# Help a PC guy understand a Mac **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424 "2012-10-21T15:56:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/21 "2012-10-26T01:34:08Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > iPhoto may organize your photos in a way that suits you _within iPhoto_ (and allow you to access them from other iLife applications, and do the other things that _Apple’s decided_ you might like to do with them), but take a look inside your iPhoto Library file: each one of your 30,000+ photos has multiple copies in there hogging hard disk space for no very good reason. If that sort of thing bothers you, the option to turn off the copying of pictures into your iPhoto library is located in the Advanced tab of the iPhoto Preferences. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/22 "2012-10-26T01:45:58Z")
iPhoto does nothing for me that [GraphicConverter](http://www.lemkesoft.com/) doesn’t do a hell of a lot better. And it doesn’t behave as if it thinks it knows better than I do where to store my goddam files. Replacing iTunes is trickier. They seriously need some modern competition. I’m still using Audion (and, therefore, Rosetta and, therefore, Snow Leopard) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/23 "2012-10-26T02:13:08Z")
Even we Mac people had a steep learning curve of our own, switching from OS9 to OSX. But everything new eventually became simple. I could not go back to OS9, and hope I never need to. And I agree, iTunes and iPhoto are the devil’s spawn, especially iTunes, and especially transferring from a (PowerPC) G5 to an (Intel) Mac Pro. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/24 "2012-10-26T02:16:38Z")
> [@tomcar](#): > > \ > To complain about minor differences says more about you then it says about the hardware/software. > Spoiler! > It says you are an old dog that has trouble learning new tricks 😉 I disagree - I’ve worked as an office administrator for 15 years now, and I’m very good at organizing my files on my hard drive so things don’t get lost. My Mac is not as good at it as I am, in spite of Apple thinking that they know better than I do how I want my files organized. The multiple copies thing is quite irritating, too. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/25 "2012-10-26T05:46:36Z")
I’ve never used iPhoto because I’ve been using [QPict](http://qpict.com/) since Mac OS 8. It rocks. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/26 "2012-10-26T05:54:32Z")
I use the terminal more than anything, but one thing that always bothered me immensely about the Mac gui is that when you close all the windows you do NOT terminate the process, you have to go down the dock and specially “quit” it. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/27 "2012-10-26T06:40:32Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I use the terminal more than anything, but one thing that always bothered me immensely about the Mac gui is that when you close all the windows you do NOT terminate the process, you have to go down the dock and specially “quit” it. I got used to that very quickly - given that you use Terminal so much, why don’t you just quit the application with Cmd-Q rather than click all over the screen closing multiple windows and closing the program from the dock? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/28 "2012-10-26T07:49:40Z")
Actually, I usually just do top-\>kill pid now. ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/29 "2012-10-26T11:37:40Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I use the terminal more than anything, but one thing that always bothered me immensely about the Mac gui is that when you close all the windows you do NOT terminate the process, you have to go down the dock and specially “quit” it. Command - q This is the 1st keyboard shortcut you learn. ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/30 "2012-10-26T11:47:50Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I disagree - I’ve worked as an office administrator for 15 years now, and I’m very good at organizing my files on my hard drive so things don’t get lost. My Mac is not as good at it as I am, in spite of Apple thinking that they know better than I do how I want my files organized. The multiple copies thing is quite irritating, too. But you made my point for me. You have done something for so long, a new system drives you nuts… but I get it. I just find Apple haters funny. “My old car’s headlight button is on the left side, why do these foreign cars put it on the right?” or something like that… ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/31 "2012-10-26T16:03:49Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I use the terminal more than anything, but one thing that always bothered me immensely about the Mac gui is that when you close all the windows you do NOT terminate the process, you have to go down the dock and specially “quit” it. Exact opposite problem going from Mac to Windows: "Dammit, why do I have to keep relaunching everything? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/32 "2012-10-26T21:43:16Z")
> [@tomcar](#): > > Command - q > > This is the 1st keyboard shortcut you learn. . . . after Command Z. ---
**Author:** ![JinaMotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@JinaMotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JinaMotter)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/33 "2012-10-26T22:00:03Z")
Youtube has all the answers ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/34 "2012-10-27T07:25:25Z")
> [@tomcar](#): > > But you made my point for me. You have done something for so long, a new system drives you nuts… but I get it. I just find Apple haters funny. > “My old car’s headlight button is on the left side, why do these foreign cars put it on the right?” or something like that… No, she didn’t. She stated that her system is more efficient than the one Apple imposes on you. She did not say she had trouble using the other system, just that it was less efficient. The problem is that a computer program has no right to tell you how to do things. It is a tool designed to be used by you. It’s like having a hammer that’s head falls off if you tilt it back, and so the manufacturer says you can’t tilt it back. Yet people accept this in software. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424/35 "2012-10-27T17:34:10Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > No, she didn’t. She stated that her system is more efficient than the one Apple imposes on you. She did not say she had trouble using the other system, just that it was less efficient. > > The problem is that a computer program has no right to tell you how to do things. It is a tool designed to be used by you. It’s like having a hammer that’s head falls off if you tilt it back, and so the manufacturer says you can’t tilt it back. Yet people accept this in software. Apple does not impose a file management system on you. In applications like iTunes and iPhoto, you have options to let it manage the system for you, but you can turn those options off. If you do, then you have the same folder hierarchy system used by every computer system that I know of. As for the hammer example… yes, that’s exactly why I’ve generally preferred Apple. Microsoft says “Just don’t tilt it back” while Apple says “Let’s build a hammer that works… no, wait… we don’t need either hammers or nails if we redesign the boards. Let’s just build boards that work.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-pc-guy-understand-a-mac/638424.md?page=1)