I finally broke down what I used to consider the dark side and bought a new 13" MBA with Lion. Very excited about using a Mac. Just wondering if there is anything that I need to know about Mac that will help me along the way. With that being said I am a pretty tech savvy person and work with and sell Windows PCs. Thanks for any information you can give me to keep the learning curve small.
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Bought my first Mac today
- Thread starter Indy2424
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You do not have to do any maintenance, don't read the Console unless told otherwise, your battery life will fluctuate don't be alarmed its normal, it will get hot and loud, Mac OS X knows what its doing with its RAM, virtual memory is not the same as Windows virtual memory.
That's about the basics. In the end, just use it like a computer and don't worry about it.
That's about the basics. In the end, just use it like a computer and don't worry about it.
Two things: Bootcamp and Parallels.
Welcome to the Dark Side. It's more fun over here...
If you're a Chrome user, I'd suggest going for their OSX Dev channel. Build version is at 16.0.899.0 and it works fairly well, enough for me to switch back from Safari. No tap-to-zoom though.
Other than that, I use the official Twitter app for Twitter, iChat for AIM/g-chat, Wunderlist for task management (along with their iPhone app), and Virtualbox (free!) for virtualizing XP (to run LTSpice and MathCAD).
I also don't think I could live without Dropbox, syncing my files between my MBA, MBA's virtual XP, iMac, iMac's virtual XP, and iPhone. I have almost ~9GB through education referrals (500MB/referral), so it's a lot more usable than their standard 2GB.
The iStat Pro widget is also pretty useful.
Oh, and don't forget to setup Time Machine!
Other than that, I use the official Twitter app for Twitter, iChat for AIM/g-chat, Wunderlist for task management (along with their iPhone app), and Virtualbox (free!) for virtualizing XP (to run LTSpice and MathCAD).
I also don't think I could live without Dropbox, syncing my files between my MBA, MBA's virtual XP, iMac, iMac's virtual XP, and iPhone. I have almost ~9GB through education referrals (500MB/referral), so it's a lot more usable than their standard 2GB.
The iStat Pro widget is also pretty useful.
Oh, and don't forget to setup Time Machine!
I bought my first mac computer last week (MBA 13in). Love every bit of it and I suggest you spend a lot of time on MacRumors forums and in System Preferences. Enjoy!!
I just came over to the dark side a month ago.
There is a pretty good book Lion OS X for Dummies Bob Levitus that is darn good. Probably will also buy either the Lion Bible or Lion Missing Manual ( the Missing Manual is about to be released ).
Backup and recovery procedures need to be learned and practiced!
Backup in MacOS is a breeze compared to Win 7 and Time Machine is pure awesomeness!
An example: back up of 500 GB hard drive, half full: Time Machine: about 2 hours only first time, after that: minutes. Backup in Win 7: app 12 hours EACH time...
Go figure...
Welcome to the Mac side! Your greatest challenge will be learning how to do things that are probably second nature to you on Windows. Much of it will seem intuitive, but some will not, so give yourself some time. As others have said, there's lots of help available here, in books, and elsewhere on the web.
get an app in the mac app store called "Tutor for Lion" it's $4.99, I liked it better than any book plus you can watch them in action set the computer up.
I'm also a new mac guy (been a pc guy for 30 years), I bought a 13" Air, love it, best thing I ever did for computers.
I'm also a new mac guy (been a pc guy for 30 years), I bought a 13" Air, love it, best thing I ever did for computers.
I went cold turkey and didn't add Windows to my iMac when I switched over. I picked up a couple of books to add me in the switch and the transition went better and faster than I could imagine. +1 on the Time Machine/Capsule recommendation.
While for me Lion pretty easy to "learn", I find that I use/need more keyboard shortcut in OSX than on Windows and I find this a bit strange for a more user-frendly OS like Lion.
(FYI, I do IT support for 10 years so I know about Win keyboard shortcut)
(FYI, I do IT support for 10 years so I know about Win keyboard shortcut)
- Don't be in a rush to install Flash (I did and then had to uninstall after a couple of days; now using Chrome for Flash content).
- Menu on top left-hand side belongs to whichever app is in the foreground and active. I reckon everyone who's ever used a mac knows this but I'd never sat in front of a mac before I got mine so it took me a few minutes to figure it out.
- I keep a sticky (from the sticky app) on the desktop with a list of shortcuts I like (screenshot, how to switch between tabs or to get to the apple menu, etc.).
- Cmd + W closes the window but the app is still active; Cmd + Q closes the app.
I'm sure you meant to say you have come over from the dark side.
The biggest single difference is getting use to using the command key instead of the control key for keyboard shortcuts (e.g. CMD-Q to quit instead of CTRL-Q). Second, get used to Lion's trackpad gestures. It really makes using OS X a lot easier.
I agree that it's not similar but IMHO, it's better and easier for a n00b in OSX. Win7's one is a mess.
Since I bought my first Apple device 4 years ago, I guess it was an iPod nano, I bought furthermore an iMac together with an iPod touch and last month a MBA.
I think I will stay with Apple in the future, but I don't think we will see much innovation, in the way of complete new products, in the future. I think voice recognition for Mac OS will be the next big step and more of iOS on the Mac. I hope Apple will upgrade their stores to only one store. If you buy a iOS App, which is available for iPod+iPhone, iPad and Mac, you only have to buy the App once and it is working on all systems. And iBooks for Mac OS would be perfect.
I think I will stay with Apple in the future, but I don't think we will see much innovation, in the way of complete new products, in the future. I think voice recognition for Mac OS will be the next big step and more of iOS on the Mac. I hope Apple will upgrade their stores to only one store. If you buy a iOS App, which is available for iPod+iPhone, iPad and Mac, you only have to buy the App once and it is working on all systems. And iBooks for Mac OS would be perfect.
If you are new to OSX coming from Windows, I highly recommend the book by Pogue called "Switching to the Mac" in The Missing Manual series. Make sure you get the one for Lion, as they have a version for each version of OSX. This book is written as a reference from the Windows point of view, so if you want to do something and aren't sure how, you can easily find the way you do it in OSX vs. Windows.
I did the same. Bought my first ever Mac this summer. got a nice fancy gift card for my birthday, and decided on the 11" air instead of ipad2 for my uses.
I'd never used OSx before. even as an IT dude. OSx was not part of anything we ever worked with. At first i was terrified that the interface would be overbearing and confusing
not the case at all
after 10 minutes of playing around. I was flying through windows with the touchpad like it was natural. things are fast and snappy. no load times. and out of the box, all the basic aplications were available. I've installed 2 things since getting it. Xchat and Open Office. Otherwise, it had everything i needed!
I'd never used OSx before. even as an IT dude. OSx was not part of anything we ever worked with. At first i was terrified that the interface would be overbearing and confusing
not the case at all
after 10 minutes of playing around. I was flying through windows with the touchpad like it was natural. things are fast and snappy. no load times. and out of the box, all the basic aplications were available. I've installed 2 things since getting it. Xchat and Open Office. Otherwise, it had everything i needed!