SWITCHERS ONLY: What might we NOT like about switching?

[Sounds Good]

Hi guys,

I realize that this is a Mac forum, so chances are good that everyone here is happy with their decision to switch from Windows to Mac. But since there's no sub-forum on a Windows forum called "I tried a Mac but didn't like it" I'll ask here.

As someone that has used Windows since before Windows (DOS) and has never used a Mac, what might I NOT like about it?

What might be uncomfortable or difficult?

What major learning curves should I expect? Etc., etc...


I'm sure you get what I'm asking here so please share whatever info you can.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Pgohlke]

One thing that got me was that you cannot make apps fill the screen without dragging and resizing. You can only resize from the bottom right corner. No real other annoyances for me that I can think of.

 

[RedReplicant]

One off the top of my head is that everything costs money application wise, there is very little freeware.

 

[alust2013]

You may not like the lack of start menu at first, however, it does end up working with a better flow overall. It's just different at first, and after using windows for many years (little bit of 3.1, a lot of 95 and 98, then ME, XP and 7), it took a little bit to get used to, but honestly not that long. You get the basic idea of where stuff is pretty quick, and it's certainly not difficult, especially if you are reasonably proficient in computers.

 

[RedReplicant]

One thing that got me was that you cannot make apps fill the screen without dragging and resizing. You can only resize from the bottom right corner. No real other annoyances for me that I can think of.

SizeUp is awesome for this, as well as tiling applications on the screen.
http://irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

 

[Phayz]

If you use keyboard shortcuts a lot - e.g. window switching, copy& paste, start+anything, you may find it different when first using it.

 

[100Teraflops]

Terminology is different migrating from Windows to Mac. They pretty much have the same features, but they are worded differently. So, there is a learning curve, but it is not troublesome. I am still learning OS X and so far it has been a breeze. I think your attitude while making the switch is important. Be openminded and remember why you chose to buy a Mac: you want to learn a new operating system. Among other reasons.

Also, one has to get use to dragging icons from one place to another. I did not do this while using Windows. I am not saying it cannot be done, but I closed or deleted apps with the window. However, it is not necessary to drag icons etc.. One can right click an icon and select the "get info" term from the menu.

When you close a window via the famous "X" to the top left of the window, technically it is not closed, as you must officially close the window from the dock or reopen the window and select "quit 'x' app." Underneath the dock there is a circular light informing you that the app is still open. This experience, while it is petty, has caused slight grief. I was use to the absolutism of closing the program the first time by clicking 'X.'

If I think of more discrepancies, I will follow up with another post. Switchers Rule!

Also, iWork and Office are two different animals, but they do the same thing: create documents and slide shows etc.. I have and use both, but honestly, I prefer Office, as it has extra features when writing research papers. One of my current tasks at hand. Remember, I am still new and I plan to use one-to-one in order to learn all of the features of iWork.

 

[100Teraflops]

One off the top of my head is that everything costs money application wise, there is very little freeware.

Sounds like a personal problem.

If you use keyboard shortcuts a lot - e.g. window switching, copy& paste, start+anything, you may find it different when first using it.

+1 Good one! Actually, I did not use keyboard shortcuts exclusively until I switched to The Mac, but they are different.

 

[Sounds Good]

You may not like the lack of start menu...

Actually, I do think this would bug me. I love that I have all of my most used programs (Word, Excel, Photoshop, Lightroom, Notepad, etc, plus one particular folder) right there for easy access with 1 click of the Start button -- yet hidden away completely out of sight (until I click on Start). I also love having quick access to my "Recent Items" list, to quickly open a file I was recently working on.

How are the above 2 things done on a Mac?

If you use keyboard shortcuts a lot - e.g. window switching, copy& paste, start+anything, you may find it different when first using it.

eek... I use "alt-tab" and "copy & paste" A LOT!

Doesn't Mac have these things too?

 

[Alaerian]

Don't read so much into it. Macs are perfectly capable of both copy/paste and Alt-Tab. However, Mac simply uses Command-Tab - Command is in the same place as the Alt key.

Under the Apple menu on the top toolbar, you can access both recently used programs and recently used files, just the same as in the Windows Start menu. It's essentially the same thing, but better.

 

[Sounds Good]

Also, one has to get use to dragging icons from one place to another. I did not do this while using Windows. I am not saying it cannot be done, but I closed or deleted apps with the window. However, it is not necessary to drag icons etc.. One can right click an icon and select the "get info" term from the menu.

