Power User migrating from Windows/Linux to Mac OS X

[NIXin]

Hi everyone!

 

I'm a big fan of the project for about two years now, but since I didn't have a fully compatibile hardware up until now (I bought a new PC with "hackintosh" in mind), I couldn't really convert - only play with the OS X.

I do a little bit of everything, but generally there are three things I work with: music and sound, programming (also debugging and testing) and remote administration via SSH and a little bit of 2D graphics (Photoshop mostly). I'm setting up and personalising my Leopard for over a week now, but there are still some things that I can't seem to get used to, small annoyances and software-holes (no replacement). So I thought that some of you probably had simmilar problems and maybe you can help me work them out.

 

So here's a small list:

 

1. Can't do everything without using the mouse.

That's one of the main annoyances. In Windows or Linux the standard GUI, even if not well designed, almost always gives the possibility to move around between the buttons, toolbars, textboxs', etc - just by using the TAB, CTRL+TAB and arrow keys. In OS X, it's rather random. Sometimes I can move on to next textbox by using TAB and sometimes I can't. So it will work even stranger, like in Safari or Firefox - the thing as simple as logging in to this forum requires me to use the mouse. There is Login textbox, Password textbox and a "Keep me logged in" checkbox. So in Windows all I do is:

1. Click on the Login textbox

2. Type: NIXin

3. Press TAB

4. Type my pass

5. Press TAB

6. Press Space to check the checkbox

7. Press Enter to send the data and log in

Voila! That's all. I didn't use the mouse even once (except for the first click on the Login textbox which sometimes isn't even required on some sites, as it's the default textbox selected after you open the page).

On OS X the same action requires me to use the mouse twice. Maybe that's not much, but if you work a lot - grabbing the mouse, grabbing the keyboard again and again the mouse over and over, constantly - is really not something I'd like to get used to. Safari/Firefox isn't the only application with problematic keyboard usage. I found that almost all apps Cocoa have simmilar "bugs" with this.

I get that OS X is mouse friendly, but well, honestly, why can't it be also keyboard friendly is a mistery to me...

 

2. No music player with .cue sheet files support.

Oh yeah. If I'm going to stick with OS X, I will have to convert about 200GB of lossless music I ripped on Windows as .flac with embedded .cue. There is COG, the only decent player supporting lossless formats on OS X but there's no support for .cue files, let alone embedded .cue's in .flac files. Nothing can replace foobar2000.

 

3. Microsoft Office 2008 for MAC.

Well. This isn't really OS X related problem, but it's supposed to be an alternative for Office 2007 or whatever. Well. I found the whole suite very dissapointing, especially the biggest problem is the performance. It's slow. It's sluggish. Yuk! Fortunatly I don't have to use it that much.

 

4. Terminal.

The famous "Page Up", "Page Down" problem. But that was simple, just change the keyboard mapping and you're done. Same for the "Home" and "End". But what about "Insert" ? Damn, that was harder. I need insert for Midnight Commander which is my nr 1 file manager on my linux boxes that I administrate remotely. Ok, I figured it out and mapped insert to: CTRL + Down arrow (cause it's quite natural to select files like that). Unfortunatly I didn't find a way to map the real Insert. The "Delete" won't work, and so far I haven't found a sollution for that and I have to use the Backspace. {censored}... Some tabs would be handy too. Well, and mouse input too.

 

5. Mouse acceleration curve.

Wow, this is the crapiest designed thing in the whole OS X. There is MouseFix that work's... like {censored} - certainly not like the mouse in Windows. And there is SteerMouse that I must pay for and even if I do, the mouse still doesn't feel right. So Apple makes a Mouse friendly envirnoment with a crappy mouse driver (especially on large resolutions). Is that good for them?

 

6. Video player.

There is VLC which has very limited options. And there are Persian codecs which are not very stable. There is no subtitle editor like the amazing SubEdit Player (Windows) and there is no player that would really open up just about every video file like the KMPlayer. Know of any alternatives?

 

7. Look & Feel.

Why does the icons have to be so BIG I like minimalism and Leopard is the opposite. And unfortunatly there's no alternative that Windows has (the classic look).

