I finally get the whole "mac" thing

[kgian]

After having a 2011 iMac for 3 years and running windows through bootcamp exclusively I finally got the "mac" thing.

With the recent upgrade to yosemite I thought I would try again OS X. I had tried it with snow leopard when I got the computer but I could not get used to it.

What I like: I like that I have multiple desktops and can have my mail client in one and the web browser in another, with just the flick of two fingers on the magic mouse.

I like that I can have on my iPhone the web pages that I have left on my iMac.
I like that I can see and answer my calls and messages from my computer.

What I don't like: That I don't have control over my hard disks the way I used to have in windows. In windows I use total commander which is a powerful file manager. There are some similar looking utilities in OS X but none that works so good. I understand though that most users don't have the need for such extreme file management.

My biggest gripe is picture management. I have thousands of photos. In windows I used acdsee to view them. It is a very good software, very fast and with good keyboard shortcuts that lets you browse through thousands of photos very quickly. The only alternative that I have found that comes close to it is xnview, but it is buggy and slower than acdsee...

I can understand that a simple user needs just a web browser, iTunes (if he has an iOS device) and a word processor. A simple user doesn't need to manage his directory structure and files. He just needs space for his stuff. A simple user doesn't need antivirus headaches. And also a simple user doesn't have thousands upon thousands of pictures to sort and view.

All in all I have spent the last 2 weeks almost exclusively in OS X. I still believe though that windows 7/8 is a more full featured operating system for the medium to advanced user that can manage it.

 

[MrJandali]

You can get used to it, if you stay tough. It took me more than a year to reach the breakpoint. You will find good tools if you search and try long enough. MacOS is a usable operating system. Though I switched to MacOS fully I still would say Windows is the better OS in many ways. But in the end, the only thing that matters, is, that you can do what you want, get what you need and feel good with it. Cheers !

 

[tillsbury]

You're only just scratching the surface yet.

One thing you sound like you're doing is searching for freeware solutions to significant computer requirements. You might be used to getting away with this in windows, but you won't find it as easy on OS X.

But you have got the wrong idea about "simple users". Sure, they can get on with the surface features on OS X. But any serious user (of which there is a much higher percentage on macs) is using serious software. Both Aperture and Lightroom are excellent pieces of software, most suitable for handling many thousands of images. I was manipulating and rendering just one project this afternoon, there are almost forty thousand 6 megapixel images in that folder alone. Pixelmator, Automator, and FCPX all handle it smoothly. Pop over to the photography forum sometime, where there are dozens of amateur and professional photographers doing really serious work on their macs.

It is very different, and you should expect it to take a while. But don't underestimate how powerful OS X is under the hood.

 

[SpeedFleX]

What I don't like: That I don't have control over my hard disks the way I used to have in windows. In windows I use total commander which is a powerful file manager. There are some similar looking utilities in OS X but none that works so good. I understand though that most users don't have the need for such extreme file management.

Can you go into more detail about this? The only thing I really missed that windows had was TeraCopy which was pretty much the native copy handler for me. I never understood why someone would need Total Comander besides the old school OG 90s Nerds. (i use the term nerd postive so don't take it seriously.) I am pretty sure something like ForkLift can do everything TotalCommander can?

 

[lowendlinux]

After having a 2011 iMac for 3 years and running windows through bootcamp exclusively I finally got the "mac" thing.

With the recent upgrade to yosemite I thought I would try again OS X. I had tried it with snow leopard when I got the computer but I could not get used to it.

What I like: I like that I have multiple desktops and can have my mail client in one and the web browser in another, with just the flick of two fingers on the magic mouse.

I like that I can have on my iPhone the web pages that I have left on my iMac.
I like that I can see and answer my calls and messages from my computer.

What I don't like: That I don't have control over my hard disks the way I used to have in windows. In windows I use total commander which is a powerful file manager. There are some similar looking utilities in OS X but none that works so good. I understand though that most users don't have the need for such extreme file management.

My biggest gripe is picture management. I have thousands of photos. In windows I used acdsee to view them. It is a very good software, very fast and with good keyboard shortcuts that lets you browse through thousands of photos very quickly. The only alternative that I have found that comes close to it is xnview, but it is buggy and slower than acdsee...

I can understand that a simple user needs just a web browser, iTunes (if he has an iOS device) and a word processor. A simple user doesn't need to manage his directory structure and files. He just needs space for his stuff. A simple user doesn't need antivirus headaches. And also a simple user doesn't have thousands upon thousands of pictures to sort and view.

All in all I have spent the last 2 weeks almost exclusively in OS X. I still believe though that windows 7/8 is a more full featured operating system for the medium to advanced user that can manage it.

I have thousands of pictures does that make me an advanced user? Why is it that you think you cannot manage the directory and structure of files in OSX? When did having A/V create a headache most A/V runs in the background with little user input?

What I'm getting at is, because something is done a particular way in Windows doesn't imply that it's the best or only way. I prefer mkdir cp and mv mkfs cfdisk et. al. but does that make those commands the right way or make Windows bad because it doesn't have them. We have a mantra in the Linux community that get repeated Ad nauseam Linux=/=Windows the same applies here OSX=/=Windows.

 

[joema2]

...What I don't like: That I don't have control over my hard disks the way I used to have in windows. In windows I use total commander which is a powerful file manager. There are some similar looking utilities in OS X but none that works so good.

Have you tried DCommander? http://devstorm-apps.com/dc/

OS X Finder also has tabs: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT5840
tagging: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT5839

Three other Finder alternatives are:

XtraFinder: http://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/
TotalFinder: http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/
PathFinder: http://cocoatech.com/pathfinder/

My biggest gripe is picture management. I have thousands of photos. In windows I used acdsee to view them. It is....very fast and with good keyboard shortcuts...The only alternative that I have found that comes close to it is xnview, but it is buggy and slower than acdsee...

Here are several alternatives:

Unbound: http://unboundformac.com/
Lynn: http://www.lynapp.com/
PhotoMechanic: http://www.camerabits.com/downloads/
Picasa: http://picasa.google.com/

Alfred productivity tool: http://www.alfredapp.com/
Beyond Compare for Mac (best file/folder comparison tool): http://www.scootersoftware.com/

... a simple user doesn't have thousands upon thousands of pictures to sort and view.

I have about 100 terabytes of video and about 200,000 photos. I mainly use Finder, Lightroom and FCP X, and this works fine. The cataloging and sorting features of LR and FCP X are very powerful.

....I still believe though that windows 7/8 is a more full featured operating system for the medium to advanced user that can manage it.

From a desktop UI and API standpoint they are quite similar. This is why complicated apps like Photoshop and Premiere Pro can be ported between OS X and Windows.

However with Windows 8, Microsoft "kicked the desktop to the curb" and decided to do no more major updates, favoring instead the Metro tiled interface. This was illogical in the extreme, since a complex app cannot be ported to the simplified Metro interface.

Since then Apple has released two major updates to OS X, Mavericks and Yosemite, each with significant UI and feature updates for desktop users.

Since the disastrous decision about Windows 8, the key Microsoft managers involved have quit, been fired or re-assigned, and Microsoft has reversed their decision to not update the desktop any more. It appears that Windows 10 will fix most of the problems caused by Windows 8, but they will have lost three years and a lot of customers.