Hmm? I'm not really sure what this means. Can you explain?

When you close a window via the famous "X" to the top left of the window, technically it is not closed, as you must officially close the window from the dock or reopen the window and select "quit 'x' app." Underneath the dock there is a circular light informing you that the app is still open. This experience, while it is petty, has caused slight grief. I was use to the absolutism of closing the program the first time by clicking 'X.'

Wow. I could see this being a pain in the butt when we're used to just clicking on 'Close Window' and we're done.

Are you guys sure that switching is really "worth it"? (serious question)

 

[100Teraflops]

Actually, I do think this would bug me. I love that I have all of my most used programs (Word, Excel, Photoshop, Lightroom, Notepad, etc, plus one particular folder) right there for easy access with 1 click of the Start button -- yet hidden away completely out of sight (until I click on Start). I also love having quick access to my "Recent Items" list, to quickly open a file I was recently working on.

How are the above 2 things done on a Mac?


eek... I use "alt-tab" and "copy & paste" A LOT!

Doesn't Mac have these things too?

Recent items are "today, yesterday, and past week." I checked with the 'finder' and a document showed up yesterday without accessing my documents folder. Hope this helps, as you sound computer savvy!

 

[Sounds Good]

...you sound computer savvy!

I am with Windows! But on a Mac I'm a bumbling idiot. No joke.

 

[Sounds Good]

Under the Apple menu on the top toolbar, you can access both recently used programs and recently used files just the same as in the Windows Start menu.

Ahh, good. Thanks. Are we able to put our "favorite" programs or files there too, like on the Windows Start menu? (even if they are not the most recently used?)

It's essentially the same thing, but better.

Why / how is it better?

 

[AlphaDogg]

My only dislike of OS X: You can't cycle between windows that are open with command+tab, you can only cycle between applications. In windows, you can cycle between the open windows with alt+tab.

 

[Sounds Good]

My only dislike of OS X: You can't cycle between windows that are open with command+tab, you can only cycle between applications.

How does this work, exactly?

 

[100Teraflops]

Hmm? I'm not really sure what this means. Can you explain?


Wow. I could see this being a pain in the butt when we're used to just clicking on 'Close Window' and we're done.

Are you guys sure that switching is really "worth it"? (serious question)

One can delete icons by dragging and dropping them onto the desktop from another app or the dock. However, they are not permanently deleted from your hard drive. It sounds strange at first, but it is pretty cool once you get use to seeing the icon mystified, saying it is thrash. Both Windows and Mac thrash icons are waste paper baskets.

There are videos on Apple's web-site titled something like "switching from Windows to Mac 101 or the switch basics." I do not remember the exact title, but mine are close. These tutorials will be helpful! Check them out! Also, you can drag items such as photos and video directly onto the desktop with the mouse.

As far as regretting the "switch," no way! OS X is easy to use and the 'finder' is pretty much idiot proof! While using Windows, I struggle to find simply things like documents and system files, because you have to add exc and other computer jargon to find what you are looking for. Point being: using the finder incorporated into Mac OS X to hunt down documents and system files is easy. Plus you can search specific aspects of the hard drive. Like the entire hard drive, your music library, applications, a.k.a. apps (which are programs in Windows land,) or your documents. Each are separate folders to conduct a search for 'X' file, app, or song.

I am not bashing Windows though! This must be noted, because I am not a wiz with any operating system. Each OS has its pros and cons and I am unfairly pointing out the cons of Windows, because that is your request. I like to use computers, as I am a button pusher, but I do not how they tic.

 

[Mal]

One off the top of my head is that everything costs money application wise, there is very little freeware.

Actually, I have rarely been unable to find freeware, usually open source, that cannot more than meet my needs. That doesn't mean there isn't something paid that would have more polish and be easier to deal with, but there's certainly no lack of free software on the Mac.

I guess I should clarify here that I'm not technically a switcher. Last time I used a PC for personal use was when I was about 8.

jW

 

[Hastings101]

Things I miss from Windows:

Select an item, push shift, and select another to select those two items and everything between them.

Start Menu where you can find all of the installed programs easily and a bunch of recent or favorite programs as well (Apple's Menu Bar and the Dock try to accomplish this with recent items and stacks but it's just not as good.)

Being able to easily theme the OS.

Many applications don't quit when you push close a window on Mac. On Windows the program quits. It was a lot easier than having to go up to the menu for the application and hit quit.

