Apple had the "Switch" campaign. Maybe you remember -- some famous, not so famous, and soon-to-be-famous[1] people talking about how their Macs are so much better than their PCs.
And a Mac is much better than your PC[2]. Yes, this sounds like religious fanboy zealotry -- and to be fair, it is -- but that doesn't mean I'm necessarily wrong. At home, I use Windows approximately never[3], and I've relegated Linux solely to my servers. Macs "just work" so often, and so well, that I'd rather just use my computer than spend all my time maintaining it.
There are already scores of religious fanboy zealots who are going to tell you - in great detail - how great the Mac is, and why you should switch. I'm not going to. I'll let them convince you. But beware. Just because the Mac is an excellent computer, that doesn't mean it's panacea. Here are some things you're going to want to pay attention to as you switch:
- Get a new keyboard.
Somehow, the Apple USB keyboard gets worse with each new revision. It's mushy, click-negative, the key travel feels really short and they break easily[4]. I particularly like the old IBM keyboards which "make it sound like the world's ending" when you type in your passphrase. Unicomp owns the IBM/Lexmark keyboard patents now, and recently delivered a Mac-friendly USB model of their 104 key stiff buckling-spring keyboard.
Caveats: you lose the keys that control volume, brightness, and eject, so you'll want to add them to the menu bar. You'll also want to go into the Keyboard Preferences and swap Option and Command because the default keymapping for non-Apple keyboards is backward.
- Get an old mouse.
Two years ago, that annoying one button mouse would have been at the top of my "replace this immediately" list. One button!? That's two less than there should be! It might have been cute in System 7, where you only needed one button but it's impossible in OS X.The mighty mouse is better -- in fact, I like the scroll "ball" a lot - it's a great feature. But the one-piece top makes it hard to get a positive click ("was that the left or right button, dammit!?") and if you're trying to go cord-free, their wireless mouse is still just one button. One day Apple will realize that most computer users have more than one usable digit on their dominant hand, and finally make a mouse that is both usable and meets their exacting aesthetic criteria for releasing a pointing rodent. Until then, just keep your existing mouse.
- Ditch Safari. Quickly.
All the Mac users are going to tell you how great Safari is. What they actually mean is "it's really great compared to Internet Explorer." What they neglect to mention is that next to Firefox, it's sort of a pile of poo. On paper, it looks great - it's got all the modernities like tabs, RSS, popup blocking. And I could forgive the schizoid Apple UI. But I can't forgive The Beachball. When you've got a lot of pages open, it drags. Even on a dual G5 with 4GB of RAM. Open up a bunch of pages. Open another -- while that page is loading, raise a different Safari window. Beachball. Open a few links off a page in new tabs, then try to raise one of those tabs. Beachball. The whole app is blocking for seconds at a time. And God help you if you try to go to a poorly designed page. The dreaded foodtv.com's Flash search box kills Safari for a full minute, even with nothing else going on.The best thing going for Safari is its ability to download Camino which is Mozilla's rendering engine wrapped up in a more Mac-like UI, and the add-on CamiTools, which lets you tweak Camino quite a bit.
- Ditch iChat, too.
If you ever use any sort of Instant Messaging, iChat will seem great. Rather, if you use AIM, iChat will seem great. Eventually, you'll want to talk over some other protocol, and you'll start looking for the multiprotocol plugins. Don't bother, by this point you've already outgrown it. Just download Adium instead. It's a free, multi-protocol instant messaging client built on GAIM. - And Apple Mail?
You're on your own with this one. Apple Mail in 10.4 works pretty well, but still has some big annoyances. (You will submit to the Global Inbox. You will restructure your IMAP folders to suit its needs. You will wait for its pokey IMAP implementation.) But it integrates well with the other Apple apps (notably Address Book.) I used to hate it, and used Thunderbird instead. Lately it's been growing on me. You'll have to make up your own mind. - Don't expect to be able to compile anything yourself.
So you like that pretty little shell, huh? This really is one of the big advantages to OS X - it's BSD under the hood. You're going to love that, right up until the time you want to run some little utility that was disappointingly not included with the OS X core. (Which is most.) At that point you're going to try to compile it yourself. I pity the fool.Despite the fact that you're back in 1990 with regard to tracking down and building dependencies yourself, and managing conflicting system libraries, you're going to be lucky if the software compiles out of the box. For example, I was trying to build an app that included a file called
String.h. It also did#include <string>to include the system string library. It took about an hour for my sluggish brain to realize that HFS+ is case insensitive, and those would be the same file.Fortunately, there are several package management tools for OS X, meaning someone's taken care of making sure that libfreetype (and its dependencies) build cleanly and easily. Unfortunately, there are several package management tools... that is, the effort is split and lots of work is duplicated. There's DarwinPorts, which is based on FreeBSD's port system, Fink, which is based on Debian's apt system, and Portage, which is based on Gentoo's package management of the same name. I've tried them all, and I believe DarwinPorts sucks the least[5]. But then, that's not saying much.
- Install Xcode and X11.
If you're a developer or coming from a Unix background, you'll need them or want them eventually. Downloading Xcode takes hours, and Apple doesn't distribute X11 on anything but your install CD[6]. Just install them when you get your machine, otherwise you'll be cursing up a storm when you actually need them. - Your computer has amnesia.
It will forget its name. Rather, it will trust some random DHCP server to set its hostname for it. So, next time you're in a coffee shop, suddenly your computer went from whatever cute name you have for it[7] toshop-dhcp-4224and that's no good. Edit/etc/hostconfigand add the line:HOSTNAME=yourcutehostname.domain.comAfter that, it will ignore that DHCP server that thinks it knows better.
- If you're a graphic designer, wait.