 

8. Font DPI.

Okay, so let's say I would like to acctually see something without hurting my eyes on a 15.4" screen with a 1920x1200 (well, I have a 24" HD, but that's not the point) resolution. I could use the zoom feature, which is nice, but that's not the same as native big fonts. I know Windows has problems with it too, but at least there's an option.

 

9. File manager.

Ok, this is one of the biggest problems. I haven't found anything even remotely as functional as Windows' Total Commander (well, maybe MC, but I had to get if via fink). Finder is totally unacceptable. It's good for kids and "common" people that only play games and browse the internet, not power users, letalone sysadmins. I tried Disk Order, which is nice but offers limited functionality and still has some bugs under Leopard. On the other hand, ForkLift is promising but it lacks the keyboard shortcuts I grown acustom too so much and again requires the use of mouse which I totally hate.

 

10. Was replacing the Delete key with a Apple+Backspace shortcut really such a good idea...?

 

11. OpenSSH.

Man, I now know how much I like putty. OpenSSH is good, but well... I miss the saved sessions manager and all the additional options. Haven't found any decent and FREE replacement for OS X. Any thoughts on this?

 

12. Download manager

I download daily 10-15 GB of files via http/ftp. Haven't found any good managers. While wget is nice and I use it very often on the servers, I need something that'd support queuing and integration directly with FireFox or Safari. Something like Free Download Manager or FlashGet would be ideal. Does anybody know of such an app?

 

Maybe you'll be able to address at least some of the problems.

 

Lots of people seem to say that it's the workflow of OS X that's got them to switch. And what I find is that acctually the workflow is the thing with the most inconsistancies, maybe except for the part of drag'n drop installation which is great. (Unfortunatly a complete uninstallation of na app is a pain in the ass, so that's a trade off).

[Synaesthesia]

On the Cog homepage it says the new version, 0.0.7 can play .cue sheets. Hope it works for you! cogx.org/

3. Microsoft Office 2008 for MAC.

I agree. It's really slow. Office 2004 was as well (compared to 2003 for windows). I recommend iWork!

5. Mouse acceleration curve.

Maybe USBOverdrive will work for you.

6. Video player.

So far, everything's worked on either MPlayer, VLC or Perian. Except Nero Digital Home avi's. These days I just use Perian, it's always seemed stable for me.

7. Look & Feel.

Why does the icons have to be so BIG I like minimalism and Leopard is the opposite. And unfortunatly there's no alternative that Windows has (the classic look).

Huh? Well you know you can either adjust the icon size. ("Show View Options") You can also use list or tree view which have small icons.

9. File manager.

Well you might like Path Finder. Way more power than Finder. But it's not free.

11. OpenSSH

Maybe one of these...

12. Download manager

Try CocoaWget

 

Well I can't help you with the rest...I guess OS X is not perfect and not ideal for everybody, especially a power user such as yourself. It is a pleasant and mature OS, but it still doesn't have as many 3rd party applications as Windows. What can I say? It will get there one day, but as you have pointed out, there are still gaps.

[westwaerts]

i am always surprised of what i call "american ignorance".

 

me the poweruser switching now to osx. i will roll out the red carpet for you, wait a minute.

 

and then the endless list of what in osx is not like in windows.

i enlarged vice versa, from osx to osx and xp, due to some apps, that are not available for osx. but windows is like windows, and osx like osx,

 

so love it or leave it

[scriptx]

westwaerts - What is wrong with putting a voice to frustration? Somebody voices an opinion and you follow-up by alienating an entire country with the "American ignorance" comment. While some things in his post are Apple-ism's some are just bad User Interface design. Bad interface design leads to frustration, which seems to be the basis of this post is it not? Ignorance would imply that he doesn't know what he is talking about, which, it seems he does. For example, CMD+Backspace instead of delete, he is well aware of the difference, not ignorant.

 

Put any new computer user in front of a keyboard, select a file and ask them what the delete key will do, I'd bet in this small usability study nearly 100% will say delete the file. If I see a label for a men's bathroom, it better damn be one when I walk into it.

 

Apple has focused on making things attractive, integrated, etc. They have dropped the ball with some very basic human and computer interaction rules. One could only hope they pick it up again in the future.

