What are the real elements that separate a MAC from a PC? (1 Viewer)

[Citizen87645]

I was just reminded about Thunderbird. You might give that one a try.

 

[DaveF]

Thunderbird is nice, and I use it at home. But Outlook far exceeds it. It would be a significant step backwards for Ron, for business use.

 

[Carlo_M]

I figured I'd post my summer 2006 experience moving from Windows to Mac, for those who are interested.

My Windows to Mac switch, circa summer 2006:

First, a bit of background. The last I had even played with a Mac was probably in the mid 1990s, when a college roommate had a PowerPC 6300 or something like that. Used it a bit, was kind of “bleh” about it. Not really impressed. It did enough, which was allow us to write our term papers.

I then entered the workplace and have worked with Windows ever since. The original environment I was exposed to was NT, and then our workplace moved to 2000 then eventually to XP. I’m one of the technical consultants for our department, on a part-time basis in addition to my real job. This basically means since I had a knack for computers (and Windows), and a lot of our staff were of the older generation who didn’t know much about it, I was asked to help everyone get acclimated to the new environment, as well as do light troubleshooting. If I couldn’t figure things out, then it was escalated to our understaffed IT department. Luckily for them, I could usually figure things out.

So I would consider myself something of a Windows power user. Not a full-on expert, or a MS certified tech, but certainly more than your average Windows user. I actually knew a few Mac Freaks in the office who swore by Macs throughout the years, but for the life of me I couldn’t understand why. I mean, you couldn’t really game on them, and who cares about Photoshop running well on it? I saw the funny/witty ads Apple would roll out over the years (no, not the new ones with the Dodgeball guy), but they really didn’t do anything to convince me to switch over. I mean Apple continued to tout their OS’s superiority over Windows, but it really didn’t do what I wanted to do, which was game.

I also didn’t like how I felt the Mac OS took a lot of power from you. I was edging towards the Computer Guy stereotype that Jimmy Fallon used to play on SNL. The kind who reveled in being able to do things via the back door way that only power users of Windows know how. It gave me a certain feeling of power, and I liked being more technically savvy than most people in my office. That feeling extended to my home use, where I would build PCs for myself and my family and friends and support them (to an extent). As I grew older, I lost my taste for troubleshooting. Things just got so time-consuming, and while it was cool to know the ins and outs of XP, I really just started wanting something that was simple yet elegant, and worked.

One thing I work with a lot is graphics and fonts. If there’s one thing that Macs excel at, it’s graphics and fonts (how they display as well as how they handle them). Also, I was beginning to be interested in music recording, and GarageBand got rave reviews, and I knew that if I went to Pro Tools eventually (and I did) I would want to get a firewire device to input to the computer/laptop. Well it’s hard to find built in firewire for PC laptops, and I really liked the look of the Macbook Pro, it was exactly what my old laptop wasn’t: light, yet powerful and well-built. Usually you can get 2 of the 3, but rarely all three. And I got a fourth thing: stylish. In a way that no other PC laptop could compare, at least at the price range. It helped that I got the academic price, so my 2.33GHz, 2GB RAM, 256MB VRAM, 120GB HD, 15.4” MBP which retails for $2499, I got for $1999.

There is, as Ron said, a learning curve. Many little things that you got used to in Windows are conspicuously absent in OSX. Resizing windows from any frame of the window is gone, you have to use the bottom right corner in OSX windows. The double clicking the top bar to expand the window to fill the whole screen, gone. It actually minimizes in OSX. I still haven’t figured out how OSX “figures out the correct window size” when you press the green + button on the top left of a window. Sometimes it does a good job, sometimes not. I do miss the Start Menu. Not because it’s pretty or anything, but I got used to keyboard shortcuts to start my most popular programs. But now I’ve put them all in the dock, and removed extraneous ones, so I guess it’s not too bad. But I am a keyboard shortcut kind of guy, and a lot of those do not translate well from Windows to OSX (or at all).

