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All the things about OS X that bug switchers

A

akm3

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 15, 2007
2,252
279
I'm making a 'switcher's guide' because a lot of folks have been asking me for help transitioning to the new platform.

Can you guys help me by posting things that that are different between the platforms, and how they should re-align their work flows?

Examples include:

'No right click!' - Sure there is, enable it in system preferences and tap with two fingers, or simply plug in a two button mouse.

'Windows don't maximize! Green button SUCKS' - While yes, this works differently, the button makes the window just as large as it needs to be to display the contents. In combination with other OS X tools like Expose, this allows you to more quickly move from app to app to get work done.

etc.

What are some of your examples?
 
"No Unified Place to find Applications" - The Applications Folder. The Start Menu just clutters thing. Common applications should be kept in the Dock for quick access.

TEG
 
Sky Blue said:
This is a brand new topic, that has never been covered before.
Click to expand...

"Mac users seem like elitist snobs!" Well yes, they can come off that way. But once you get used to the culture, which is a bit sarcastic, there is a wealth of good information - but do a search first or you'll upset people. Find a local Mac user you know that can be your 'go to guy' for Mac questions, and they are usually more then willing to share their knowledge!
 
so long as you have a mighty mouse and go to prefs and set it there is a button2, and there are some context right clicks, i can cope with that.

i switched about a year ago, but still keep a couple of wintel lappies about the place for those odd moments when xp would actually be useful. i really don't want it on my imac :p

lack of start menu took some getting used to, and the green + maximise took a while to figure out... it does maximise, but only to the size the window needs. Note that some (badly written) web pages make a mess of this.

Absolutely my biggest 'hate' in os x though is only being able to resize from the bottom right corner.:mad: having drag handles on all four sides and corners in M$ land is much friendlier. I can't believe Apple have kept this bit of os pedantry. I think i first saw it when i first used a mac on sys 7 ish when i first discovered Photoshop... :)

...while i haven't used leopard yet, my understanding of 'stacks' is that they've basically reinvented and refined the 'start' idea and given you as many as you want, all in the dock? (probably flamebait! :D)
 
"You can't run downloaded cracked apps."
- yeah right :rolleyes:



One thing is true though and Maddox over at The Best Page In The Universe said it best.

" There is one thing PC users can and Mac users can not ... shut up. "

Mac users feel the constant need to ramble on and on about how superior Mac is to a PC.


That being said ...
mac pwnz da pc lolz!!!1!1&!!one!!1!
 
The film roll view to preview pictures in a folder (XP) is still better than we have with quickview on the Mac.

iPhoto - you have to press the edit button to be able to zoom on a photo.
 
Chappers said:
The film roll view to preview pictures in a folder (XP) is still better than we have with quickview on the Mac.
Click to expand...

Good luck trying to do that with a few hundred multi-MB JPEGs in windows, for example.

TEG said:
"No Unified Place to find Applications" - The Applications Folder. The Start Menu just clutters thing. Common applications should be kept in the Dock for quick access.

TEG
Click to expand...

For those who know how to use the Dock and drag and drop, the dock is great. For those users who quake in fear due to lack of "start menu" (you do know in xp you have to go through Start to Shut down?) and cannot figure things out, you can drag your Applications folder into the right side of the dock.

fstfrwrd said:
That being said ...
mac pwnz da pc lolz!!!1!1&!!one!!1!
Click to expand...

LOL =)
 
The biggest things I find different in Mac OS X versus Windows:

No screen lock function. This is a legitimate gripe - the only way to simulate it is to use a hot corner for the screen saver, and enable the "require password to wake computer from sleep or screen saver" option.

No ActiveX or DirectX support. Not everyone seems to realize this, but these things are Microsoft's proprietary inventions. There are equivalents on the Mac, such as browser plug-ins, OpenGL, and the Core frameworks, though.

Macs can't run Windows applications. This used to be true, but isn't anymore, with the advent of Boot Camp, virtual machines, and things like CrossOver. Note that you need an Intel-based Mac to use these solutions.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
Macs can't run Windows applications. This used to be true, but isn't anymore, with the advent of Boot Camp, virtual machines, and things like CrossOver. Note that you need an Intel-based Mac to use these solutions.
Click to expand...

DarWINE is able to do this as well, and is free. I've had good success running some applications like Fitday that I've used for years to track daily food intake/etc on my Mac.
 
Here's a funny (but true one):

There's no "#" on a Mac keyboard.

