From windows to mac

Generally speaking moving from Windows to OS X has been a far lesser challenge than excepted. So far I’m only missing a few applications from the Windows world and most daily tasks on the Mac has been surprisingly easy to figure out. Here are some of the challenges I’ve had most difficulty with.

The Keyboard

The keyboard layout (at least on Danish keyboards) are slightly different from the keyboards on Windows and Linux - the $ sign, the @ sign and several other keys are placed on different locations, and it certainly slows down the typing when you can’t find the keys you need.

Closing applications

On Windows closing the last window in the application closes the application, but not on mac. It just “sleeps”. If you want to close an application go for the apple key plus Q, not closing windows.

The mouse

I have an replacement mouse ready, but so far I’m using the basic single-button mouse. It’s odd, but it works reasonable. The “Windows-mouse” feature lacking the most is actually the scroll-wheel - not the second or third mouse buttons.

Cheating…

In my Mac transition I’ve cheated a bit - I’m not using the built-in “Mail” application, but sticking the the Mac version of Thunderbird, which isn’t too different from the Windows and Linux versions. The same goes for the browser - Safari may be nice and all, but currently I’m sticking to Firefox as the primary browser.

Progress so far…

Working:

• Internet bank (even officially supported by the Bank).
• Digital signature (OCES)
• Mail and Browser
• VPN tunnel to wok
• Citrix client (for running Outlook and IE on a Windows Citrix)
• SSH’ing to the servers I have access to.

Not working:

• Printing (My HP ColorLaser is on a odd print server – had issues on windows too).
• Syncing iCal and Addressbook with SonyEricsson P900