[NIXin]

On the Cog homepage it says the new version, 0.0.7 can play .cue sheets. Hope it works for you! cogx.org/

I'm using the 0.0.7 version currently and... well... it appears you're right. But it seams really crappy somehow. When I load a bunch of directories COG seams to get confused and loads the CUE files as one big file without the ability for seeking. Strange.

 

I agree. It's really slow. Office 2004 was as well (compared to 2003 for windows). I recommend iWork!

Will try it, thanks! I suppose it doesn't support the docx format...?

 

Maybe USBOverdrive will work for you.

Heard of that too, but didn't try it yet, thanks anyway.

 

So far, everything's worked on either MPlayer, VLC or Perian. Except Nero Digital Home avi's. These days I just use Perian, it's always seemed stable for me.

Well, VLC would be great if a little faster, I'm also experiencing some audio problems sometimes. Maybe it's a config thingy. Unfortunatly displying subtitles is still not very well supported in any of those programs.

 

Huh? Well you know you can either adjust the icon size. ("Show View Options") You can also use list or tree view which have small icons.

Yup, I know I meant all the other stuff, like the preview or the amazingly big icons for Stacks Well it's not that bad, I just wish there were an alternative for the GUI

 

Well you might like Path Finder. Way more power than Finder. But it's not free.

Unfortunately the Path Finder isn't double sided. That's a must for me.

 

Maybe one of these...

Yeah! Hopefully one of these will be nice Didn't knew about this site. Thanks once more.

 

Try CocoaWget

Looking at it now.

 

Well I can't help you with the rest...I guess OS X is not perfect and not ideal for everybody, especially a power user such as yourself. It is a pleasant and mature OS, but it still doesn't have as many 3rd party applications as Windows. What can I say? It will get there one day, but as you have pointed out, there are still gaps.

Indeed and I realize that about OS X. Well, no OS is perfect. Vista's crappy like hell too. We just have to live with it

 

i am always surprised of what i call "american ignorance".

I find what you said amusing, since I'm from Poland

me the poweruser switching now to osx. i will roll out the red carpet for you, wait a minute.

 

and then the endless list of what in osx is not like in windows.

i enlarged vice versa, from osx to osx and xp, due to some apps, that are not available for osx. but windows is like windows, and osx like osx,

 

so love it or leave it

Well, first of all, the list isn't "endless" as you called it. There some shortcomings that I pointed out, besides that I find OS X a decent platform. Also, even the title of this topic says "from Windows/Linux", so you know that I'm a heavy user of Linux too. If you have nothing constructive to say don't post Synaesthesia's post was exemplary, you should take note.

 

I'm especially waiting for somebody to comment on the keyboard-only work on OS X as this is the thing that annoys me the most.

Have a great day!

NIXin

[westwaerts]

scriptx

dear lord,

i had to remap the keybord in windows xp too, thast it fits to my apple style behaviour.

but i dont blame windows not to operate like an apple.

 

and the "american ignorance" is just an low-educated way of thinking and behaving, that just being an american is fairly enough to rule the world. its vice versa. i dont blame the americans. i blame the poster to behave like an american.

[idividebyzero]

OS X really seems like the complete opposite of what you want. I dont understand why you are using it. Its not for the whole hardcore programmer crowd (like the people who still use the windows 3.1 style UI). You will find OSX to be extremely limiting in terms of what you can mess with compared to Windows and Linux, and its the antichrist for people who would do everything from a command line if it was possible.

[Synaesthesia]

I recommend iWork!

Will try it, thanks! I suppose it doesn't support the docx format...?

Yes it does! Well it can import it. Textedit that comes free with Mac OS X even supports it!

[munky]

a couple points:

 

- foobar2000 will run via darwine or crossover mac, if you're desperate. also, a cursory google for 'flac embedded .cue mac os x' reveals http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32439 - "Embedded cue sheets are now supported for FLAC files."

 

- i think there's an option you have to set to be able to do full navigation by keyboard. the 'sometimes can, sometimes cant' thing might be a carbon vs cocoa thing. check the keyboard stuff here : http://www.apple.com/accessibility/physical/

 

- mplayer works reasonably on osx (tho tends to crash a bit). check out www.osxbmc.com - native port of XBox Media Centre - it rocks, and is mplayer-based so will play just about anything.