That aside, I would do the migration all over again if given the opportunity. The way that Pages (part of iWork) handles fonts, with automatic input of ligatures, is nothing short of brilliant. Word can’t even handle ligatures without doing a global find and replace, and then it screws up your spellcheck since Word thinks of ligatures as spelling errors. OSX’s graphical display of fonts in general (and anti-aliasing of them) is superior in every way. I know there are laptops with higher resolutions than my 1440x900, including my own Dell 20” LCD at home which is 1600x1200. But in none of them, even with all display/graphics settings to max performance and CoolType set to on, does the Windows display of fonts even come close to the eye-pleasing way OSX does it. I have access to thousands of Adobe fonts for both Win and Mac, and the Mac display is preferable in all instances. I still use Word for work, but for all creative writing (including this post, before I paste it into Safari) I use Pages.

I fully agree about the loss of Windows registry being a good thing. Heck a GREAT thing! And the way OSX handles program installs (simply dropping them into Apps folder, and sending them to Trash when no longer needed) is brilliant. The only remaining items may be a small preference file or folder which it places in your /user/Application Support folder, and that’s easy enough to delete, and they’re small enough so that if you leave it, no big thing. It’s not damaging at all to the system.

And I find Safari to be quite a good browser. No, it’s not as compatible as IE6 was (IE7 isn’t either), but I haven’t had a problem in 99% of the websites that I frequent, the one that I did (which likes to launch WMV files) had an easy workaround. And just like OSX, Safari renders fonts in that are much more "pleasing to the eye" on web pages than IE (or any other Windows browser) does.

There is no added iTunes functionality as far as I can tell, both Win and Mac versions do the same thing. But unsurprisingly, it just seems to work smoother, with less system load/drag, on OSX. And since I use iTunes a lot (to sync my iPod and manage my 4700 and growing song library) it makes a big difference to me, especially since it lets me do other things simultaneously with less of a speed penalty than on Windows. Oh, and backing up that 40+GB iTunes Library? Faster with the Firewire 400 output to my external HD. Just wish they didn’t take Firewire off of the freakin’ iPods.

HFS+ file system seems to handle file fragmentation much better than NTFS. I guess it has to since there’s not defragger on the Mac. But I’ve had my HD filled to 90% (it’s less now) with no noticeable slowdown, at least that I could tell from normal use. Now I’ve got about 20GB free on a 120GB HD and all is fine as of right now. And in 6+ months the system has run at about the same speed as the day I got it, despite installing many programs, and having 7 or 8 system updates. Contrast that with a 6 month span from Windows, which is often 20-30 updates. And after installing quite a few programs, Windows just starts to bog down for me. I find every 18 months or so I back everything up and reinstall Windows just to get it back to snappy.

I don’t miss Virus Scan. Thank goodness I no longer have to devote "X" amount of system resources and RAM to it. Ditto for Spyware software--talk about resource hogs!

The little UI graphical bonuses, while meaningless in terms of “usefulness” are still cool to my eyes. The “genie” effect when you minimize windows to the dock is cool. The little “splash” when you add a widget to the dashboard is neat. How exposé graphically separates then chooses windows is stylish. It’s just an advanced yet refined UI. I know Vista is bringing Windows a whole new look, but I can’t wait to see what Apple’s got in store with Leopard.

DVD Player for Apple is nice, and IMO better than WMP, but I do miss my Cyberlink PowerDVD for Windows (payware). Wish there was a counterpart for the Mac. I hear Apple is revamping DVD player for Leopard, here’s hoping. Apple’s player plays the movies back fine, I just miss little things like the A/B repeat, frame step backward, those kind of little things. And while it does a decent job deinterlacing, I do occasionally catch some errors. However with my new PS3 being the primary media player at home (for Blu-Ray and DVD), it is much less of an issue.

I miss the Thumbnail function of WinXP. Yes I know you can import it all to iPhoto and get even better photo handling, but I miss not having to launch an application to see a fairly large representation of your photos. I think Preview scales your photos poorly (the default choice when you double click on a picture in OSX), but iPhoto does a wonderful job of scaling/resizing.

