for the help :) I'm officially converted.
 

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Well, that's all right, thanks for the help :) I'm officially converted.

Welcome to the club! :) Unfortunately once you fall in love with FF, you do get spoiled. Now every other browser I use seems to fall short.

Make sure you drag that Firefox icon out of the disk image and drop it into your Applications folder. Then, the next time you start it, right click its icon in the Dock and click 'Keep in Dock'.

You probably already know that, but we seem to get a lot of threads on the subject (specific to Firefox for some reason), so I'm just trying to nip it in the bud.
 
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Welcome to the club! :) Unfortunately once you fall in love with FF, you do get spoiled. Now every other browser I use seems to fall short.

Make sure you drag that Firefox icon out of the disk image and drop it into your Applications folder. Then, the next time you start it, right click its icon in the Dock and click 'Keep in Dock'.

You probably already know that, but we seem to get a lot of threads on the subject (specific to Firefox for some reason), so I'm just trying to nip it in the bud.

Yep, I did, but thanks for the advice. :]
 
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Ad Block Plus is really one of the few add-ons I must have.

Of course Safari 5 has ad blockers as well. The one used in Chrome has been ported over as an extension and is really pretty excellent.
 
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To chas_m I just read your first post here and sure it's what most people know. But it's great for switchers and said in an excellent and easy to understand way. Well doen no the post.

In saying that though I have a few points I want to say about it.

In point 7, I would really list the application Onyx. I tell every new to Mac user about it and everyone of them end up loving the app. Well if I wrote the guide I'd have it in. I didn't write it though, you did :).

In point 4, you should mention to keep up to date with all the security updates through software update. Because that's the best thing to do in my opinion. Everything else about security you have pretty much covered there.

You need to make a point to say visit this page.
Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
To me Apple's shortcuts is what makes it head and shoulders above any other OS. Well it's just one of the things OS X has. But learning even a few of those would make any switchers life so much easier.

And somewhere you should put in click to flash for safari. I think it's almost a requirement for safari these days.

That's all I can think of. You don't have to add any of what I said in. They are just are what the switchers I have taught to use macs - as in it's what those switchers loved and still love to this very day.
 

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To chas_m I just read your first post here and sure it's what most people know. But it's great for switchers and said in an excellent and easy to understand way. Well doen no the post.

In saying that though I have a few points I want to say about it.

In point 7, I would really list the application Onyx. I tell every new to Mac user about it and everyone of them end up loving the app. Well if I wrote the guide I'd have it in. I didn't write it though, you did :).

In point 4, you should mention to keep up to date with all the security updates through software update. Because that's the best thing to do in my opinion. Everything else about security you have pretty much covered there.

You need to make a point to say visit this page.
Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
To me Apple's shortcuts is what makes it head and shoulders above any other OS. Well it's just one of the things OS X has. But learning even a few of those would make any switchers life so much easier.

And somewhere you should put in click to flash for safari. I think it's almost a requirement for safari these days.

That's all I can think of. You don't have to add any of what I said in. They are just are what the switchers I have taught to use macs - as in it's what those switchers loved and still love to this very day.

All good points, but I just want to reiterate one thing so that you understand the context of the initial post...

This post was created as a response to a switcher in a completely different thread. So, it's a bit out of context as its own standalone thread, but still I liked the advice so much that I copied out to its own thread and gave it a title.

So, this is an opinion piece, somewhat out of context and not ever meant to be a definitive guide (hence the title).

With that said, if chas wants to add to or edit the initial post, I'll be happy to help with implementing.
 
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Ah ok that I didn't know. Thanks for the information. But with the sticky the post became much more important. Still it's totally up to chas if he does anything or not to the original post.

But even as the original post stands now it's really good.
 
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chas_m

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First off, thanks for the kind words 8thshark.


In point 7, I would really list the application Onyx. I tell every new to Mac user about it and everyone of them end up loving the app.

Maintenance is a simplified version of Onyx made by the same people. In working with newbies and switchers I like to keep things as easy as possible, knowing that at some point they'll feel comfortable enough to move on to bigger and better.

In point 4, you should mention to keep up to date with all the security updates through software update. Because that's the best thing to do in my opinion. Everything else about security you have pretty much covered there.

This is an excellent point. When my original post got made into a sticky I was happy for others to just "append" their amendments in the thread generally, but that is a good enough idea that I think you're right, it should be in the "original" essay. I'll chat with cwa about it.

You need to make a point to say visit this page.
Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
To me Apple's shortcuts is what makes it head and shoulders above any other OS. Well it's just one of the things OS X has. But learning even a few of those would make any switchers life so much easier.

I don't have to since you just did. :)

Thanks for the many great ideas.
 
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