 

- oh and for uninstallation, check out appzapper.

[NIXin]

scriptx

dear lord,

i had to remap the keybord in windows xp too, thast it fits to my apple style behaviour.

but i dont blame windows not to operate like an apple.

Do I blame Apple for it? I just pointed it out as a user of Windows and Linux, where the keyboard behave diferrently so somebody could tell me how to remap the keyboard on OS X.

 

and the "american ignorance" is just an low-educated way of thinking and behaving, that just being an american is fairly enough to rule the world. its vice versa. i dont blame the americans. i blame the poster to behave like an american.

Please tell me how is it that I'm ignorant. Trying OS X at all would only prove the exact opposite - that I'm open minded and willing to try new things. And also, I'm not whining about what's missing from my Windows or Linux systems, I'm just listing problematic stuff that was probably already solved by some of you and I was hoping you could help me out. If you can't spot the diferrence, well then, I'm sorry.

Saying that I'm behaving like an "american ignorant" is most offensive for me.

[westwaerts]

NIXin

 

Some arguments on ignorance:

- you call yourself a poweruser. so where to find the power to solve problems on your own ?

- you switch to a (lets say it clearly) stolen osx and lamentate about its features or non-features ?

- what you call problematic, is definitely problematic for you and not generally problematic.

- if you try something out, you do it for your own, not for me, not for anyone. if you want to do something for anyone post solutions, not questions.

- if you want to be helped, ask the polite way instead of spreading out lamentous arguments.

 

resumed:

ignorants dont have problems, so they cannot ask for help.

ignorants complain about the something is not the way they expected it.

[NIXin]

OS X really seems like the complete opposite of what you want. I dont understand why you are using it. Its not for the whole hardcore programmer crowd (like the people who still use the windows 3.1 style UI). You will find OSX to be extremely limiting in terms of what you can mess with compared to Windows and Linux, and its the antichrist for people who would do everything from a command line if it was possible.

Well, Right now I would have to agree with you - OS X it's not exactly what I want (more on that on later). I'm not a hardcore programmer though, only an occasional one, as I mostly write bash scripts and php/mysql applications on per-needed basis. Other then that, my main work on a PC is recording, making music and administrating remote boxes, of which two of those I do for a living. I thought of switching to mac in the first place, cause it's used in most good music studios (though unfortunately more and more are going with windows nowadays...). Just an example of a great Mac app used in studios is Pro Tools.

You say OS X is extremely limiting when it comes to "messing around". Well, it isn't as easy to dig around, but it's still a UNIX system. It's not limiting, it's just that the Darwin community isn't as big as, eg. FreeBSD community or communities of Linux distributions like Debian. And yes, apple did what they could to make it harder to mess around with a command line, that's for sure

 

Yes it does! Well it can import it. Textedit that comes free with Mac OS X even supports it!

Absolutely swell to hear!

 

a couple points:

 

- foobar2000 will run via darwine or crossover mac, if you're desperate. also, a cursory google for 'flac embedded .cue mac os x' reveals http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32439 - "Embedded cue sheets are now supported for FLAC files."

Thought so. foobar2000 will also run in a VMWare machine running, if I were desperate But thanks for this point. About "Play" - I tried it about half a year ago and it didn't at the time. Good to know there's an alternative to COG. Thanks for reminding me of this!

 

- i think there's an option you have to set to be able to do full navigation by keyboard. the 'sometimes can, sometimes cant' thing might be a carbon vs cocoa thing. check the keyboard stuff here : http://www.apple.com/accessibility/physical/

They say that on the website but in the reality there's no such option. I think they mean that it's an integrated thing

 

- mplayer works reasonably on osx (tho tends to crash a bit). check out www.osxbmc.com - native port of XBox Media Centre - it rocks, and is mplayer-based so will play just about anything.

I used to be a mplayer fan since it's one of the best players for *NIX systems. Will defiantly check the osxbmc project. Thanks once again.

 

- oh and for uninstallation, check out appzapper.

Already have it Good tip though.

 

NIXin

 

Some arguments on ignorance:

- you call yourself a poweruser. so where to find the power to solve problems on your own ?