The iLife suite, if you have a creative bone in your body, cannot be overstated. If you like to take Photos: iPhoto. Video editing: iMovie HD. DVD authoring: iDVD. Making/recording music: Garageband. Creating web pages: iWeb. All great programs, fully functional, not demos, and they’re all free with any new Mac. Though you will have to pay for upgrades (i.e. today’s Macs come with iWork 06, if iWork 07 or 08 comes out you will have to pay for it if you want to upgrade).

The Mac community is pretty large and helpful. Since it’s a closed system and a tight community, you can search out freeware or shareware with relative piece of mind that as long as you do your homework and read reviews, it’s not going to jack up your system. I know the user community is larger for Windows, but man there’s a lot of stuff out there that if you aren’t careful (and even if you are careful) can really screw with XP. Every freeware app or plugin I’ve tried has worked well with the Mac (Handbrake, Witch, Flip4Mac, VLC player, UnRarX, Ajoiner, MacMP3Gain).

So in summary, while there are indeed some things I miss from Windows, my overall Mac experience has been richer than my XP experience. I still use Windows for work (and my girlfriend uses it in our home desktop), but I do most of my personal computing on my Mac. The telling thing is that six months later, the novelty still hasn’t worn off. I look forward to working on my Mac when I’m away from it, at work, in the Windows environment. There isn’t one thing, a gimmick or a hook, that I look forward to. It’s the whole experience. I like the screen on my Mac. I like the keys and the way they feel. I like the UI. I like the programs. I like the performance. I like not having to worry about the programs, peripherals and compatibility issues. The creative work I have to do is hard enough (try recording a good take of a 4 minute guitar track when you’re only a mediocre talent like me!) without having to worry about if this music recording program works with that soundcard, and which firewire card to buy, etc.

As you can see, a lot of what I like about my Mac is subjective to me and my desires, my likes and dislikes. If you’re a hardcore gamer, or if the things that are important to me aren’t important to you (and vice versa), then the Mac probably isn’t the OS of choice for you. But for those who have similar interests and are looking to try something different, I highly encourage you to at least play with a friend’s Mac, or mess around in your local Apple Store with one. Or attend one of the free demos/workshops that Apple stores have all the time. Check it out, it just might be your cup of tea.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Carlo,

Excellent read.

I am still not even close to giving my total opinion on my
changeover to macintosh as a huge part of that review will
be based upon running VISTA through PARALLELS. Vista is
not released until next week.

I can say this based on my two-day experience thus far (most
of which I have stated already)....

I love the Macintosh OS. With Windows I had to go through
several layers of folders to get to the things I needed. Mac puts
it all up front. Most of the time, anything you need to access
(including system controls) are only one click away.

It's amazing how OS X offers more bells and whistles than
Windows Vista yet retains a very neat and professional look.
To me, Windows is merely a lot of eye candy with a lot less
functionality.

That being said, the biggest problem I find with my macintosh
is the software. There is no email program that comes close
to OUTLOOK 2007. The mail program that comes included is
very primitive for business use. Entourage is a dumbed down
version of Outlook. Anyone like myself that relies on business
stationary and the ability to change fonts within messages is
at a huge loss. I'm actually awaiting VISTA so I can run
OUTLOOK 2007 under it.

On the other hand, the graphics and software that is included with the
OS X seems to be much better quality than what you find on
Windows.

Installation and uninstall is a breeze. You simply drag an icon to
the APPS folder to install or drag it to the trash can to completely
uninstall. There is no registry in Mac OS X.

I found it absolutely amazing that my Logitech QuickCam
Pro 4000 is not compatible with the newest version of OS X.
Logitech has not indicated to me if they are working on drivers
or if I have to buy a new webcam.

I also had to buy a new wireless Apple keyboard to replace
my $200 Logitech diNovo media keyboard/pad simply because
I'm having problems performing many of the CTRL+A, CTRL+L,
CTRL+C and CTRL+V commands.

Although there has been a bit of frustration getting used to
my mac pro, I do find it quite challenging. I also love the fact
that I own a system that is not controlled by Windows, and thus,
will not crash or blue screen the way my current PC does.

