Top 10 things windows switchers don't know about OSX...

[wheezy]

It's not how Apple wants to you use it, it's how Unix was built. Whether they did this before they built the OS on a Unix core, I don't know (I've only been using Macs since I got my MBP in February and am proud to say so far everything in this thread I already knew about )

Unix has no "cut and paste" option... only "mv" in the command line to move files or "cp" to copy them. You can do this in OS X's terminal as well and the drag 'n drop motion just does this in a windowed environment.
I can't think of the command off-hand, but there is a modifier that lets you delete the original file once the copy is complete. I don't see why it'd be too difficult to implement the drag 'n drop motion to mimic that instead.

If you do apple+drag it will do the 'move' option insteado of copying. Jumping back to Windows because you can't live without 'cut' is like quitting your job because you can't wear sandals. It makes no sense....

 

[reubs]

Great tips in here everyone. As a switcher I've enjoyed Dashboard and the Expose' feature, but I just can't put myself in Safari b/c I enjoy Firefox too much.

I still haven't figured out how to set the function keys at the top. I especially want Airport accessible through the keyboard b/c I can't ever get the menu to stay open when I just click on it.

Thanks again for all of the great tips, though.

 

[Osarkon]

Command + Alt + D hides the dock . Not sure if that's widely known, i just happened to find it by accident this second, not exactly an obvious one to my mind

 

[bigandy]

I love CMD + option + ctrl + 8.

useful for not lighting up a room too much when your other half is trying to sleep, and you're trying to spend too much time on macrumors...

 

[possuvaan]

No one tells switchers, that Messenger side of Mac kinda sucks, if you want to webcam and chat with your MSN contacts. "Where can I download Live Messenger?" aMsn, I know, but doesn't kinda replace it.. at least yet.

It's also weird for them, why the applications won't close when you close the window.

 

[Queso]

No one tells switchers, that Messenger side of Mac kinda sucks, if you want to webcam and chat with your MSN contacts. "Where can I download Live Messenger?" aMsn, I know, but doesn't kinda replace it.. at least yet.

Yeah, but that's a temporary thing. Yahoo's next version for Mac will have video and it's compatible with MSN.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Undo (cmd-z) in the Finder is a favorite of mine, and Hide Application (cmd-h) is almost indispensable.

Another OSX feature that most new Mac users and a lot of veterans don't know about is dragging a file across the Dock icons to select an application to open it.

 

[foniks2020]

Smart Folders

Not exactly hidden but if you don't use them.. well you're missing out on a large amount of OS X goodness.

Use the spotlight comments rule in smart folders to add in a keyword/comment to filter by... then use get info on any documents you want to see there and add your keyword. Makes it really easy to organize without having to move things around... and you can meta-organize by lots of keywords.. or file-type + keyword or whatever.

Also, of course using the spotlight comments in the info (cmd+i) window for a file it will show up in keyword searches in spotlight.