so i'm about to get myself a macbook this weekend. i never owned a mac before so i need to know somethings. 1)so is the mac os complicated compared to windows? 2) being a windows girl i would like to boot it with windows as well , so can the base model macbook handle windows 7 or vista or will xp be better? 3) since the battery isn't easily replaced , what can i do to assure a longer battery life? i would really like to know your experiences with the mac os and it would be nice to hear from a fellow switcher. sorry if this thread doesn't go here but i searched a lot and got overwhelmed with info so i thought its best to start from here, thanks
I made the switch in 2007 after being a windows user since the 3.11 days, it's not a difficult OS to use but you'll probably find it'll take a few weeks to get used to the differences if you haven't used an OS other then windows. For instance, if you're used to going through an installer every time you want to install a new app the concept of simply dragging the app from the disc into the applications folder might not seem that obvious. It also took me about six weeks before I stopped instinctively trying to use ctrl for keyboard shortcuts instead of command. It's a lot of little differences but overall they mostly operate the same. The latest version of windows I've used is XP SP2 so maybe a lot of this isn't relevant anymore. I would imagine even the lowest end Macbooks can run Windows 7 these days without an issue, though I have not had a reason to dual boot since 2008. I'm much happier these days without that horrible piece of software in my life.
I wrote about switching my main desktop computer to a Mac here... http://photics.com/windows-pc-to-mac-mini-the-single-desktop-quest ...and here... http://photics.com/one-week-later-hows-mac-life Basically, I like the Mac better. I was disappointed with how my Mac ran windows though. I tried virtualization and boot camp. It was tedious to set up and not really as good as my PC. (I tried using Folding@home, but that didn't work.) I knew that it wouldn't be as good as a real PC, so I basically found replacements for my popular PC programs. (Dual boot is annoying!) Aside from Halo and Adobe Creative Suite, I'm not missing my PC much. And since I got Pixelmator... http://photics.com/pixelmator-a-successful-alternative-to-adobe-photoshop ...I'm not really missing Photoshop that much. Adobe wanted me to upgrade before they'd let me switch my license to the Mac. That's like $600. Since I hate Dreamweaver, Flash seems to be dying and there are alternatives to Illustrator, I decided to save some money and use the Mac App Store to download a copy of Pixelmator. I went with the cheapest Mac they make... the Mac Mini. I like it. The little box is quiet and I save a lot of money on electricity.
I have both Pixelmator and Photoshop. I suppose for the average user, simple tasks like resizing photos are fine with Pixelmator but it misses out on hundreds of little details you learn to live with using Photoshop. Not to mention the program is actually a little buggy, some of the image quality is a bit suspect (especially .png) and the paintbrush leaves streak marks across your picture... Anyway for the OS... yeah it's easy. If you really have problems you can check out "Mac OSX Snow Leopard - The Missing Manual". It's a great book and covers practically everything in even better detail than you're likely to find online. You shouldn't really need it for basic operation, but it's interesting and helpful nonetheless.
Apple has a bunch of videos for switchers from Windows, so you can easily pick up the little nuances that are different in OSX: http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/ This includes videos on: Anatomy of a Mac Running Windows on a Mac Switching from Windows to OSX And other videos on how to use OSX basic apps like Mail etc There is also a "Mac Quick Tips" podcast by Apple that is no longer updated but hosts over 90 short videos on how to do various little things on your mac. Its very fun to watch especially if you are new to the platform: http://itunes.apple.com/sg/podcast/mac-quick-tips/id257243321 When I first switched to Mac, I also had bootcamp (free from Apple) installed so that I can boot up both Windows and OSX depending on what I needed. Then I also considered using Parallels or VMWare Fusion so that I can run Windows apps inside OSX. But as time goes by (a month or two), I realize that I can do anything I want on OSX, just the same or better. So I removed the bootcamp partition in the end. Everyone has their own learning curve. Im sure your Mac can install Windows 7. Apple's support page on installing Windows 7 on a Mac (incl requirements) is here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3986 My suggestion is to get 7 or XP, dont get Vista. The manual that comes with every mac purchase outlines what you can do to prolong your battery life. From what I can remember: Keep the battery at roughly 50% capacity if you are not using your Mac for moderately long periods of time Recharge your battery regularly to 50% capacity every few months even though you are not using the computer for several months Once a month, drain the battery and then charge it again to full (essentially one full recharge cycle) The last point above may not be in the manual, but Ive read somewhere that such a procedure helps with keeping battery life longer. For a more enthusiastic response to your thread, you may want to post a thread on the Macrumors forum instead. Hope this helps
Apple's instructions for battery calibration: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=mac/10.4/en/mh2339.html It says 10.4 at the top but the exact same instructions still apply.