Don't make the switch (at least to an Intel Mac) if you rely heavily on Adobe Creative Suite. Yes, they work in Rosetta, and yes, those Core Duos are fast. But CS2 runs slow as hell on an Intel Mac thanks to Adobe's stubborn insistence that they don't need to pay attention to Apple's roadmap.It still runs great on a G4 desktop, but do you really want to invest in a technology that's about to be replaced by the Bigger Better Deal?
- Get a wireless card
If you get a PowerBook or a MacBook Pro, your wireless signal is going to suck. The antenna is housed in Aluminum. You might as well build a faraday cage around your laptop for all the signal you're going to get. That's not to say that it won't work -- it will. Just not well. I carry around a 802.11 PC Card in my bag and use OrangeWare's Wireless Drivers for Mac to get some extra signal in a pinch, like when I'm in an airport, a hotel room, or the room across the hall from my access point at home.
Of course, there are going to be some things that are going to piss you off that you have no control over:
- Apple's schizoid UI Is it a normal window? Is it polished metal? Who knows! Some programs in iLife (but not iWork) use the polished metal theme, some use the normal Mac theme. There's no distinction as to which one is used, and third-party developers are free to use either (or worse, both.) Personally, I'm not a big fan of the polished metal theme, but either way: Apple should pick a theme and run with it. To my knowledge, there's no simple way to get around this one.
- You will not play games.
At least not any fancy games written in the last few years, like Quake I or Wolfenstein 3D. There might be a Minesweeper somewhere. No, seriously, it's not that bad, the studios do eventually release a Mac version of their games. And it sometimes works, mostly. I got into SimCity 4 for a little while (when it was released for OS X -- long after the Windows users were already tired of it) and it had big problems with my PowerBook's graphics card. Tearing everywhere. They released a patch which improved the situation, but didn't fix it entirely. Meh. I guess that's why I've got a Super Nintendo. - The other Mac users.
You'll have to adjust to the idea that you're joining a userbase of raving zealots[8], who believe that Steve Jobs is the Second Coming. It will annoy the hell out of you at first, and you'll say things like "yeah, but I'm not like the other Mac users." I used to say those things. Eventually, you'll become an Apple apologist, too.
Hopefully you're not scared away by now. Sure, it's got its issues, but what OS doesn't? I could write a book about the annoyances of using Windows XP[9] or Linux on a desktop. But with a few little tweaks, my Macs just work.
- Yes, that's an Ellen Feiss reference. Beep beep beep.
- I'm talking about for your home, not for work. But don't get too sure -- the religious fanboy zealots are coming for your office computer next.
- The computer in my bedroom doubles as a TV. If Apple puts a tuner in a Mac Mini and makes Front Row talk to it, I'm ditching that PC too.
- The last keyboard Apple shipped me worked for two days before the USB stopped working.
- This coming from a guy who is still in love with Debian's apt system. I really wanted to like fink, but it's immature and incomplete. You'll really be happier with DarwinPorts, especially if you're going to develop software that links against these libraries. It's not at all painful to develop a build script that uses DarwinPorts to build redistributable packages. But that's another article.
- I did see an unofficial download page for X11.app, but I tend not to trust third parties unless I knew the MD5 signature of the original. And then we're back to needing the install CD again...
- I suggest comic characters. In fact, I'm writing this on tankgirl right now, and saving it to thetick. Spoon!
- Unless you're switching from Linux, in which case you're already used to it.
- I was going to suggest that Windows might be better now than when I used it day-to-day, but then I remembered that it's still the same version![10] Hah! In the time Windows XP has been out, OS X has gone from 10.0 to 10.5.
- I know, some day Vista will ship, and it'll finally start to look like OS 10.2. Some day...
Well I really must debunk some of this rant, I wouldn't be a mac fanboy zealot if I didn't. Well here we go...
Apple doesn't distribute X11 on anything but your install CD
Apple Has X11 availible for download in their download section. That being said it hasn't really been updated lately so what ever version came with tiger is probably the most recent....You will submit to the Global Inbox...
What? are you using POP or something? On my Apple Mail there is a inbox for each account. They are wrapped in a larger "Inbox" that aggregates all of the inboxes but you don't have to click on it if you don't want to. Try looking for the disclosure triangle.Ditch Safari. Quickly
Granted Safari can crawl at times, but its hard to overlook that it is the most standards compliant browser in existence. I'm not even going to mention how much firefox looks like ballocks. Also while Safari can drag ass with hundreds of tabs open, firefox feels slow to me all the time especially at launch. This really could be a whole post in itself but while safari may be θ(n) whit tabs, firefox is θ(slow) all the time. IMHO. Also not to beat a dead horse, but why does firefox have to reinvent all of the OS's UI widgets.Personally, I'm not a big fan of the polished metal theme...To my knowledge, there's no simple way to get around this one.
This isn't really easy, but its only a few steps.- Install Xcode
- Do a show package contents on the offending app
- In the "Contents/Resources" Folder find the .nib file for the main window. For Safari is "Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Browser.nib". Double click to open
- On the NIB element called Window, get info and uncheck the "Has Texture" Checkbox
- Save and voila
There are also Third party apps that do this exact task but their name escapes me at the moment as I don't really need them...meaning someone's taken care of making sure that libfreetype (and its dependencies) build cleanly and easily
I built that exact library yesterday with no problems, thats wierd. Maybe it was a different versionOkay, well thats enough for now.
Troy! The esteemed IT Director (and alpha Apple geek) has stumbled across my blog. I'm humbled.
Nice catch on #4, I once again bow down before your superior Mac knowledge. =)
Note that this doesn't mean I agree with you on your other criticisms. ;)
Opera is a better alternative to Firefox on OS X. Generally faster and leaner.