I user "poweruser" as just an expression to tell readers that I know my way around the computers, not to say I'm superior. And also, you should know, the power lays in the community and with helping others. Even the greatest minds would have trouble of achieving anything without the help of others. Also, if you'd read my post carefully, you'd notice that I already solved lots of my problems on my own or just by using google (like the terminal pgup problem, and others).

To quote Wikipedia on who a Power User is:

A power user is a user of a personal computer who can use advanced functions and programs which are outside the reach of "normal" users (due to the complexity and advanced knowledge required to perform these specialized tasks), yet is not capable of programming or system administration. Also: a computer user who seeks and uses products having the most features and the fastest performance.

In this case I should be actually defined as a system operator or administrator, since I do write and debug software occasionally and work as an admin on UNIX boxes.

 

- you switch to a (lets say it clearly) stolen osx and lamentate about its features or non-features ?

First of all, I didn't switch yet. I'm just trying the OS, because I can. If I find that all of my problems are gone I will buy a real mac. Secondly I don't lamentate about anything. I'm just asking for help and listing some of the shortcomings of this great OS so that other people who are deciding if they should switch will know about them. That's why I choose a "review-like" form of my first post. Not because I'd like nothing more then beat the hell out of the {censored} OS X that can't compare to Windows or Linux, as some people do.

- what you call problematic, is definitely problematic for you and not generally problematic.

Hmm... I would have to partially agree. Yes, those are mine problems. But aren't ones problems always ones own problems? I mean, if another guy comes here to tell us his graphics card doesn't work with OS X - it's also his problem. But another guy with the same card comes to the board and finds out the first guy found a solution that helped him. It's not a general problem, no. But let's say five people had the same problem. So it was still worth it. If we'd do nothing but solve the general problems we'd be in stone age. It's the "one" person that counts not the mass. And the mass has the power only because it's composed of lots of individuals.

- if you try something out, you do it for your own, not for me, not for anyone. if you want to do something for anyone post solutions, not questions.

If you reread the first post again you'll notice that I also wanted to contribute by pointing some solutions for problems I already solved. And questions also help. They help people that have similar problem to define it, or possibly, some may not even know that a solution is possible while somebody else replied with an answer to my question. If there would be no questions, those forums wouldn't make sense.

- if you want to be helped, ask the polite way instead of spreading out lamentous arguments.

Tell me, where was I impolite? Or maybe I didn't thank a person who replied for posting a working solution? I have already explained why I choose the current form of my first post to be review-like. If you want, I can complete the post by adding also the pros of what I see as an improvement and what I find better in OS X then Win or Linux.

 

resumed:

ignorants dont have problems, so they cannot ask for help.

ignorants complain about the something is not the way they expected it.

I don't expect any OS to be perfect, as no OS will ever be. And if you are referring to my point about the "delete" button, I wasn't complaining, just making a rhetorical question, cause I really don't know what's better. I'm just used to the delete button and I personally think it's more intuitive. But maybe Apple decided to do so, to make sure there are no accidental file removals? Yes, there are two sides to every change like and I know that perfectly. Once again, I think of myself as a very open minded person and change comes to me easily. All I wanted to know when I was making the post is: Is there an easier way to do something, or at least a way that resembles those of Windows or Linux, which I'm accustom to. I wasn't rude while asking that, and if you understood it the other way, than I'm sorry. Nobody else except you, westwaerts finds my post lamentous, and unfortunately what you are doing here is similar to starting a flame war in which I will not get into, no way. Mainly because it's OFF TOPIC and some moderator would sooner or later kill this pointless discussion anyway. I'm sorry to say this but if one doesn't have anything important to say, one should better stay silent. That's what I usually do and I recommend it to everybody , so everyone can just be at peace with everyone else.