When you click maximize on Windows the application takes up all of the available screen space (excluding taskbar) instead of just fitting to what the application is displaying. While I do like what OS X does I wish it wasn't the only option available.

The "Add/Remove programs" thing was also really nice. I know that all you have to do is drag and drop to the trash on Mac but sometimes not all of my applications are in my Applications folder and it's a pain to hunt for something.

I could go on and on but I think that's enough lol.

 

[Hastings101]

Are you guys sure that switching is really "worth it"? (serious question)

I don't think it's really worth it. Windows 7 and Snow Leopard are so close together in quality that OS X is no longer obviously the better operating system (in my opinion of course). It's also a pain to have to replace your entire collection of Windows applications with Mac versions or Mac alternatives.

The only reason I still use OS X is because I like the look of it, I like that there are (at the moment) less viruses/trojans/whatevers, and I have way too many Mac only applications that I depend on.

 

[dgbowers]

My only dislike of OS X: You can't cycle between windows that are open with command+tab, you can only cycle between applications. In windows, you can cycle between the open windows with alt+tab.

All you have to do is press CMD+~ it's right above the tab key. I figured it out the other day. CMD+TAB to switch b/w apps, CMD+~ to switch b/w windows.

 

[toxic]

- "enter" (return) is no longer "open", it's "rename". cmd-down is open file/folder
- no cut in Finder
- when deleting from a removable drive, the file is not deleted and storage space restored until the trash is emptied
- fewer customization options and less straightforward to implement
- Office cross-platform compatibility stinks
- HFS+ (filesystem) is more vulnerable to corruption
- Finder sorting stinks

not all of the above is necessarily worse, just different

 

[dgbowers]

Things I miss from Windows:

Select an item, push shift, and select another to select those two items and everything between them.

Start Menu where you can find all of the installed programs easily and a bunch of recent or favorite programs as well (Apple's Menu Bar and the Dock try to accomplish this with recent items and stacks but it's just not as good.)

Being able to easily theme the OS.

Many applications don't quit when you push close a window on Mac. On Windows the program quits. It was a lot easier than having to go up to the menu for the application and hit quit.

When you click maximize on Windows the application takes up all of the available screen space (excluding taskbar) instead of just fitting to what the application is displaying. While I do like what OS X does I wish it wasn't the only option available.

The "Add/Remove programs" thing was also really nice. I know that all you have to do is drag and drop to the trash on Mac but sometimes not all of my applications are in my Applications folder and it's a pain to hunt for something.

I could go on and on but I think that's enough lol.

1. As far as the whole shift thing, it works the exact same way.

2. Dragging your Applications folder to the right hand side of the Dock as a stack shows every single application you have installed on the computer, just like the Start Menu.

3. Themeing is a bit more difficult, but you can use things like Geektool and Liteicon and DockLibrary, just to name a few things. You just have to do some googling to find more themeing stuff.

4. Quitting applications. CMD+Q. Easy.

5. I haven't figured out a fix for the maximising. That is my only complaint, but they're gonna change it in OS X Lion.

6. Add/Remove Programs - an application called AppCleaner

I hope that cleared up all the issues you had... If you have any more, lay 'em on me!

 

[Sounds Good]

Dragging your Applications folder to the right hand side of the Dock as a stack shows every single application you have installed on the computer, just like the Start Menu.

What if I just want my top 10 favorites? In Windows I just drag the icon (of whatever I want) to the Start button, then drop it into the list of my favorites (I'm not sure of the actual term for this). Can this be done on a Mac?

Since I open the same 10 or 12 programs or folders or files many times throughout the day, every day, this is pretty important to me. It would absolutely mess up my work flow to lose this feature.

 

[thatsallfolks]

I'm was a complete Mac virgin when I switched a couple of months ago but some of the small things that still annoy me.

1. Pressing delete when you've selected a file in finder doesn't delete the file. You've gotta use the context menu or <gasp> actually drag it to the garbage.

2. It's kinda' weird that the menu bar shows at the top of the screen and not the window. When you have alot of windows open I sometimes go into the menu bar thinking it belongs to another program than what I intended.

3. There's no ".." button in finder(i.e. go one level up a directory structure)

4. Not having an actual uninstall program procedure kind of makes me paranoid.

I do love the magic mouse and obviously Macs look slicker than PCs so overall I guess I'm satisfied and I'm sure any reasonable person would be as well but from what I've seen of Windows 7 I would think most reasonable people would be happy with that too.