Try it.
A much easier way to force all applications in using a unified, theme that isn't brushed metal is by installing UNO:
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities/UNO.shtml
UNO is the name of the interface-unificator. i can't live without it!
I totally disagree about Safari and iChat. First, Safari loaded food network's website as quickly as it does my google homepage. Also, I've had many many tabs open and haven't had any drastic speed problems. In fact speed is the main reason I switched from Firefox to Safari.
As for iChat, I've had no problem chatting with my MSN friends and setting it up for Google Talk is easy too. I used to use Adium soley for its tabbed chats, but recently Chax came out with a tabbed chats option and a bunch of other customizable features. Adium's file transfers are awful and it isn't nearly as aesthetically pleasing as iChat.
Finally, regarding Tiger's GUI, you can change the windows to match using Uno. Makes everything nice and pretty.
I have a MacBook Pro (first mac) and my wireless reception is really good. I used to have an HP nc6000 running first Windows XP and then Ubuntu Linux. I would say that the Macbook's reception is about the same. Plus it's not enclosed in aluminum, but a rubber enclosure above the keyboard and below the screen. I have heard that the Powerbooks wireless reception is not very good, though.
I've been contemplating getting a Mac. One of my concerns is, will I have to use the pointing device all the time? Mice hurt my hands, and trackpads are worse. Here on Linux, I have everything rigged so that I do almost everything from the keyboard. Will that be possible on Mac OS?
Here's another way to fix the hostname issue. In your $HOME directory .bash_profile put this:
PS1="\[^[]2;\u@\H ^G\][\[\033[0;35m\]\u\[\033[0;36m\]@YOURHOSTNAME\[\033[0;39m\] \w]$ "
NOTE: those carets are ctrl chars. If you're running vi, you can insert them by typing ctrl-v then the char (ie. ctrl-v ctrl-G). The stuff between the ctrl chars will set your terminal window title. The other stuff sets your prompt. In this case, mine uses some color.
You spoke about DarwinPorts, Fink and portage, but didn't mention pkgsrc *The NetBSD Packages Collection*, how does that work on MacOS ?
Does any of the readers know ?
Very good article. The only thing you got wrong is the zealots. 99% of the mac users out there are too busy doing cool stuff to bother voicing off and annoying people. The loud annoying holier-than-thou mac users you are used to hate account for less than 1% of the total user base.
You are right on Safari and iChat. Safari is a ram hog (and so is Firefox, but to a lesser degree), and iChat doesn't have tabs. Adium is not perfect, but it does a better job overall and even supports Rendezvous/Bonjour, so nobody at the office will even notice that you are not using iChat (at my previous job we had all 15 employees on Macs, we used Rendezvous a hell of a lot).
As for the keyboards, I abandoned all hope of ever getting a new Apple keyboard that won't suck. When I ruined the keyboard on this iMac G5 my wife bought me a Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse combo, both work very very nice, and the keyboard has media keys (but no eject). The only adjustment, as you metioned, was to flip the alt and meta keys.
Just a quick warning: I agree entirely about switching to a "better" keyboard than the junk Apple ships with their machines, but be warned that many Macs [he scowls menacingly at the Mac Mini he worked on last month] will completely ignore power-on keyboard instruction (i.e. holding "C" to boot from CD-ROM won't work, nor will resetting the PROM or getting into OpenBoot) for some (if not all) non-Apple USB keyboards. That sucked to deal with when I found it.
Good article. You have perfectly explained why I'll stick with a PC.
Problem with telling people to use firefox over safari is that firefox is Slower than safari in loading, etc. Page loading (appears) to be faster though.
MAC people. lol.
Thanks for this, its nice to hear a sane persons evaluation. I'm close to making the switch, but as with you I would like to see front row support a DVR type system. Or open it up to allow 3rd party apps play with it, as lets be honest, I dont see apple launching a system which can support every single input type from Digital tv in the UK to cable in the US.
I'm surprised nobody has pointed this out yet, but in fact #include and #include are two different libraries. String.h is the C standard runtime's string functions while provides the definition for the C++ standard template library's string class. Neither are really the "system" string libraries, as Carbon's strings are yet another set of libraries.
I would say that code was kind of funky though. If it was C++ they should have included string.h as "#include ". Lots of people fail to do that though.
to anonymous about keystrokes:
On mac theres a program called quicksilver that puts the ubuntu desktop search thingie (cant remember the name, its new in dapper drake) to bloody shame, i hardly ever use the keyboard, it takes some getting used to the key commands, but on mac its soooo much quicker and easier once you get over that learning curve and set everything up exactly as you want it. Quicksilver is as essential, if not more, than stuffit expander at this point.
On the keyboards, Kensington makes one of the best keyboards for mac, its like butter, smoother than the built in keyboard on powerbooks and macbooks. They also have all the volume controls, eject keys and media keys. I believe its the slimline model. Its 30 bones, so cheap and good, doesn't get any better.
On my macbook pro, the wireless signal is on par, or mostly better than any other laptop ive had. Either Ive had crappy laptops, or something isnt right with your apple laptop.
To the anonymous user who asked whether one has to use the pointing device all day, may I suggest the fine app Quicksilver. As far as browsers are concerned, I use Camino, its too good and is opensource done the Apple way.
Also some other tips to lock your screen quickly:
Go to Keychain, then enable MenuBar Icon.
This Icon will have a 'Lock Screen' Option as a dropdown.
It drives me absolutely CRAZY that there is no way I can get a Lock Screen Key combo to work properly...
Grrr.
Totally agree. Firefox is better than IE in a lot of way. Might as well ditch Safari for Firefox.
