New Macbook User

Great write up!!! Your last point in the bad section also bothers me....

 

No issues here with Firefox and Thunderbird running a tonne of extensions. No hangs, ever.

Finder, well....... 'nuff said. But, Spotlight rocks, compared to the lame Windoze Search thing. That dog animation makes me wanna cry when I have to use my Windoze machine.

I gotta say that most apps are rock solid. Even 3rd party ones. If they're not, just drag em to the trash and say goodbye to them. Done.

Even Rosetta apps aren't totally disgusting, even though they're a tad sluggish (PS CS2, PPC platform). There's not enough delay to warrent crying over.

iPhoto, well, it's kinda lame. I do miss my XP powertoy that allowed resizing on the fly.

As a fairly recent switcher, I can honestly say that I truly prefer OS/X over WinXPpro. Sure there are some things that take some getting used to, but once on OS/X for a few days even, going back to Win seems very very clunky. I constantly find myself hitting the hot corners, and doing keystrokes that do nothing in XP.

It's also nice to know that there's not a crapload of anti-V, spyware/malware, Scottie the watchdog, etc etc running in the background slowing stuff down.

Oh, and once you've got Finder set up to show paths, and got the hang of spring-loaded folders, and the different things that the different views allow you, it's not really all that bad.

That said, I'm eagerly awaiting Leopard, which will have all the goodness of Tiger, with lots of extra little goodies that address most of my own personal issues with Tiger.

Just play a little, explore, get outta the Windoze mindset, and most of all, Enjoy!!!!!!

 

Nice review, good points.

I hope Leopard will be more stable as my Mac also hangs a lot. I still love it though.

 

Fair review, but some thoughts on perspective...

Just speaking as someone that has suffered the growth of the industry since it's birth, I can safely say that it"s better than it has ever been, and that 10.4.9 and iLife are far superior than anything in their respective classes. Tomorrow will be even better.

Install? Drag it into the Applications folder. Uninstall? Drag it into the trash. Can't get any easier than that (tho' OS XI is rumored to have thought control). AFA the "smugness", it always seemed to me that the Windows community had the smug/condescending attitude going far stronger, but that's just me.

You have to have a frame of reference, historically speaking, to both appreciate and understand not only where we are, but what it took to get here. Granted, I'm in the AARP crowd now, but I've been in the community/industry since it's inception, and Apple is turning out a product line that was unimaginable five years ago, on top of essentially creating the personal computer industry as we know it over thirty years ago. When you get to where I am and look back, you'll marvel at the strides that have been made, regardless of the label on the box.

As I told my nieces & nephews, "Yes, chil'lin, I watched the moon landing on the radio..."

 

Man, I couldn't disagree more. I think the OP is right on when it comes to comparing the average Windows user with the average OSX user and their comparative smugness/arrogance. I don't even think it's close. I mean, the Apple "I'm a Mac" commercials are the epitome of the attitude of many in the Mac experience.

 

That's marketing, not actual users. Granted, most of the Mac fanatics I've known are a bit glassy-eyed, but most of the Windows folks are downright hostile & dismissive. Me? I LOVE Windows. Without it, I wouldn't have had a job for years fixing it! No money in supporting Macs (unless I was a power supply manufacturer).

Maybe I'm more forgiving, being a left-hander. We're used to being superior yet maligned...

Among REAL users (not just acolytes & fanboys), the most annoying are the Linux crowd, anyway... ("We're here, we're weird, get used to it!")

In vino veritas, eh?

 

I do not have a Mac yet but plan to but one thing almost every Mac user tells me is "When you get your Mac, FORMAT IT!" They say it makes the system a whole lot stabler then the factory install.

Not sure if that is true(?!) but maybe you should give it a try (if it isn't any trouble).

 

HAHA, love it.

Oh, and about Oregon Trail....is that still available? I loved that game!

Great write up. Some of your issues under "bad" might fade away as you become more accustomed to your Mac and less your old Windows ways of doing things.