A Question for Mac Converts

How easy was it to switch over to a Mac? What kind of difficulties were involved re: hardware/software compatibility, simply getting used to the OS?

I’ve been a PC user for a long time, but I now find myself in a media-intensive field in which everyone I meet seems to use a Mac, and most of the editing tools our department offers are Mac-only. It seems like in the long run, I’ll have no real choice about switching (or at least using both). I’d just like to know what to expect from the transition.

(I also realize this could be a common question. I searched for “macintosh, switch, and convert” over the past six months. If there’s a duplicate thread, I could benefit just as well from a link. Thanks.)

BTW, is there any way to get around having only one button on the mouse? Maybe a programmable USB mouse?

Though I am not a Mac convert, I have been using both platforms for the past twelve years–usually PCs as work and Macs at home. My Mac also runs Win 98 via the Virtual PC emulator, so I see the differences directly.

I think you will find far greater similarities among both machines–they both utilize the desktop metaphor and files and folders and run a lot of the same software (except for nich technical work, like your field). Windows seems to have slightly better “windowing” in that you can resize a window from any size. Mac can only be resized from the bottom right. But this is pretty minor.

I also tend to like the on-screen behavior of mouse actions(clicking and dragging etc.) on Macs a bit better.

Macs seem to be more intuitive, but Windows Explorer and Desktop are more functional then your uncustomized Mac Finder. That said, you can trick out your Mac with free and cheap shareware utilities that replicates and improves upon the Windows functions, so overall it can be another wash.

If your Mac is running the newer OS X, then it will provide the same multitasking pleasures of Windows. Mac OS 9 has mediocre multitasking as best, but it is faster than OS X for general navigation, though less visually attractive. The Windows transformation from say '98 to XP is a similar kind of visual improvement.

Windows applications seem to boot and perform faster, but the user experience just isn’t as engaging. Whether this matters depends on the context.

I still find Mac applications more consistent with eachother interface-wise as well. Windows toolbars can be less intuitive and amateurish as well.

USB and Firewire peripherals tend to work out-of-the box with Macs, whereas Windows machines involves hunting for drivers. Yuck.

All that being said, you will master the Mac experience fairly shortly.

Regarding the single button mouse–Macs work great with USB multibutton mice–I am writing this with the help of the MS 5-button programmable mouse. If you cannot upgrade your basic one-button Mac mouse, do realize that the “right-click” Windows functions are known in the Mac world as “contextual menus” and are accessible by holding down the control key. You can also get free or cheap utilities that allow you to activate the right-click functions by holding down the single button for a little longer bit of time and then navigating as usual. It actually works pretty good, but I have become addicted to the right-click as well.

For more information I suggest you try Google Mac-centric search.

Good luck, it’s the work and not the tool that really matters.

Geoduck seemed to cover so much so masterfully, there’s not much for me to add!

I “switched” about 3 years ago. Though I still own a PC (just got a new XP machine). My first Mac was an old PowerMac running OS 8.1, so things were different for me than it will be for someone who is “switching” to OS X. I am now working on a G4 running OS X, and I am very happy! :slight_smile:

During my first days using my little PowerMac, I remember missing the right-click terribly. As Geoduck points out, this is easily remedied by getting a third-party 2-button mouse. I now use the one that is attached to my Wacom tablet. It’s fabulous.

There were a lot of things I immediately liked much about the Mac OS when I first started using it (installing new hardware was a breeze compared to Windows). But still, it took a little while for me to adjust. It wasn’t a traumatic adjustment, of course, but it took time! I simply was patient with myself, and read some Mac books. “The Macintosh Bible” or “Mac OS X: The Missing Manual” might be a good place to start if you are convinced you’re going to learn how to use the Mac.

I can’t comment on what it’s like to switch to the Mac OS, as the Mac the first computer I’ve both used and owned. I can, however, provide links and and a response to the mouse question.

A Windows User’s Guide To The Mac OS

The information is based on OS 9 and earlier, but it still gives a nice run-down of Mac stuff. OS X has a more colorful look and is based on UNIX; therefore, it has some fundamental differences. It’s still an easy to use OS, though. (On preview I see that yosemitebabe has sneaked past me :wink: and mentioned the Missing Manual series. You can’t go wrong with that series.)

Re: the mouse. When I ordered my iMac three years ago, I didn’t even entertain the thought of using that silly hockey puck mouse. I bought a Kensington USB programmable 3-button mouse. It got replaced with a Logitech USB cordless optical programmable 3-button mouse this past summer, and it’s the best mouse I’ve ever used.

Power Macs (the desktop, non-integrated monitor machines) come with an oval-ish clear mouse, dissimilar from the round iMac one, but I believe it still has only one button. If I were you, I’d opt for another mouse.

That’s my 2¢. I hope you find the answers you’re looking for.

One thing I forgot to mention. While this is wonderfully true* when it comes to new peripherals, you may run into problems if you plan to use older USB hardware with your Mac running OS X. For example, I have a Canon scanner that’s newer than my computer, but I’m not able to use it under OS X for lack of drivers. Fortunately, my hard drive is partitioned, and I can use the scanner if I run OS 9. However, not everyone has this setup, and for some people, the scanner would be useless.

Ditto for some software and OS X compatibility. While most major applications (MS Office apps, Adobe and Macromedia apps) have OS X versions, some older software might have iffy or nonexistent OS X compatibility and little prospect for future support. I can’t play Diablo 2 under OS X, for example, as reports are the patch that allows for OS X play sucks big time.