You article is by far not objective and got a lot of "hate lies" included. If you don't like Mac, just write it as your personal opinion. For serious blogs please do some research.
Apple's schizoid UI Is it a normal window? Is it polished metal? Who knows! Some programs in iLife (but not iWork) use the polished metal theme, some use the normal Mac theme. There's no distinction as to which one is used, and third-party developers are free to use either (or worse, both.)
Actually 3rd-party developers are denied the brushed metal look. Apple's human interface guidelines reserve that solely for their own iApps.
To be honest, since I switched a few years ago I've not noted some of the problems that you've had. For example, I've got 2 Apple USB keyboards (one at home and one at work) and neither has given any problems, although I'll confess that they aren't the greatest keyboards (I prefer laptop keyboards these days for the very short travel). Airport reception on my PowerBook is fine but I'll probably look at adding a separate card to it so that it can use 802.11g as this one is older than that standard. Oddly, I've actually grown to prefer ctrl-clicking as a means to invoke the contextual menu despite coming from Windows...
Fair comment on the UI scheme. I'd consider using a custom theme in OS X to sort that issue out but I had an issue when removing Iridium that required the OS to be reinstalled (no idea what really happened) and I'm not going down that road again.
While I'm not going to say that Safari is the greatest browser, I do tend to avoid Firefox and Thunderbird because they aren't Mac applications. By this I mean both these application (and derivatives like Flock) don't make use of common Mac OS features like Keychain for storing passwords or the System Preferences for network connection information. Camino was a reasonable replacement but the latest version introduced a bug whereby it won't connect to the internet behind a proxy server, so I'm back on Safari again at the moment. Yes, Safari does beachball but then all my applications do since my old PowerBook can't really take the strain at the moment...
Anyway, a very good article.
I play World of Warcraft on my G4 iBook no with no problems. Hey mac isn't the game platform but isn't alone in this game... Lot of cool games are in macs since two years.
Great list!
I would like to add VLC Media Player 0.8.5, now a Universal Binary, as an alternative for Quicktime. Especially for watching video, without having to download any additional CODECs. This program is also useful for being able to listen to AC-3 audio in movies (Quicktime still doesn't support this very well), and for example FLAC (lossless) audio.
Nice article, but you are wrong on several fronts. First of all, Safari is much more standards compliant than Firefox. It is also faster. If you are having beach ball issues with it, you probably want to clean out your cache. I can open 30 web pages in tabs at once in Safari and it still remain relatively responsive, whereas 30 tabs in Firefox absolutely kills it.
As for wireless signals, I'm not sure what Mac you are using, but my iBook and MacbookPro both get excellent wireless reception. Too good, actually. I can accidentally sign on to my neighbors networks if I'm not careful.
Mac OS X has many many keyboard shortcuts, and more can be added. I hardly ever use the mouse if I can help it
hmm, I don't agree on the keyboard, in fact, I bought a mac keyboard because I hated all of the PC ones I could find! I do wish I had an old keyboard though...
compiling isn't that bad though. I don't think anyone should expect compiling on a POSIX system to be like using emerge. you should probably expect to hunt down dependencies whenever you compile, it's something that makes software run!
I would have been sympathetic to your problems in that area if you would have mentioned that Apple hasn't updated their version of GNU binutils (like objcopy) in a long grip so you can't compile cinelerra easily at all.
http://stud3.tuwien.ac.at/~e0025274/cinelerra/Cinelerra_on_Darwin.html
but really, compiling on a mac isn't a bad experience!
This was really great. I was thinking about buying the Macbook soon (of course it can also run Windows if I'm really lazy) and this has answered alot of concerns I've had.
I appreciate many of your comments, especially because I am typing on an Apple II Extended keyboard from the 1980's and using a Logitech mouse right now and I'm sitting in front of a dual G5 on which I never launch Safari unless I'm testing pages.
However, I also frequently play Wolfenstein 3D with my brother in law (who runs Windows down the hall) and the wireless on my wife's notebook works all the way out in our backyard where my Compaq laptop doesn't even work at the back door. Also, X11 has been downloadable from Apple for more than two years, I remember because being a Linux nerd, Fink and X11 were the first two things I installed on my G5 when I opened the box.
Good tips, but you should really edit the totally incorrect points out of this post, then it would really rock.
FYI- If your keyboard doesn't have an Eject key that works in MacOS X, you can hold down F12 to achieve the same functionality. Those Apple boys think of everything...
In response to:
---- snip ----
I've been contemplating getting a Mac. One of my concerns is, will I have to use the pointing device all the time? Mice hurt my hands, and trackpads are worse. Here on Linux, I have everything rigged so that I do almost everything from the keyboard. Will that be possible on Mac OS?
---- snip ----
I'm a fan of efficiency and prefer using a keyboard for many tasks. OS X has great support builtin for doing nearly everything you could want to do without reaching for a mouse/trackpad:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459
There's a few links at the bottom of that cheat sheet for enabling "Universal Access" options, which, as I understand it, sort of takes keyboard navigation to the extreme.
One thing that was surpisingly impactful to me was the trackpad on the PowerBooks (I have 17" G4). One of the features is "two-finger scrolling". When I'm in a window that has scroll bars, I can just use a second finger tip (I relax the muscle on my middle finger and it drops a few millimeters to lay on the touch pad) and with an incredible natural feel I can move my two fingers in any direction and the window scrolls in that direction. It's incredibly easy, and once you get used to it, very hard to live without. It beats the pants off of other track-pad scrolling systems that reserve the side and bottom for scrolling, or worse, having to take your cursor all the way over to the scroll bar and drag that around. Anytime I'm using another computer, I miss that feature.