 

Now back to the discussion. There is one very basic thing that I couldn't overcome in my two weeks of testing Leopard. Or should I rather say "testing myself if I'll be able to make the switch". The limiting factor in my case is... the NTFS RW driver - which is not really good for any real work. The NTFS-3G is slow altogether (13MB/s on my HDD). I also tried the Paragon NTFS driver which is, in means of performance, way faster (70MB/s)... unfortunately only good with big files. I'm a main tester for an internal app developed by my friends company that runs only on Windows and requires fast HDD access. The testing was fine using the VMWare with XP inside and the NTFS partition shared using the OS X's internal NTFS driver. As soon as I installed aether driver it became very sluggish and non-usable... So I have to aether go back to Windows/Linux with VM or live without NTFS write (which I can't since about 2TB of data on my HDD's are using that filesystem - I would have to reformat to HFS+, which I also can't do since I need access to those partitions from the Windows). I will keep the Leo on a separate partition, and maybe, when the tests are over, go back (or maybe someone will find a solution for my NTFS problem).

The second problem keeping me inside Windows is the irreplaceable foobar2000 (well of course I could run it in Darwine, CrossOver or even VMWare Fusion or Paralells - but that's not the point; there's also Cog and very promising Play, but well, it's not there yet - maybe someday). I find the same problem with Linux, but since I mainly use that on servers it's not that much of a problem.

The third problem is the keyboard workflow which I find very inconsistent thru out the OS X platform and which I use very extensively as I'm one of those guys that hate using mouse as it just slows me down.

The forth problem is the file manager like Total Commander. There's MC compiled via fink, but it's just not it.

The fifth is that some VST plugins that I use on Windows aren't available for MAC.

The sixth, and the last one - some minor problems that I could live with anyway or get used to (like the Adium's crappy&crashy support for the Tlen protocol).

 

That's said, I'm still not EOTing this topic, as I'd like to know what do you think. I'm sticking with Windows for my everyday use for now, but will be keeping track of what's going on here with the OS X scene.

Those are all very small problems and mostly related to the thing that's also bugging Linux - lack of certain alternative applications, but that should change overtime.

[MilesR]

An interesting thread to read....and just to add a comment or two of my own...

 

I started off a little while ago with installing the iAtkos build on my main (desktop) PC and got everything working pretty well. Like most people I did it to test the water with OSX and see whether I could use it as my main system (or at least my main secondary system if that makes sense ).

 

I would count myself as a "power user" - in that I know my way around computers very well, work on UNIX (development), have built my own PCs for the last 9 years or so, etc. etc. so I'm not a novice user.

 

What I saw and used with OSX I quite liked. It does appear to be made for the more novice user in mind, but so does Windows when you first install it. After a fair bit of playing & configuration changes you can adjust to your needs. Its all about the learning process. For example, when I use aMSN for messaging, it installs the settings into an obscure "library" location, so I just make a softlink to my Documents area. This way when I want to backup files I can just back up that one location and I know that I don't lose what I want to keep.

 

After playing with OSX for a bit I went ahead and bought myself a black Macbook (a week before they released the slightly faster ones ) - but I got a really good deal with a student discount (which I couldn't have got the next week) so I wasn't complaining.

I knew that I could install Windows on it as well if I wanted to, and I needed a new laptop anyway so figured I might as well get it as my replacement.

 

So far I have pretty much used my Macbook for everything I used to do on my main PC (running in OSX). Admittedly my uses are not anywhere near what they used to be on the PC as I was constantly messing around with new software etc.

 

My main uses for a laptop are:

1) Web browsing - easily achieved with Firefox (profile simply copied over to my Macbook without any issues at all).

2) Email - Thunderbird for Gmail (again, profile copied over easily), MS Entourage for Hotmail

3) Downloading - Azureus for my torrents does the job well enough. Used to use it on Windows before I found uTorrent.

4) Video conversions (for the ipod) - iSquint. Lovely little app, nice and lightweight

5) Video playback - VLC does the job with all files that I've thrown at it so far.

6) Office editing - MS Office (Word/Excel) for Mac. A little slow compared to the native Windows versions, but usable nonetheless

7) Messaging - aMSN is find for basic messaging, but I'm missing the video chat functionality that Windows Live Messenger has. Apparently this will be resolved when MS release the next version of Messenger for Mac later this year - when the Windows version has changed their video handling as well apparently.

 

So based on the above OSX does the job quite well. But my thoughts/experiences so far are:

1) I miss the delete key! Its amazing how you don't notice how much you use something until its gone. But this is not a major point, the backspace key tends to work as delete in a few apps anyway.

