MacOS

There are some fundamental differences in how Microsoft and Apple does things. If you haven’t been aware of them before switching from a Windows based computer to a Mac, you’ll probably notice some of them pretty fast.

One of the first things I discovered is that things are more “binary” in the Mac world. If you have an external device it either works with the Mac or it doesn’t. There isn’t that middle ground from the windows world where it almost works, but not quite - or worse it works in even week numbers but not when the sun shine.

So, I was actually using Microsoft Windows for quite a while. My first windows was Windows/286 which was nothing like the current Windows, but it was okay somehow. Today I just realized that I haven’t really been using Windows on any of my own machines and even though Vista was released three months ago, I haven’t seen it yet. It is sort of funny, but since switching to a Mac, I’ve been spending less time keeping the machine running – debugging, tweaking and doing other odd stuff – and more time doing actual fun work at the computer – like expanding my portfolio at istockphoto.

… even crashes. While it shouldn’t matter too much, the eye candy (cool graphics, sweet effects and other eye pleasing stuff) on a Mac even makes me smile from time to time – and you just have a little more forgiveness to a program, which crashes with grace. Take Adium - my favourite Instant Messaging client. Being a multi language expert (and thus speaking both MSN, Jabber, GTalk, ICQ and other protocols) it does have a hard time, and some times – weeks if not months apart – a may go down in flames.

I finally get it. QuickSilver that is. Its an application for the Mac OSX and is the best friend any OSX Power User can have. I’ve downloaded it a couple of times, tried to figure what it was and uninstalled it – but not any more. It’s just great and ought to be build into the OSX. QuickSilver is sort of a power tools basically has made my muse workless today. It’s a power-edition of the Dock and it probably has a ton of undiscovered features I haven’t figured out yet.

Apple has finally released a new upate to OS X (”Tiger”) – version 10.4.3. It has been roumored to include 500+ fixes, but so far I’ve only noticed to changes – it broke the latest version of the EyeHome-software and they finally fixed the connectivity issues with my SonyEricsson P900 phone – I can sync and I’m pleased.

If you’re a European Mac user, and using the weather widget in Dashboard, now would be a good time to replace the Widget from AccuWeather with a BBC Weather Widget. The weather reporting and forecasts a much closer to the real world than accuweather has ever been.

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.

Yes I do. It’s been some months since I decided to go for a Mac, but my home office is power by a hardware monster from Cupertino - a PowerMac with to G5 cpus. I do belive I made new record from “computer in box” to the “computer fully patched and ready” – less than 2 hours (Windows XP average: 10+ hours). I probably still need a few tools and applications to be fully operational, but so far it just rocks. Mac – Go get it.

So, I’ve been wondering if I should by a Mac. Windows works for me, but causes a fairly large number of headaches. Linux is nice for server use, but I’m not nerdish enough to get a desktop running. With the many positive reviews, switching stories and others I was thinking of going Mac. Since OS X was introduced Mac machines runs on a BSD core which makes it almost familiar grounds for people who knows the Unix world. Since the introduction they kept an amazing pace and regularly introduced new innovative features at regular intervals.