As an aside, if you are comfortable with powertools, Quick Silver is an extremely popular tool:
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
99% of the mac users out there are too busy doing cool stuff to bother voicing off and annoying people.
Guess you're part of that 1%...
Very good opinionated article. I think that this shows how great the OSX platform is. The only real negatives is which preference you have for input devices, mail and chat programs. Which is no biggy IMO.
---- snip ----
iChat doesn't have tabs
---- snip ----
As another reader commented, iChat *can* have tabs, just install this plugin and tweak iChat to be all that it can be:
http://www.ksuther.com/chax/
I only use the AOL messaging service (AIM) so I just use iChat. Adium is ok - but I think only iChat let's me do voice and video conferencing with other maccers using iChat. And I use that all the time. Many times if I'm looking away from my screen for some reason, my buddy will call my attention to the screen with a "ring ring" generated by an audio chat request. The audio/video features of iChat are important to me.
But if you are on Yahoo and others, then I agree that Adium is your best option.
---- snip ----
As for the keyboards[...]
---- snip ----
I prefer shallow key press depth (like a laptop keyboard) and silent key presses. Keyboards that tilt UP are bad, and designed without consideration of the most typical desktop configuration. Your wrists have to bend BACKWARDS in order to rest your hands on the keyboard. So, a nice slim keyboard with no tilt is also important to me when selecting a keyboard.
BestBuy sells the "PC" version, it's called the Logitech S 510. You can go there to feel the keys, admire the form, and then buy the Mac version (S 530) from logitechs website: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2162,CONTENTID=11420
I own the S 510 since I have to use a PC for work. I am very happy with it, and should I ever get a desktop Mac (I have PowerBook, laptop) I'll be very happy shelling out for the S 530. Kudos to Logitech.
I have to say your article really presents a very negative experience. I'm a developer and love my mac. Okay safari has a its problems, iChat really isn't my thing, Mail is pretty good(I still prefer text based clients). But really all are not that bad and useable for the average Joe.
But XCode comes on the install cd's along w/ X11 so there is no reason to go out downloading it.
The internal Airport Extreme card in most modern Apple laptops works just fine, I know many PB owners and a few MBP, who have never had problems like the ones you are describing, normal pcmcia cards seem to get the same range as the APE in my experience, well unless you are using something to boost your range of course, but the APE does have its flaws thanks to Broadcom =\
Apple keyboards are terrible, I will have to agree with you there. The mice, eh they are alright, I prefer a thumb trackball.
I used to be a Fink guy, but recently moved to Darwin Ports, and love it.
Beware potential switchers! Take the proceeding article with a grain of salt.
As a a switcher myself, I can tell you that much of what was listed above was matters of opinion, and some of it simply not true.
No offense, but all Mac is just trendy now. They've switched their OS to something UNIX based, and they are moving over an Intel based processor. Is that because it just 'works'? I don't see my games working on Mac? And what about firewire? That was a flop. One thing I do tip my hat off to mac is that they are trying to be innovative. They are at least going out and trying to do things, unlike vista which looks pretty much like XP. iTunes is the biggest piece of shit software I think I have ever used. And with the stupid commercials they have been having I think it will be a while before I'm a convert. You may say linux doesn't just work but I have been using it for the past 7 years and have to say relative to other operating systems it has made leaps and bounds in that amount of time. Open is the way to go.
Your compilation example is wrong. The file system may be case insensitvie, but String.h and string are different files altogther. The compiler doesn't automatically add .h to string.
I've buit a number of different packages on the command line with little or no difficulty, and without modification of the distribution packages. No typical switcher will even want to bother with this anyway.
If you'd rather not mess with it, look into the Fink port for Mac OS X. It will manage downloading, compiling and installing packages for you. FinkCommander is a UI front-end for it so you don't have to use the command-line. Most switchers won't need to bother with this either.
The selection of triple A games for Mac OS X is poor, but a number of companies port their games to Mac OSX like Id Software and Blizzard (both usually at launch of a new game), and Aspyr and other companies port other games. Civilization IV is one title that's been announced as being ported.
In addition with the switch to Intel, *some* of the barriers for companies making Mac OS X ports have been removed. Worse comes to worse you can use Boot Camp and dual boot Windows just for your gaming use.
I went to your referenced url with safari and it opened and loaded in a sec.
The mouse thing is accurate, but I have no idea where the keyboard thing is coming from, I know lots of PC users who buy even the older Mac keyboards cause they like the feel.
The other issues are for someone who wants to do these things on a Mac after having to do them on a PC.
I am happy with what is available on my Mac, and to have to use the X11 stuff out there, after all, looks and feels just like my windows machine at work, which I hate. (hurts my head)In a 8 hour day I am losing data, slowing to a crawl, being told I can not save to the desktop 50 times and rebooting (just like the TV ad) for some malfunction another 4 or 5 times.
Not Mac like. Your rants are nothing compared to the comments I hear coming from the windows world!
Good points all around. Could not agree more re: Firefox and Admium. Mail.app is winning me over slowly. I recommend getting a nice USB PC mouse and Steermouse--no need to go back to the one button stone age just because the Apple mice are too contrived. As a fellow personal switcher, this mirrors some of my experience.
About the Microsoft keyboard/mouse combo: It doesn't have a dedicated eject key, but in the default configuration, F12 works as the eject key. The neat part is that it works great with the Mac - The volume control and media keys work fine, along with the calculator/logoff/sleep/calendar keys etc. If you use the wired comfort optical mouse 3000 (phew! long name), you also get a zoom button on the left that can zoom any part of your osx screen neatly.
It's funny how the best interface device for the mac is made by microsoft.