2) I like the two fingered scrolling on the trackpad - very handy and I've found myself using it more and more

3) the lack of a right-click bothered me until I realised you could use two fingers and the click! - very nice feature...much nicer than holding Apple key/CMD + click.

4) The corners feature is great. I've set up to go to the top right corner minimises all...bottom right chooses the spaces (virtual desktops) and so on. On windows I just used to use Windows key + M to minimise, but I prefer the top corner feature when using the Macbook

5) I like iWeb! In the past I have been very snobbish about web page creation software, and have coded everything using notepad (or UltraEdit sometimes to make it easier for my aging eyes )

But for designing a quick nice looking site (or just getting design ideas) its quite nice. For my PHP/MySQL stuff I'd still stick to a text editor, but I like it all the same.

6) Time Machine - this I don't like. I know that its made for people who aren't that technical and just want the whole system backed up. But what is the point in backing up the whole system when you can restore it so easily from the restore DVDs they give you when you buy the thing?!

As I've mentioned above, I just back up the one location and make sure that the applications I use have their config/user files in that location. I do the same on my Windows XP install - so it was just a process of learning how the Mac could do it.

 

I understand what Nix is saying about keyboard shortcuts, but to me this is only an important feature when using a fullsize keyboard on a desktop PC. Using a laptop for me mainly involves the mouse/trackpad anyway.

At work I tend to use the keyboard a lot (to avoid getting RSI involved with using the mouse - my wife has this and its not pleasant) - but on the laptop I don't really find I need to.

 

So far, since having the Macbook I think I have used my desktop XP machine twice (in the 3 weeks I've had it). And that was to find files that I have on the internal drives.

I have a NAS box at home which I should really make more use of with the Macbook...in the past its only really been used as backup storage for my PC.

 

Apologies for the rambling, hopefully it makes a bit of sense!

 

Miles

 

PS - I'll probably add more as I think about it later and realise I missed out stuff!

[munky]

there is an option for keyboard navigation! i know because i've used it before. i cant tell you exactly where it is cos im at work on a {censored} windoze pc.

[lord_muad_dib]

a total commander like file manager: disk order. works great

ssh things: on some terminal menu there is a remote sessions, that lets you do almost the same things like putty

 

 

about fonts: you can change 'em and tweak the aliasing too, look on some preference panels

 

other than that, i am a programmer myself, os x fits my enthusiasths needs

 

i have gentoo portage working on it, i have all the tools i need from that

 

xcode is the perfect IDE, what do you want more?

[Berzerker]

For full keyboard control: System Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts > (Bottom) "Full Keyboard Access" > All Controls.

[Numberzz]

"american ignorance"

That is extremely stereotypical and that doesn't even make sense. If you say that, I can say that every Australian is a criminal, every British man has very bad teeth and drinks tea all the time, and every chinese man has a very small {censored}. And let me not remind you, that every American man was once British.

[MilesR]

...that every American man was once British.

 

I'm British and I consider that an insult! :censored2:

 

(Actually, on a serious note I think there are a lot of Irish, Native Indian, South American, Caribbean African influences )

 

But your point is correct, that guy made a generalisation which is just silly.

[scottishduck]

I'm a windows user OP and i have to say im astounded.

 

Almost every problem you describe come from two things:

 

You are running OSX on a PC (not the correct hardware)

You have no idea about what programs to use on mac.

 

What you fail to realize, just like every idiot who converts from Windows to Linux, is that Windows =/= Mac.

 

They are two different Operating Systems with two different purposes. That said, anything you can do on windows, you can do on mac, maybe more.

 

Please do not download an OS with incorrect aspirations then cry to us about it.

 

When i installed OSX on my PC i made sure i got the most functionality from it. I bought a Mac keyboard and USB Wifi Adapter, that improved things a lot.

 

Please think before making dumb trollbait posts.

[MilesR]

I don't think the OP is crying to anyone about it.

He said in his post that:

So I thought that some of you probably had simmilar problems and maybe you can help me work them out.

 

And the second reply he gets is an aggressive response saying love it or leave it!

Wow, what a welcome that was.

