Couple problems with new Mac

[gstnet]

I wanted to check out iphone development, so I had to get Mac. I got Mac Mini and it is nice little box and it was rather smooth adding it to my existing setup. After using Mac for a few days, I have couple major problems, which are probably result of my lack of knowledge. Maybe some more experienced Mac users can help.

- Application bar. That thing is so far away from the actual apps. I often have few applications opened and I am used to just being able to click on the menu of one of those applications and, well, just access them. Now it seems the only way to do that is to first bring application in focus, using alt-tab or clicking on it and then move mouse all the way up there to access application menu. I see how this was good thing awhile ago on tiny screens, but doing this now seems like unnecessary chore. Is there a way to attach application bar to application it belongs to or at least an option to click on any application and some shortcut key and get popup menu with copy of everything in application bar?

- Moving / resizing windows. Being linux user, I am used to be able to move windows by just holding some assigned key and clicking and dragging anywhere in the window and to resize the windows by holding the same shortcut key and right clicking and dragging window. I found couple applications that provide somewhat similar functionality (Zooom2 and MondoMouse) but on configuration screenshots they have on the sites, they do not mention right-click.

- My Mac has no keyboard or mouse attached to it, I use Synergy app to control it. When it boots Mac tries to detect bluetooth mouse. How do I prevent it from doing it. There is an option when I click on bluetooth icon on the menu bar, to "turn bluetooth off" but clicking on it brings error that says "you cannot as you will lose your input devices...". I scream at it "But I have no input devices", but it just ignores me.

As I said, I have Mac for only few days so these might be simple questions. In my defence I did google for answers before I posted here.

 

[spinnerlys]

1. Menu Bar will be at the top of the screen all times. No way to change that.

2. BetterTouchTool might help you with that.

3. What happens if turn it off or does it simply not work to turn it off? Have you any Bluetooth devices connected? Have you looked at System Preferences > Bluetooth?


2. - 3. Have you used MRoogle to find anything about that?

 

[GGJstudios]

- Application bar.

It's called the Menu Bar in Mac OS X, and no, it can't be attached to the application window. It's just how Mac OS X works.

- Moving / resizing windows.

Again, the Mac way of resizing is by the lower right corner only. If you search the forum with MRoogle, you'll find many threads discussing this, with some 3rd party workarounds. It's quite easy to simply adapt to the Mac method.

"turn bluetooth off"

Go to System Preferences > Bluetooth and uncheck the "On" box.

 

[gstnet]

Thank you.

- Shame about menu bar. That will take some getting used to.

- I will take a look at BetterTouchTool. I think I saw that in my googling, but it seemed like it is the thing for touch screens. I did not realize it deals with mouse clicks too.

- Ok, I did disable bluetooth. Icon is still in menu bar, but I think it might go away on the next restart.

I have to admit my expectations from Mac were a bit higher. I knew it is based on unix system and I for some reason thought that inherited openness and customizations from unix as well. I guess it just isn't my cup of tea, but I can see how some people can find it attractive.

 

[Dave Braine]

Ok, I did disable bluetooth. Icon is still in menu bar

In the Bluetooth System Preferences, pane is a tick box to show the icon in the menu bar.

 

[GGJstudios]

- Ok, I did disable bluetooth. Icon is still in menu bar, but I think it might go away on the next restart.

If you want to remove the icon from the Menu Bar, hold the Command key and drag the icon off.

 

[r0k]

Thank you.

- Shame about menu bar. That will take some getting used to.

- I will take a look at BetterTouchTool. I think I saw that in my googling, but it seemed like it is the thing for touch screens. I did not realize it deals with mouse clicks too.

- Ok, I did disable bluetooth. Icon is still in menu bar, but I think it might go away on the next restart.

I have to admit my expectations from Mac were a bit higher. I knew it is based on unix system and I for some reason thought that inherited openness and customizations from unix as well. I guess it just isn't my cup of tea, but I can see how some people can find it attractive.

I was a Linux user for years before getting a Mac. I now think menu bars on every window look cluttered and busy. The same unix shell that lives on Linux is available to us Mac users in the terminal. Take it slow on all that customization. It takes some getting used to the idea that every setting doesn't need to be changeable in 64 different places (like windows). The more time I spend with os x the more sense it makes. I could never say that for windows or even for all the different Linux distros and the plethora of config folders sometimes in /etc and sometimes somewhere else depending on the distro and the version.

There are some quirks that I chalk up to the price of dealing with apple like the delete key or the inability to grab a window anywhere to resize it. To me, these things are a small price to pay for an os that works this well and is this stable.

 

[spinnerlys]

I have to admit my expectations from Mac were a bit higher. I knew it is based on unix system and I for some reason thought that inherited openness and customizations from unix as well. I guess it just isn't my cup of tea, but I can see how some people can find it attractive.

It is also based on Mac OS, Apple just used Unix and NextStep and FreeBSD as the underpinnings (to word it simple) with an updated Mac OS GUI on top of it. There is always Terminal if you want to go deeper.