"Ditch Safari. Quickly
Granted Safari can crawl at times, but its hard to overlook that it is the most standards compliant browser in existence. I'm not even going to mention how much firefox looks like ballocks. Also while Safari can drag ass with hundreds of tabs open, firefox feels slow to me all the time especially at launch. This really could be a whole post in itself but while safari may be θ(n) whit tabs, firefox is θ(slow) all the time. IMHO. Also not to beat a dead horse, but why does firefox have to reinvent all of the OS's UI widgets."
Try Opera, the only browser to pass the acid test, better than anything else easily. Firefox sucks
That's a quite fugly/bulky keyboard, I'll stick with the mushy one for now. My inches of desk space are valuable to me. After seeing that picture, my apple keyboard suddenly feels so much better, without giving an inch away. You don't hear teenagers complain about their mac keyboards either.
Old mouse = cleaning balls = bad
New mouse = infrared = good
Firefox is nice..but it really shines in Windows..in my opinion, it is really the only choice, unless you want to be dragged into the world or IE..gulp!
The windows experience = click, click, click, click, click...apply, are you sure you want to...do you want to...do you really want to...do you really really want to..click, click, click..."Virus detected.."...................
.............restart......spyware site visit 1, 2, 3, etc...60 minutes wasted installing reinstalling..testing..ok..done..
'I've got 1gig of ram' why is this thing so slowww?@#$@%..GAIN.Gator + Cydoor Trojan ++ Win32.Small.amd ++ Win32.Small.cjy ++...argh..where is the Die! button?!
The mac experience = click..oh oh..Safari needs its favicon cache cleared..done..sweet!
"..you only needed one button but it's impossible in OS X"
c'mon..that's quite a stretch. There are keyboard shorcuts for everything in the finder..the two button mouse would be nice..but it's hardly a limitation.
..and so on.
Even with these 'annoyances' OSX is far ahead of Windows in the usability department, as much as I appreciate WinPCs(kind of because I have to)they are just no substitute for stability and continuity. I've lived long enough in the IT world to understand that it's full of imperfections..but really..at this day and age why would you want to waste time 'troubleshooting' and 'repairing' your pc..life is too short for anything other than a Mac.
Using your computer = saving money...using your time productively
Troubleshooting your computer = working on a brick, loosing money, wasting time...getting old in frustration.
IOW..it's better to not have and be able to get, then to have and not be able to get.
Nothing worse than an idiot complaining about Apple or a Mac when the exact same problems crop up on the Windows side (and sometimes worse on Linux). What you have to remember is that you get use to doing things a certain way. You get use to whatever you use. Then when there is a change you complain about the changes because they don't suit how you did things. It is so sad that objectivity and common sense has left you'
Enough with the "not enough games.." argument. For serious gaming, get an xbox, playstation,nintendo, or all three, since you are into spending money on that kind of stuff already.
Make you life easier for Pete's sake, have you seen the size of the Earth in comparison to the Sun's? we are not going anywhere...so please drop the baggage and let's get us a new topic for conversation already.
I find this all very interesting but I also want to say that Macs are rather high costing. Still so many things (as written in article) have to changed.
So you learn how to change things on 1 computer, because you can not have many! Even if I buy Mac from other user has high cost. So Mac is hard to learn -- YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE FRIGHT WHEN CHANGING!
(apology for my english)
Hello Ed,
I've been maintaining a comprehensive HOWTO on switching to the Mac, and since you hit upon several of my key topics, would love to get some feedback from you regarding improvements to it.
I agree fully with Bobby - you just explained me the reasons why I wiill still stick to a PC with sweet linux. And, no, we linux users are not a userbase of raving zealots ... on lines of what Pedro said, 99% of Linux users happily code away, and put your OS X 10.5[1] to bloody shame with XGL, it's just the rest 1% who bitch, bitch, bitch .. And no, I am not one of those 1%.
[1] Or is it already 10.6 by the time you are reading this ?
Used a Dell PC with Windows the other day, first time I've done so in about 3 years since I had my Dual 2 and 30" Apple Display.
I'll sum it up really quickly, you couldn't pay me enough to go back.
Regarding Firefox: I have used various editions of Firefox on the Mac and it has a nasty bug which should dissuade anyone who ever uses web forms, such as those employed by Movable Type, from using it: it has a nasty tendency to spontaneously reload a page, losing all content entered into a form. That means your 1,000 word blog entry down the pan in an instant. Use Camino instead - it's on version 1.0.1 now, and I've been using it to blog with (I also use Ecto) and it doesn't have that particular problem.
I am a real crazy mac zealot fanboy because i am going to say the 1 button mouse is a good idea. The 1 button mouse is not realy 1 button it is a 2 hands mouse because the left hand contols the ctrl alt and apple keys. As a real apple fanboy i am also a smalltalk fanboy and looking at some Allen Kay video presentations showd me that that is how the original inventor of the mouse wanted it. I never use my left hand when i am using a 2 or 3 button mouse so it is not realy more efficient. modern mouse
good tips, i especially like the parts that tell you how to fix things. some parts seem to be quite biased towards the author's preferences (e.g. the keyboard point) and could be more universally applicable.
so far i was able to compile everything i'd wanted to compile on my mac. however that wasn't very much. (maybe 10 apps in all, some of them my own, ported from windows.)
and games ... oh well, that's what i thought too ... once i have a mac, i'll play less, since it'll hardly run any games. oh boy was i wrong. sure, there are quite a few titles that i'd like to play but can't, but still there *are* a ton of quite good games on the mac. once i have an intel machine, that point will be moot anyways. (as a student i get windows practically for free from my uni.)