I have only recently purchased a Mac (new style Mac Mini) myself, having been a Windows user from the year dot. The OS is pretty easy to use and is almost identical to Windows in many respects (there were some initial oddities though - like right mouse clicking was turned off by default and it took time getting used to new menus to do stuff that in Windows was instant with the RMB). Took a couple of weeks to find out about turning RMB on - D'oh!. Made things sooo much easier. Seems pretty stupid to have it turned off by default. I suspect the MacBook won't have this problem so that's by and by anyway. While I love my Mac, I don't agree that it has the "World's best OS" as Apple claim. Give me Windows7 anyday. Due to my software and development requirements I still need to use Windows, so I invested in Parallels and a copy of XP. And running this on the Mac is simply wonderful. XP load time is greatly improved and it behaves exactly as expected, with absoultely no crashes or blue screens of death in many months of use. The Mac is a lovely machine and the OS is not significantly different to Windows in most respects. The shortcuts are slightly different, but with time and practice you'll be very happy.
The switch from Windows to Mac is a lot easier than you might expect. The biggest changes include: (a) lack of right mouse button, but that can be enabled under system preferences, as someone mentioned earlier and (b) the use of copy to move files, without having "cut". I switched from a Dell Laptop to a MacBook Pro about four years ago and now I have no interest in running Windows. I initially planned to run Windows on my Mac, but realized I didn't need it. I thought I would need some of my old Windows apps, but i've found everything I need for the mac. The Mac's and OSX operating system just feel nice!
I found one of the biggest changes to be how application windows are handled, and I still don't think it's particularly great on Mac. The way the red X is no longer a quit button but instead merely closes the window can be confusing in certain applications. For example, press it while playing a song in iTunes and the window will close but your song will continue to play uninterrupted, yet press it while playing a YouTube video on Firefox and you've effectively just closed the browser, despite the program technically still being open and running. The green maximise button isn't any more consistent either, with some applications it stretches the window to fit the screen, with others (iTunes again for this example) it changes the entire view mode the app runs in. Having the buttons behave differently for different programs can take some learning and it just seems like one of the strangest decisions on the whole of the OS to me. Steve Jobs is all about keeping things as simple as possible and this just goes completely against that philosophy. /rant I'm used to it now, but that doesn't make it any less odd.
The right mouse button is active by default if you plug in a third party mouse. I consider Apple's mice to be totally unusable and immediately went for a nice cheap logitech mouse but I might buy the trackpad once 10.7 hits for the gestures. The "maximise" button is actually the "fit to window" button and the close button is the "close window" button, it's only confusing if you think about it in windows terms. I actually prefer the Mac way of doing things better but I'll admit it does seem inconsistent at first. I've gotten so used to using Command-Q to quit apps I had actually completely forgotten that Windows closes the entire app and I don't remember how you'd close an independent window in Windows without closing out the app. Weird.
I agree with the above poster - the RED, YELLOW and GREEN buttons are indeed very odd and not at as consistant as Windows' "Minimize", "Maximize"/"Restore Down" and "Close" buttons. but you do get used to them.
You can install RightZoom to "fix" the behavior of the green button. It's not perfect, but it's much better than resizing every window by hand.
thanks a lot for all the help , i picked the macbook finally today and so far its as confusing as it is exciting , i just have some quick questions . 1) can software updates be paused and resumed later anytime or do i have to start them again? 2) about the dock are apps on the dock are the ones open right now and just minimized or are the just apps currently not open? sorry for these really stupid questions but i just don't get them.
1. Not sure, I've had mine a year but never paused an update once I started. 2. Apps on the dock are not open, icons with the light underneath are open. Example; first three are open, second three aren't (Finder is always open): Free free to PM me if you have any more questions and want a quick reply
