A Linux Geek Embraces OS X: Mac Mini

[MacBytes]

Category: Reviews
Link: A Linux Geek Embraces OS X: Mac Mini (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20050220125950)
Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)

Approved by Mudbug

[winmacguy]

Will read more later but at this stage I would say a very interesting and true account of an OSX "newbe". I have seen similar situations at work with people either moving up from OS9 (recently) or people moving from Windows to OSX (a little while back at school) and from myself moving from OS9 to OSX at work back in 2002.
More later
Cheers winmacguy

[brap]

That was a very entertaining read. Definitely worth your 10 minutes.

edit: Not really about the Mac Mini, though.

[rtdgoldfish]

Good article. Sounds just like any Windows/Linux user that uses my iBook for the first time. Of course there are some things that OSX is lacking, Apple isn't perfect. But I do like how he gave everything a chance before totally bashing the OS because it is missing one feature. I hate when people say they don't like OSX or Macs because "the boxes to close windows are on the wrong side" or, my personal favorite, "it doesn't come with solitare??"

[sworthy]

Interesting read, but he doesn't convey his change very well. The conclusion seems rushed. Overall a good read though.

[Nermal]

He'll get used to it. Things like renaming files on the desktop are really easy when you know how, just click the filename. He tried right-clicking, and clicking and holding, but not a simple click by the sounds of it!

[Chimera]

Very good read

Interesting to see that he prefers the taskbar in the application window instead of the top of the screen, to me the mac way makes much more sense: you can have widgets in the top right corner, the Apple menu far left with important system stuff, and the other menus are always in the same place and tend to be more consistent. I guess if you live with a PC you are fixed in your ways.

One other thing: even he is after a PowerBook G5 and he's only just started using macs :rolleyes:

[Santaduck]

There were a couple points that rang true for me, even though I'm a mac diehard (as most of us here are):

1) FedEx frustration
2) Th single button mouse
3) Lack of a OS X FTP utility (and poor quality of freeware FTP)
(although Connect To Server might qualify in a pinch)
4) Waiting for the G5 PB.
5) Great iLife, but conspicuous lack of default Word Processor


Interesting that he liked:
1) DVI, Genie, Expose, Adium, VPN


Funny that he had...:
1) to install GIMP (but we didn't hear about more unix rummaging that I'm sure he did)
2) a relatively positive view of mac gaming. I suspect he expected the utter worst, and it wasn't quite that bad. Either that, or he was happy with UT2004.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Good and honest review, and very, very funny. Specially enjoyed the sidekick Loyd.

And, why isn't there a decent, and free, graphical ftp client for Mac OS X...??? (The ftp capacity built into Finder is the worst of them all).

[Keynoteuser]

He didn't read any manuals, and then complained about some things he had no knowledge of. Good article, but still. He was right clicking on the menus, thinking that was why they were staying down...seems he had no experience of OS 8 and higher...and never thought to try just left clicking on a menu once. That's a windows user for you...always try to do twice the work because it can't be THAT easy. He had no idea the column view was in there, so he totally missed the fact that you could preview images and movies in the Finder.

Thankfully lots of users helped him out in the forum on that story. The sad thing was that there were dozens of posts about how the mac was too expensive (people seem to think macs START at $3000).

[macidiot]

There were a couple points that rang true for me, even though I'm a mac diehard (as most of us here are):

1) FedEx frustration
2) Th single button mouse
3) Lack of a OS X FTP utility (and poor quality of freeware FTP)
(although Connect To Server might qualify in a pinch)
4) Waiting for the G5 PB.
5) Great iLife, but conspicuous lack of default Word Processor


Interesting that he liked:
1) DVI, Genie, Expose, Adium, VPN


Funny that he had...:
1) to install GIMP (but we didn't hear about more unix rummaging that I'm sure he did)
2) a relatively positive view of mac gaming. I suspect he expected the utter worst, and it wasn't quite that bad. Either that, or he was happy with UT2004.

I agree with all your points...but what's wrong with Transmit for ftp?

[winmacguy]

After reading the article I would say that it is amazing the difference gained when you RTFM before you start to do anything. :)

[backspinner]

There is no good FTP client since Transmit is the best one can get and it's not expensive as well.

Does Windows come with a ftp client standard?

Does Windows come with a decent word processor standard?

[5300cs]

Off topic, but I think it's important.

Windows doesn't come with a DVD player last time I checked. That's much more important to me. It comes with Solitare & Pinball, brags about being some multi-media center, yet usually comes with only a demo of WinDVD. :rolleyes:

[Catfish]

He didn't read any manuals, and then complained about some things he had no knowledge of. Good article, but still. He was right clicking on the menus, thinking that was why they were staying down...seems he had no experience of OS 8 and higher...and never thought to try just left clicking on a menu once. That's a windows user for you...always try to do twice the work because it can't be THAT easy...

That was exactly my experience when I switched about 3 years ago. I was trying to install programs and getting agitated because I couldn't find the installer. I wanted to uninstall programs but couldn't find an "Add/Remove Programs" utility. I was making it entirely too difficult. Finally I learned to think of the simplest thing it could be, and most of the time 'it just worked'.

[nagromme]

I find the free rBrowser lite just fine for FTP. Maybe I'm missing something... what else does an FTP app have to do?

[jkhanson]

For secure FTP, I use Fugu. It's free and gets the job done. Won an Apple design award too.

http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/

[AlmostThere]

I would second fugu ... I use it all the time to transfer files between my iBook and Linux desktop. I would have thought this functionality would / should be built into Finder though?