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etaleb

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 7, 2012
480
15
Guys

I'm very attracted to move to a Mac for my work laptop since my company just started providing it. However, my personal machines are all Windows. I've always been a keyboard shortcut guy and wondering if this would drive me crazy

Does anybody else use both platforms on a daily basis and what's the mixed experience like? Does it become an annoyance?

-------- Update after 50 hours on Macbook
Guys
I want to provide an update for future readers. Although comments below are fairly positive, I ran through the experience myself. The Macbook experience overall is SUPERB! The gestures, etc feel so natural that I felt like I was in sort of a trance with everything working so well and could remain focused on my actual work very well. I don't think Windows comes close though I've not spent too much time on Windows 8. However, I've chosen to return the Macbook and here's why - I do most of my work from a Windows PC and RDP into another Windows laptop and since there is no RDP for Mac, I did a VNC into it. The latency times as you move windows, open bookmarks, etc is poor on VNC compared to RDP. Also, I found myself often fumbling with the zooming in keys, using the home/end buttons which all don't seem to work. I'm sure I could get some of them to work manipulating the keys, using 3rd party programs, etc but at the end of the day, I'll be spending too much time on this stuff. If I was given the option of using Mac OS everywhere, I would have probably chosen it but Macs aren't cheap and running Macs on self-built computers can often be problematic with drivers, etc. Hence, conclusion is - running on a Mac and PC environment isn't for me. I think I would reach the same conclusion had it been Windows + Linux or any other flavor. Thanks everybody for your comments and help on this thread!

Lastly - I think the OS isn't playing a major role like it did before. A lot of what we are within apps. For e.g in the browser and with Chrome and many other browsers, you have a ton of extensions that do what you did before in another app. Most of my time is spent between Chrome, Outlook, Excel and a text editor making the underlying OS irrelevant to a certain degree.
 
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ideal.dreams

macrumors 68020
Jul 19, 2010
2,374
1,073
I have a MacBook Pro as a personal laptop and use Windows PCs at work and school. I switch back and forth between them daily and have no issues.

As far as keyboard shortcuts go, most of them are identical (with the exception of using CMD instead of CTRL for Mac). There are actually some keyboard shortcuts I use daily on my Mac that aren't available on Windows and often find myself trying to use them when I'm not on my Mac :p. One of the things that did trip me up at first was wanting to press ALT instead of CTRL on Windows because the ALT key is where the CMD key is on Mac but that's something I got used to.

If you're open to change, I don't think you'll have any problems.
 

Alphabetize

macrumors 6502
Oct 6, 2013
452
48
I use a MacBook Air for personal use and work. I use OS X the majority of the time, but I have a Windows partition that lets me use Microsoft Office apps. I've actually started using some iWork apps and exporting them to the Microsoft Office equivalents with no issues, so I've been using OS X a lot more than Windows. I still need Windows for Microsoft Publisher though.

It's not really annoying at all, switching between the two is quick and easy thanks to the SSD of the MacBook Air. Not very cumbersome at all. The only thing I don't like is that Windows eats into the space on my OS X partition!
 

firedept

macrumors 603
Jul 8, 2011
6,277
1,130
Somewhere!
As has been stated the switching back and forth is not really an issue. I use a pc at work and use only Macs at home and for my business. I have never had a problem switching back and forth between the two. Most shortcuts are the same.

I do find myself using more shortcuts on my Macs though, but I also use a lot more programs on them than at work. Shouldn't be a big transition for you.
 

Scubaman

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2011
70
39
Bootcamp!

I was a Windoze person for many years but finally discovered Mac's in 2008 primarily for photos video and music use.

The introduction of Office for Mac 2011 made the transition of work applications to the Mac really easy. Partitioning the Mac disk via BOOTCAMP and installing Windows (W7) solved pretty much any remaining problems. Office files produced in MacOS can read under W7 Office and vice versa. It's easy to set up a common drive for both environments or use a common DropBox storage solution.

There are differences in terms of keyboard short cuts but it's easy to Google the correct key sequence. At the end of the day (and most ironically) Apple Kit is the best h/w to run Windows on either virtually (I use VMWare and get probably 98% functionality) or natively (100% Windows)! It's a no brainer decision...
 

SusanK

macrumors 68000
Oct 9, 2012
1,676
2,655
Working with OS X and Win is just as easy as driving different cars. Once you locate the wipers you're OK.
 

TheGenerous

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2010
1,096
405
I'm an Austronaut
Working with OS X and Win is just as easy as driving different cars. Once you locate the wipers you're OK.

Best way to say it! (don't forget locating the car lights is as important. Found myself driving in Houston freeway with the lowest lights in the middle of a storm.)
 

glenthompson

macrumors demi-god
Apr 27, 2011
2,982
842
Virginia
I only use Windows occasionally but the main problem I have is remembering to use Ctrl-key instead of Cmd-key. Many of the common shortcuts are the same.
 

SusanK

macrumors 68000
Oct 9, 2012
1,676
2,655
Best way to say it! (don't forget locating the car lights is as important. Found myself driving in Houston freeway with the lowest lights in the middle of a storm.)


Oh no! I picked my car up from the body shop yesterday. I was so happy to drop off that blind spot on wheels and get in my car. The rental was an OK ride. I did not read the manual so there were things I couldn't find. Nothing RTFM wouldn't cure ;)
 

aristobrat

macrumors G5
Oct 14, 2005
12,292
1,403
Does anybody else use both platforms on a daily basis and what's the mixed experience like? Does it become an annoyance?
I do. My career is managing Windows devices, and I also like flying through things with keyboard shortcuts.

When I got my first Mac, there was a 2-3 week learning curve for me. Some stuff I could do blind-folded in Windows, I had to Google for how to do on OS X. Like how to uninstall an app, for example.

After that, I got around the same on both platforms.

Nowadays I think I'm faster on OS X.
 

hiddenmarkov

macrumors 6502a
Mar 12, 2014
685
492
Japan
Computers/OS are computers/OS.....once you get settled in its all about the same with the some variances ofc.

I use mac os, windows and linux. Nothing much new under the sun here once you settle in.

CLI not much under the sun new either. At least for mac os and linux. Sometimes you find out just what apple ripped out of bsd when they made it more apple-y and common commands you find may not be common.
TBH my only catch is at work (windows based) and using cli for typing say the command:

ls (options)

doesn't work on windows to list stuff very well lol
 
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