A friend of mine had this problem when she used a Mac some time ago, and didn't have any Mac users around to ask how to find it, nor had she heard of Key Caps. Not having that key is a bit of an impediment if you're a programmer! She hated Macs as a result!
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
No screen lock function. This is a legitimate gripe - the only way to simulate it is to use a hot corner for the screen saver, and enable the "require password to wake computer from sleep or screen saver" option.
Click to expand...

Another option would be to turn Fast User switching on, and use the "Login Window.." menu item.

That option is handy if you want to be able to lock the screen manually, but don't necessarily want the hassle of entering your password every time the screensaver kicks in.
 
fstfrwrd said:
"You can't run downloaded cracked apps."
- yeah right :rolleyes:




" There is one thing PC users can and Mac users can not ... shut up. "

Mac users feel the constant need to ramble on and on about how superior Mac is to a PC.
Click to expand...

Yeah, maybe if PC users stop reminding Mac users (or potential Mac users) that there's no software on Macs, that the Mac OS is a toy for tinkering and Windows is a real OS, that Macs CAN'T play games, that Macs don't have right-click then maybe Mac users would shut up about defending their OS.
And I'm sorry, PC users always go out their way to say how superior Windows is because of the 90% marketshare. So you ****.
 
Macs can't run the most common program file type, .exe.

While this is true, it's not necessarily a problem since just about all .exe programs have a Mac .app counterpart.

EDIT: thought of a couple more

1. iTunes doesn't arrange my files the way I want it to. I want them arranged in xxxxxx way.
You can set iTunes to have you manually arrange your files, it'd make more sense to just let iTunes take care of it. There's really no reason for you to go through your file system worrying about where files are, especially with Spotlight and the iTunes library window. In OS X you don't really need to worry about those things.

2. How do I get to my pictures in iPhoto?
Again, just use iPhoto. It's dangerous to use the file system to move around photos that could corrupt your iPhoto library.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
No screen lock function. This is a legitimate gripe - the only way to simulate it is to use a hot corner for the screen saver, and enable the "require password to wake computer from sleep or screen saver" option.
Click to expand...

Lies and Slander. Simply open the keychain.app, and under Preferences, select "Show Keychain Status on Menu Bar". Then all you have to do is click on the little lock icon that appears there and select "Lock Screen". You could even set it to activate with a key combination, much like how you can just use Windows-L to Lock the screen in Windows. Yes, the Windows Key acts like a modifier, just like Alt (Option), Ctrl, and Command :)apple:).

TEG
 
TEG said:
Lies and Slander. Simply open the keychain.app, and under Preferences, select "Show Keychain Status on Menu Bar". Then all you have to do is click on the little lock icon that appears there and select "Lock Screen". You could even set it to activate with a key combination, much like how you can just use Windows-L to Lock the screen in Windows. Yes, the Windows Key acts like a modifier, just like Alt (Option), Ctrl, and Command :)apple:).

TEG
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip - I did not know that function existed! :D
 
tuffluffjimmy said:
Macs can't run the most common program file type, .exe.

While this is true, it's not necessarily a problem since just about all .exe programs have a Mac .app counterpart.
Click to expand...

Except when the .exe is a Self Extracting Zip file, and you have to you a crappy program like File Juicer to get the data out.

TEG
 
TEG said:
Except when the .exe is a Self Extracting Zip file, and you have to you a crappy program like File Juicer to get the data out.

TEG
Click to expand...
Not true - The Unarchiver can handle these. In fact, Archive Utility can handle self-extracting EXEs with zip compression, if you tell it to open one - but only in Leopard.
 
One thing many former PC users don't realize is that they don't have to reboot their Mac every hour to keep it running.
 
I can't print draft!
Click on the arrow on the right side of "Printer". Then change the option under "Orientation" to "Paper Type/Quality" and under "Quality", there are many options such as "Fast Draft".

I can't print selection!
Take a snapshot of the part of the screen you want to print. To do this, press Cmd+Shift+4 and drag a box around the part you want to print. This will show up as "Picture 1" on you desktop and you can print that.

I can't do Control+S to save or any other shortcuts!
Use Cmd (Apple Key) for the shortcuts. To save, Cmd+S; print, Cmd+P.
 
TEG said:
Never heard of this.

What is this "Archive Utility" of which you speak? Never heard of it. (Tiger)

TEG
Click to expand...
It's the replacement of BOMArchiveHelper in Leopard. It opens up whenever you open an archive like a .zip file and extracts its contents.
 
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