I think the overly complicated Objective C API's for everything are a bit frustrating. I would love a straight C simple interface to frame grabing from firewire cameras. That would be awesome. Shared libraries/frameworks + case insentive filesystem = trouble
Hey dude! I totally dig Safari and Mail (and I'm a windows defector for 3 years now).
I agree on the keyboard point. Their keyboards look totally sweet but hurt my fingers big time (I touch type). I'm on a Powerbook 15 (one of the last g4 models) and they keyboards on them are awesome.
I don't dig your Mac Zealot point though. That's totally lame.
*nix HAS hit the desktop. It's called Mac OS X. That's why it's so good.
Firefox? It was Firefox that drove me to the Mac! Every since the atrocity that is Netscape 8, and the loss of the Mozilla Suite, Firefox is the standard browser on Linux and Windows (unless you're on crack and prefer to use IE). The problem is, using it gives me no joy.
It is slow to load, slow to respond to clicks, has memory leaks, poor UI design (I hate having to visit a tab to close it), lame widgets/controls from the mid-90s, instability issues (at least with certain plug-ins) and numerous rendering problems. For instance, on OSX scrollbars occupy a high z-position so they obscure DHTML popups and drop-down menus among other things. On Linux, I get irregular font rendering. There's also some damn strange middle-click and text select behaviours that seem like bugs, but might have a rational reason behind them. Not to mention memory leak problems that force me to bookmark all my open tabs after a while, so that I can restart without losing all my pages. The only browser that annoys me more is IE 5.2 for Mac.
Safari is so much nicer for casual browsing, that after getting a Mac, I quickly found I used it for almost all of my surfing. I keep Firefox around for the occasional must-have web developer plug-in, but I prefer to use Mozilla or Netscape 7.2 if I need a gecko perspective on things.
Posted from Firefox on Linux.
I get rid of most brushed metal windows by using Shapeshifter to theme the whole system. (I use the 'Good Grey' theme for it. It frames my projects nicely.)
Do we all remember when all causal programming was done on an apple ?
It sounds like alot of personal things on this page. Thanks for your personal approach.
It all comes down to the user and their work flow habits.
Switch if you want, just don't wine about it.
The MacBook Pro's WiFi reception is pretty good. The antenna is not cased in metal. The hinge on the MBP has a very large (and IMHO, slightly ugly) plastic section which has the antenna in it. My wife's MBP gets significantly better reception then my PowerBook.
The HIG does "allow" 3rd party developers to use brushed metal, the guidelines are just a bit loose on when to use them. Something along the lines of "use brushed metal if the app uses a source list, or controls a physical device". Also, why would Interface Builder make it trivial (one tick box in the inspector for window properties!) to get that look if it wasn't for 3rd party apps?
i've had, and have a few macs and i've never had the keyboard's usb go out, nor have heard of that before.
Steve Jobs and the mac intentionaly killed off the best personal computer platform ever.
Long live the Apple ][
For that reason alone, I will never own a mac.
Kurt: Can't you do that in Carbon?
I think that there is one important advice missing from the list: To adjust one's workflow. OSX does things slightly different than Windows (for example that applications can hang around with no window open), and to take advantage of these differences you'll have to tweak your workflow.
Oh, yes, regarding keyboard/mice: input devices are highly personal things, and if you've found a mouse which fits your hand, you should keep it no matter what computer you use.
On the other hand, since OS X can be used comfortably with just one button on the pointing device, you have more choice in what kind of pointing device you use. Myself, I switched to a graphics tablet, which greatly reduced the strain on my wrists.
>a few little tweaks, my Macs just work.
what the hell? You just wrote an article explaining how to get your mac to work properly, then claim it Just Works (with a few little tweaks?!?)??
Hi,
I have a Intel MacMini with the latest patches and have absolutely no problems wit Safari and foodtv.com. Maybe this is related to PPC only? Or the latest updates.
Years ago I used to be an Apple Mac evangalist/biggot but then Apple changed from Motorola 68000 chips and made my relatively expensive Mac obsolete over night. Several years later but still a Macista I had my near new Power PC (a black all-in-one unit) made obsolete by the change from OS-9 to OS-X. That LAST Mac cost about twice a comparable Wintel PC! So much for brand loyalty - so I gave Apple the flick, vowing never to be caught again (by the way, look at what still runs on a Wintel Win98 based PC).
These days I have two Win XP based PCs and occasionally dabble with Ubuntu Linux.
I have just spent three days at my daughter's house and used her iMac (Power PC model that has just been made obsolete by the Intel version - you bastards!).
After three days of casual use I can't see what the attraction was, Mac OS-X vs either Win XP or Linux (especially Gnome based) is a no-brainer, OS-X is simply not up to scratch as an easy to use UI. One simple complain - a single button mouse! Where's the scroll wheel? Everything about OS-X is harder to use than on either Win XP or Gnome full stop.
Regards,
Peter
Nice article!
Not much applies to me, as I have a 3-button mouse, wireless keyboard, no interest in the BSD core or compiling for it and a huge collection of browsers. :)
The thing about the aqua themes (3 at the moment, IIRC) is that, whilst they look totally random, they provide a fun game to play. What's my next window going to look like? :P
Also, a tip for everyone. Beware the Finder! Windows that don't remember preferences, icons that change around, icons that re-arrange themselves at every opportunity, windows that change view whenever they feel like it... That's the bit that needs the most work.
just a minor point
quake1 is available for mac (universal binary) at http://ezquake.sf.net
Windows = Race Car
Mac = Luxury Sedan
That is the fairest analogy as you can give. Nobody can say which one is you, only you know what type of computer you want to use. And the analogy is pretty accurate because the race car is fast and requires you to tinker under the hood a lot. The other is a more relaxed and stylish way to do business. I will say that after using wintel for 13 years from DOS up to XP, I found myself switching to Apple. Now that I have switched, I spend more of my time creating things on the computer instead of messing around with the computer.