 

If people want to experiment with a new OS (new to them at least) - and have some questions about how they can use it then surely this is the place to voice them?

 

Comments like yours and the second reply really doesn't encourage others to try it out and experiment, which is what the project is all about right?!

[NIXin]

Almost every problem you describe come from two things:

 

You are running OSX on a PC (not the correct hardware)

You have no idea about what programs to use on mac.

I use OS X on real MACs too, as we have them at work and also my neighbour has a MacBook on which I play from time to time. Not to mention there's an iSpot near the place I work and I go there to play around with macs when I'm waiting for my bus. As for the idea about correct programs, well, you are probably right about that one - then please, why don't you help me out by saying what should I try, instead of accusing me of being an idiot...

 

What you fail to realize, just like every idiot who converts from Windows to Linux, is that Windows =/= Mac.

 

They are two different Operating Systems with two different purposes. That said, anything you can do on windows, you can do on mac, maybe more.

I think you're wrong on this one, Sir. You could do anything, if given the right tools. Which MAC lacks. Same thing goes to Linux. You can do pretty much, but you can't install some devices, simply because drivers for them don't exist. And Windows, unfortunatly, is by far the best supported operating system on Earth. If there's an application, there's a 90% probability a counterpart app for it exists for Windows. I'm sorry, but you can't do anything on mac, that you can do elsewhere. You could do it if you'd write your own apps, but, if you think about it that way, you can do pretty much anything without MAC, Windows, Linux or any other OS - as you could just write your own system. That's not the point here.

 

Please do not download an OS with incorrect aspirations then cry to us about it.

 

When i installed OSX on my PC i made sure i got the most functionality from it. I bought a Mac keyboard and USB Wifi Adapter, that improved things a lot.

And that's indeed what I did. My hackintosh works (almost) like a native Mac right now, there is absolutly no component that I use that doesn't work at 100% efficiency (except maybe for the NIC which I had to disable cause it was causing random crashes, but I use the WiFi anyway). As for the Mac keyboard, I hate it and typing on my friend's Mac at work is slowing me down like hell. Not to mention it's barely usable when you need to type in the Polish diacritic chars (yes, Mac isn't nice when it comes to internationalization with hardware). So I use an external ANSI USB keyboard and it's far better for me. But that's just my personal opinion. I even benchmarked myself typing on both keyboards - I get as fast as 400 chars/minute with a good PC keyboard and only about 250 with a Mac one. That's a big difference for me.

 

Please think before making dumb trollbait posts.

I don't want to point fingers anywhere, but your post looked a lot more "trollbait" to me then mine.

 

Have a nice day.

[gabe_]

A few thoughts to add to this...

 

As a power user, you have built up years of habits. Certain things are second nature to you. Changing OS's forces you to stop and think about things that you used to do almost subconsciously... Which can be a major annoyance.

 

That being said, I think NIXin is getting a lot of unfair criticism. He seems to be looking at things fairly objectively. I believe he started this thread looking for help, rather than looking to start an OS superiority debate. There seem to be a lot of folks here who are quick to criticize, but offer no real solutions.

[mschilling]

I agree that osx isn't keyboard friendly. Didn't they invent the mouse? Anyway most power users spend most of their time in applications which have their own keyboard commands. CS3 for example, every tool has a single key to access it. "Power User" is an old term going back to the days when computers were so slow that you had to try and make them go faster with little tricks. You don't hear that term anymore, just from the old timers, haha.

Speaking of keyboard shortcuts, I'd love one for the green and yellow buttons on osx windows. Red is cmd-w, anybody know the other two?

[gabe_]

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459

 

Command-M - Minimize Window

 

Apparently, there is no native shortcut for the green "maximize" button, but I have seen Apple scripts around the web that assign one.

[mschilling]

You're right cmd M does the minimize, but without maximize it's really a useless shortcut. I haven't got used to checking the dock for open windows minimized and usually hide the dock anyway, so I use cmd H to hide the whole app and then use cmd tab to show open apps by habit. The old roll up window in os9 was better for me because I was aware as to what windows were open because you could see the bar with the filename in it. I would love the maximize key because so many times I open a window in osx and it's too SMALL and I maximize it with the mouse, very slowwww.