But if you’ll be using new or relatively new peripherals and software, you should have no problem.
[sub]*= I got a CD-RW drive and an external hard drive to work under OS X without installing any software at all. I didn’t expect them to, as they were ostensibly for PCs, and so far as I could tell no one else had tried using the drives with a Mac. But they worked. Go me.[/sub]

Yes, Audrey! It is so delightful to just be able to plug something in and it WORKS! WOW. I love this about Mac. It’s not a 100% all of the time, but moreso, I think, than with Windows. (Though XP is getting better.)

AudreyK, have you tried the sharware “VueScan” with that scanner? It often works on scanners that don’t have specific drivers available. Look for it on versiontracker. (It also has a way better interface than most of the cheap software that comes with scanners.)

Thanks for the info, drewbert. I’m checking out the website and VT’s user feedback now. Unfortunately, I’m not sure VueScan will work for me. My scanner model, the CanoScan FB630Ui, isn’t listed as supported (although the 630U is). Also, I’m not sure I want to pay $40 for a scanner I don’t use very often to begin with. Since I’ve only had a handful of items I’ve needed scanned in the past year, I was hoping for a free driver update.

Still, I do appreciate you bringing it to my attention. :slight_smile:

I am no more than an “advanced computer user.” I have no expertise, I’m familiar with a lot of computer issues, and probably know more than 95% of other humans do about computers, but am probably in the middle of the SDMB bell curve on computer knowledge.

That said, a Mac is nice, but price is a killer. THE killer. The only issue I have with my wife is that she insisted on getting a mac, which cost 4X as much as a twice as powerful PC which would have played ANY game I wanted, as opposed to our G4 cube, which is invisible to game developers. She doesn’t NEED a Mac, she just hates Bill Gates.

We’ll be paying $52. per month for infinity on this fucking machine. It’s good, and if you have no issue with money AND access to a PC if needed, go for it. Otherwise, spend the money on a bleeding-edge PC box.

hrh

I will try to be very polite and please forgive a bit of sarcasm from me (I can’t help myself). :slight_smile: I really don’t think you meant this to sound like quite so much of an anti-Mac post. But I have to ask: did you actually read the OP?

Where did he say that he wanted to use a Mac to play games?

He wants (or rather, feels it inevitable that he will) to learn a Mac because he is in a creative industry that uses primarily Macs. A creative industry, I might add, that uses applications that are MAC ONLY.

No mention of games.

But will this bleeding-edge PC box run Final Cut Pro? Oh wait…let’s check those technical specs—do you see Windows listed in the system requirements? No? There’s a reason for that. It doesn’t run on PCs. Yet it is considered to be an excellent program and the application of choice for many creative folk. (Not that I know whether or not the OP will be using it, but he or she will be using a Mac-only app—hence the question about using Macs.)

I guess you could call me a convert…

I recently purchased an iBook as my first laptop computer, and I love it. I haven’t given up my other computers, but I use the iBook when I’m on the go. Overall, using it has been very easy. Most common applications are ported to both platforms (MS Office, many mail clients, etc.), so dealing with those is the same.

Loading programs does take a bit longer, but my gut feeling is that this is due to poor portability, not due to innate slowness on the part of the Mac. Once started, the performance of the 700MHz G3 chip in mine is comparable to the 1.2 GHz Duron proc in my main desktop machine. I’d imagine, though, that if you will be doing any serious artistic work on a Mac, you’d get a buffed out G4 (or two), and it would be plenty fast.

The interface is very easy to use, and I already like it better than Windows. (I’ve had my Mac for about 2 weeks).

As others have mentioned, you can get a multi-button mouse to work. In fact, my generic USB 3 button mouse worked as soon as I plugged it in.

As far as stability goes, My experience has been that it is somewhat less stable than Windows XP, but I suspect that this is mostly due to my newbieness with the OS (and not remembering that I only have 128M of (slow) memory to play with). I think it’s crashed on me about 3 times these 2 weeks (of rather heavy use, as I’m trying lots of things out).

Also, if you’ve had any experience with UNIX, it is a true thrill to be able to open up a terminal window and execute some commands on the good ol’ command line.

iamthewalrus:

I think the instability of OS X most definitely is only having 128 MBs of RAM. That’s the bare minimum to run the OS!

I have a G4 533 with 1.12 GB of RAM (yes that’s a lot, but Photoshop loves it!), and OS X hasn’t crashed on me since I got this Mac on eBay over 6 months ago. Once in a while an app will quit, but it can be relaunched right away and all is fine. My other G4 (an old 400 MHz) has 512 MB of RAM, and once again, OS X has never crashed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was in a cranky mood and wanted to vent about how damn expensive this machine is. I know it wasn’t 100% on topic. Life’s rough sometimes, huh?

hrh

It might be worth checking out Apples How To Switch site.

One thing IMO that the PC has over the Mac is the user’s ability to name files that would have similar names to other files without retyping the who filename.

Like when I’m working on several graphics files related to the same item. The first one is M09MEA0112-1.eps. I want to name the next one M09MEA0112-2.eps. But I can’t click on the first file name and change it in Mac.

But that’s just me.

Er, yes you can. Click on the file’s name, and once it’s editable, change the file’s name. Or change it through the Save As… method. You don’t need to retype the whole file name, just the part you want to change.

AudreyK is correct on this aspect of file renaming, but Knowed Out triggered my peeve about one file naming function that Windows does that I really really really wish Macs could do: rename a file from a “file open” or “file save” dialog box within an application.

It is maddening to have to close the dialog box, go back out to the Finder and then dig up the correct folder window, do the rename, and then return to the application. It’s gotta be possible to fix this, but I don’t even know of any spiffy utility that can provide this functionality.

Can’t do this on OS9. File name’s greyed.

We are now in the era of OS X. OS 9 no longer gets updated by Apple.

Actually, Knowed, without seeing the exact context of your attempts at file name changing, I really can’t say whether it’s possible or not. I think I understand what you mean, and it’s not what I originally thought you meant.