As for games, if your are spending over $1000+ to play some games, I pity you. Especially when a $200 xbox will do about the same and leave $800 in your pocket.
Which is better? You choose! Apple has complete control on hardware and software, of course it crashes less. Windows has the ability to customize every piece of hardware and software, of course it crashes more. Windows style puts every option and button in your face so you can see your advanced options. Apple makes everything look simple with a tiny advance button off to the side with all those options.
Once again, Race car vs Luxury Sedan. It all depends on what you want to cruise around in. After all, your not using a computer just to use a computer, are you?
-Mempi
Personally I loved the Apple 'switch' campaign.!
Much of this article doesn't make sense, some of it is on target.
Safari - Though I love firefox and there was a time when these statements were true, Safari and Firefox work about the same now.
iChat - I us Adium X for my Yahoo account and it works fine for AIM, so you may follow this advice if you want, but iChat is so good, that I run it for AIM and Jabber, but use Adium for Yahoo only. iChat is the superior program, I just would love to see it include Yahoo as a supported server.
Games - No I will not say there are as many games for the mac, but there are many companies that release the mac versions on the same day as the windows ones. WOW on my Macbook pro works better than it does on my Windows laptop with a killer graphics card for performance. And with Boot camp I can run everything I want on the mac.
Nothing is a Panacea, but the Macbook pro comes close
Quite a negative spin on Apple. I have always been using Apple, and a lot of the issues you discuss are solely based on opinion, not fact. For instance, the Keyboard issue, I like the Apple Pro Keyboard, it works for me. The wireless issue. I am writing this from an Apple 15" PowerBook Titanium, and the wireless reception is just fine. The Mouse Issue: the one button mouse is a nice idea, clean and simple. But I still find myself needing more buttons for other applications, like photoshop, or even Google Earth. If you do have a lot of tabs or windows open in safari, it does slow down, Firefox is much nicer, and if you like the brushed metal, just download the brushed metal theme. Apple is not a userbase of zealots, and Steve Jobs fanboys. Yes they are out there, hell, I know some! But they do not dominate.
PC-to-Mac switchers: Beware of this "review" of Apple and OS X, it is highly opinionated, and frankly, not much fact. More problems, most more serious, come up on PC's.
Interesting how many things you have to do on a computer that "just works".
:)
Man. Thanks for pointing out the http://www.pckeyboard.com/ site. The best keyboard I ever used shipped with my dad's old Epson Equity One. Clicky clack...! Love those old school boards. I spent a week looking for a decent replacement keyboard with no luck, settled on a cheapo keyboard which doesn't feel nearly as spongy as a lot of the newer ones.
Thanks for the info. its good to know this as i am considering the switch.
I won't try to talk anyone out of using Camino or Firefox (both of which are fine browsers). And I agree that Safari *can* be slow, but it doesn't *need* to be.
Clear the cache once in a while. Disable autofill (or enable it only for your personal information as a reasonable compromise). Delete Safari's favicon cache once in a while (I've created a crontab to do this for me). I think you'll find it's a lot more responsive with many tabs open.
If you want to use a PC-branded USB keyboard, and have the keys work, try installing Intellitype Pro from Microsoft. I use a Dell-branded Microsoft keyboard with my Mac G4 cause I like the "natural" design. Intellitype Pro makes everything Mac happy.
I agree about the Apple keyboard, but a far better bet than the Unicomp is Matias's TactilePro keyboard, which uses the same Alps switches used in Apple's late, great Extended Keyboard.
Disagree about the wireless card. I have a 12" G4 (aluminum) and the signal is just fine. It reliably connects to signals my wifi finder can't see.
Try Opera, the only browser to pass the acid test, better than anything else easily. Firefox sucks
Actually, Safari was the very first browser to ever pass the Acid2 test back in November 2005. Private builds of Safari beat all other browsers, and Safari was the first commercially released browser to pass it, too. See Wikipedia for more info. Or just google "Safari passes Acid2".
I agree with most of the recommendations for open source applications to replace the included Apple ones. They follow closely to my recommendations in my Budget Mac Links http://benjamin-newton.net/tech/mac/links
I also agree on having people hold off on switching to the Intel Macs until more graphic design applications are Intel Mac native, but I disagree that most designers need the Adobe Creative Suite. The only two applications from Adobe I use are Dreamweaver - and only that recently as I have a 20,000 page website without a database to manage it and Photoshop Elements because of layer styles, ready made shapes, and the Picture Package features. Otherwise I would just use iPhoto in addition to Gimp.app 2.x and Inkscape for graphics and Nvu or iWeb for web page design.
I pity the fool who wastes time with PC.'Nuff said.
I picked up one of the new 17" MacBook Pro the other week and had a devil of a time getting a wireless signal while at the JavaOne conference. Most of the other people with PC laptops seemed to be connecting okay, and a friend who has a 15" MacBook Pro also was having problems. The problems with wireless have also been discussed on the podcast Diggnation.. but so far I can't really tell what the issue is.
At any rate, can someone recommend a good wireless card to use with my Mac? I don't have any problems when I'm working at home but I'd gladly spend the extra money if it meant that I'd have connectivity in most places where there's a public WiFi hotspot. Thanks!!
You don't like the one button mouse? Plug in ANY 3 button mouse and it will just work.
And someone up there was complaining about firewire? Why? I have 7TB of Firewire 800 drives plugged into my G5 right now. Plug them in, and it just works.
Plus, Mac has Final Cut Pro, the best editing software out there (Avid still hasn't caught up with all its features), and at a fraction of the cost of Avid.
There's no contest.
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