I was a Win user myself and apart from the driver problems, unexplainable crashes there was this whole feeling of clumsiness over the system. I was unable to navigate easily over multiple IE pages, I was constantly trying to find which page I was reading after looking at something else. These may seem to be small problems and in fact they are. I'm not mentioning the higher risk of being target to viruses and all, it has been talked over for long time.
I switched. And the whole computer experience has a different meaning now. Windows is like being a heavy smoker who hates smoking. Computers and especially internet is an everyday must for me. While using Win, I had to get online to do some stuff, but hating every second XP asked me to send stupid reports that do nothing to improve my computer experience. Hating IEs unexplainable behaviour. Being on the tenderhooks if I should open that page, was there a virus or something like that risk. Hating each time it showed stupid signs that it had found new hardware, right before it tells me that it cannot get it to work properly.
I find Mac OS X to be very user friendly, and very stable. I use Microsoft's laser mouse ehich has 5 buttons. Each have a specialized job. One opens exposé, the other show me the desktop etc. I have a finger on CMD for quick management of my windows, CMD+W, or CMD+Q or CMD+Shift+A. I tend to open a zillion pages when I do a research, and my working place on the computer used to be cluttered with IE pages, now I browse in tabs in Safari. CMD click a link and it opens in a new tab. Option click a link and it downloads it. I want that photo I saw in a website while searching. Just drag it to your desktop. No right clicking and save as. I want to use that photo in a document just drag it again.
I still use Win for some minor tasks and when I open that system, my hands find Alt+F4 awkward. These are important for me, they make my time with the computer more enjoyable. And it also helps that Macs NEVER look like boxes, they look sexy, stunningly beautiful. Another plus for me, I give a great deal of importance to looks. They motivate me to use the computer(as if I need motivation
).
I use Adium for my messaging needs, and MS Office for some of my sister's and father's job(he's planning to switch over after using my computer for 15 minutes or so, after a lifetime of PCs). Photoshop CS for my photo editing and everything else is iLife.
Actually iLife is another strength of Macs. Those are really useful programs. At least for me. They are not pro (hence photoshop CS) but they will be more than enough for a home user. If you have some special interests there will be plenty(I mean that) of apps that will do it for you. iTunes 7 is great so far for my needs. I overheard someone in a mall complaining that iTunes was clumsy, not the case with me at all! everytime I put in a CD it gets the track names, and asks me if it should import the CD. Small but important. If I want to install a small program(say Azureus) I don't fiddle with where to installing, no stupid "wizards" that do nothing to make it easier come up. I just drag it to where I want it to be from the DMG image file.
Apple Remote is nice for navigating while watching(but I believe it has a lot of room for improvement). No need to fiddle with the mouse to make volume adjustments. Do it from your keyboard. You want to listen to that song again, do it from the remote. No fiddling with windows to click << button.
As I said, these are all small but very important things. They make you enjoy your time on computer, do not drive you nuts in a matter of seconds and concentrate on what you rather than how you do it. Win users will tell you these are of no importance. I don't give a damn who uses which OS, it's just that Win drives me mad, while I feel bliss when I'm using my Mac. If Win works for some person, good for him/her. But we all read on the net people complaining about Win's abysmal errors. When I want to play a game with my friends over Internet their computers come up with stupid probelms not mine. Last night my friend and I wanted to play pool at Yahoo! Pool. He unblocked all pop-ups but and still his Win couldn't open he window...
And I'm afraid to say that MS didn't get it right this time again. They tried to imitate expose and came up with a stupid but good-looking way that doesn't let you see what you have on a specific window. It just lets you see them in folder-like view. I cannot know until I have used it but Vista seems to be as resource hungry every bit as XP, perhaps even more.
I hope you can find some useful stuff in my post to brag about, or to help you make your Mac experience somewhat better. Enjoy your Mac and never, I say NEVER, look back...