 

[MarkHastings]

The odd thing is, on the Mac, when you save files with Photoshop, the file icon gets saved with a preview icon of the file. The PC version of Photoshop doesn't do this. The great thing with this on a Mac is, you can set your thumbnail sizes up to 128x128 pixels, so browsing Photoshop files is great.

 

[Bryan X]

My PC version of Photoshop (Elements admitedly) saves the preview as the icon. And Vista gives me icons as large as 256x256 -- which as you say is great for bwosing the files.

 

[Carlo_M]

I didn't describe Thumbnail right, I used the wrong term. OSX does allow full thumbnail (and a large variety of sizes of thumbs) capability.

It's Filmstrip display mode that I miss. This is when you open a folder w/ just pics and the thumbnails are in a bottom pane and the top pane (most of your screen) shows the photo but scaled properly to fit in the remaining window. I like this because it lets me see my photos in large size up top without having to open a separate app in XP.

I can get this by Selecting All in a Mac OSX folder, and then right clicking and selecting Slideshow. But then OSX does a weird thing: it displays the photos in preview in Random order! Even if you've got them named 1, 2, 3...etc. They still show up in random order. If OSX would put them in numerical filename order, like XP does, then it'd be perfect.

 

[Citizen87645]

Yes, this is annoying as hell and it's very strange to me why it would do this. I wound up installing FastPic to do simple slideshows from folders/selections.

When I was first getting set up I had a couple external hard drives that I formatted in Disk Utility as "MS Dos File System." I discovered that my photos would display randomly, even in FastPic, when being read from those drives. When I reformatted to Mac OS Extended/Journaled they displayed by filename.

 

[MarkHastings]

I think the Mac does as well, I might have been mistaken with the 128x128.

 

[Bryan X]

Strange it wouldn't do that on the 'full' version. I haven't had a 'regular' version of Photoshop since 5.0.

 

[Christian Behrens]

Anyone who loves keyboard shortcuts owes it to themselves to check out Quicksilver (it's free!).

You can thank me later!

-Christian

 

[Christian Behrens]

Just came across this: macam. Your camera is apparently supported.

-Christian

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Christian,

Nice try..appreciate it...but it does not work.

As I understand it, Logitech is working on drivers.

 

[David Williams]

Thanks for the macam tip, Christian. I have a really old usb Logitech and it works with the macam program itself, but I haven't been able to get it to workwith iChat yet.

 

[Thomas Newton]

In the MS DOS File System case, I can think of a reason. The original MS-DOS file system supports only 8.3-style names, so Windows had to engage in hacks to support long filenames on it. Maybe the sorting order that you saw was actually correct -- for the 8.3-style filenames, that is.

My external drive is in Mac OS X Extended (HFS+) format, so that shouldn't be an issue, but the Finder slideshows also are exhibiting random (or non-obvious) sorting behavior for me.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

The problem with webcams and other peripherals not working
right now is due to the new Intel based macs. Logitech has
not yet prepared drivers for these devices, nor has macam (as
indicated at the bottom of their webpage)

 

[Yumbo]

Change fonts in mail message?
Easily done? Click on the fonts button! It's a system feature for any app in OSX.

Though I switched back in 1992, I didn't switch apps proper until a few years ago. Just breaking habits. It's a familiarity thing.

Just take the leap. Half the things you thought were essential to your ROUTINE, was basically inefficiency.

I was a Netscape loyalist (tabs), then Safari caught up.
I was an Outlook, then Entourage, then finally Mail (for threaded messaging) user.

The ONLY thing I miss about Netscape Mail, was the network folder option. Apparently that will come in 10.5. I don't see the real advantage in using Apple Server just to centralise mail.

Anyone have ideas? I have 7 Macs, and want to store mail on just 1; and send from any.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Ron,

I'm glad you got a Mac. I think you will really enjoy it. I only wish I could use a MacBook Pro for work.

 

[Patrick Larkin]

Why can't you? I use a MacBook Pro which can dual boot Windows XP and MacOS X. The only thing I can see is that if you work in IT and need a serial port to work with switches or something.

 

[DaveF]

Well bother: it looks like OS 10.5 "Leopard" is not coming until June! http://arstechnica.com/journals/appl...2007/1/25/6762