Is it hard to learn on a Mac if you have been with a PC all your life??!!

I have been using my MacBook for about 2 weeks now and its my first experience with OS X. I have used windows for years (and linux briefly due to curiosity).

I can say that switching to OS X has been extremely easy. Everything works just as you would expect it to...

I can agree that its the small thigns that will niggle the most - for instance, where is my maximise button?! I can understand the green + button doing what it does when you use it with itunes or calculator - switching between different views (scientific/standard or miniplayer/standard window), however it just feels natural to make a broweser window fill the whole screen...

Another thing is that when you do click on the X in the top left corner of a window, it doens't always close the program like you expect - you have to close it from the menu at the top of the screen.

Having said that, I really do prefer mac OSX - and its the small differences that I like too - for instance, it seems on every application that hitting option-, brings up preferences, which is great, you dont have to crawl through various menus to find where all the setting for that application are.

another thing - installing applications... just dragging an icon into the applications folder - it couldn't be simpler, and uninstalling is just as simple (dragging an icon into the trash).

Something else really handy is the syncronisation with just about every device i own - mobile phone and ipod are both syncronised automatically, so all my contacts and calenders are kept on several devices, and also sent online to my .mac account. It would be nice to see all of these things kept inside one application though - I find it frustrating that itunes syncs my ipod, isync syncs my mobile, and the system preferences pane syncronises my .mac account - why not have it all in iSync??

Oh, and the fantastic apps that come with OSX also help the switch - iphoto, imovie, itunes (which i'm sure you've probably used on windows) are all fantastic applications which work seamlessly.

And dashboard is really cool too, just a quick button press and you have whatever information you need - weather forecasts, the time in different countries, battery status, wikipedia searches, itunes artwork, contact list status, and jsut about anything you can think of. I can see dashboard being overlooked by people but it really is useful.

oh and by the way, if a browser window not maximising really does bother you then you can get an add on for safari called saft which has an option to automatically maximise every new browser window - which makes me feel nicely at home 🙂

Andrew

I wouldn't necessarily switch, but I would phase into the Mac. Because we turned into a PC shop about four years ago, I had to learn Windows XP. At least XP is far more human-friendly than its predecessors. I began to enjoy the challenge and ended up buying a Dell 8400 Tower, hooked it up to a KVM switch and "married" it and my Mac G4 Tower together using a common keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Life was good.

The "switch" part for a Mac user to a PC is usually far easier in my observations. A PCer to a Mac goes through a bit more frustration. WHY? It is just the simple things that are different.

First, check this out:
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

Then go through this:
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/

Here are my observations that I noticed on myself. I was so immersed into XP at work, that I didn't use my Mac for a couple of months (gasp!), but I was determined to break into that system, or I'd be a failure, or a "mere work-place PC user" and I am beyond that.

* Windows users live and swear by the right mouse button---rightfully so. Many options are there. Likewise, the Mac, when used with a USB third party mouse, or Mighty Mouse, has a similiar option. But, the Mac has avoided the right mouse button for decades. The new MacBooks now with some two-finger magic, will give you a rather neat "pretend" right mouse button on the track pad, but you have to train yourself slightly.

* Where are my files???????? The MY DOCUMENTS and other dedicated folders that handily sit on your XP desktop are gone. Not there. Be sure to learn how to get to dedicated folders. The Mac designers are wanting to wean us away from looking for files, rather than using them. They'd prefer us loading up iPhoto and working photos from there, rather than going directly to the "XP" MY PICTURES direcctory. I still find the Mac way of doing this rather awkward. The old rebel in me prefers to do it "my way" and I do, but it is just "different."

* Copying an application/file I am used to right-clicking on an item/application, etc., selecting COPY and then PASTING it to a destination folder, all with my mouse, with just one finger. The Mac supports this but only slightly. Dragging and dropping is still the Mac norm for much of this. Sometimes I will get from my Mac: COPY ITEM, and sometimes I don't. I have just learned to dance around this enough that I haven't tried to figure out the criteria, yet.

* Where's my STARTUP menu???? Don't need no stinkin' startup menu! Read in the tutorials about the DOCK and some of the drop down menus at the top. Make friends heavily with the dock and drop down menus. Ignore SERVICES in the drop down menu. For years, I have tried to figure that option out but either I'm too stupid or it just doesn't work.
* How do you uninstall stuff???? I don't see an uninstaller!For the most part, you don't need one. Just grab the application icon and drag it to the trash. How can this be so? Think of AUTORUN on a PC directory. You click on it and a program begins to run. The application icon that you see on a Mac is quite similiar. Everything typically lives in side of there. Little script files that reside elsewhere won't affect anything else---typically. In short, you don't need an uninstaller unless an application has provided one.
* Where's my RESTORE option????Simple. There ain't one. I so wish we had this for the Mac. I can't help but think we could since the hard drives for the Macs are Journalled. But, if I place a flaky piece of software on my Mac, and it craters my Mac, a RESTORE [to previous date/point] would be so amazingly good. XP works fairly well with this. Mac users who have never seen the option just don't understand. This option is almost "Mac-like." Oh, I wish we had it.

That's it! It is fun. It is new, and yet familiar. Go slowly, go with the URLs above. The Mac is simply an awesome platform, but we have the right to nick-pick...

the adaptation stage and progress is depend on each individual, so faster on ones could be forever on others.

But most of the switcher are not having a lot of trouble since OS X is quite user friendly , and as soon you mastering their behavior and what instruction is differ from pc side, you can pick up the pace yourself.

And for presentation, which software you planning to use, but it might have a "save as" quicktime feature in it.

Good Luck

Is a Mac hard to learn? If you know how to use Windows you have already learned a large number of the things you need to know. You'll find differences, for example you'll notice that the zoom and close window buttons are on the 'wrong side' of the windows. You'll try to use the control key to perform a shortcut - we use the command key instead.

Actually, one of the toughest things that Switchers run into is that the Mac and WIndows are so similar and the differences often so subtle that you'll find yourself frustrated sometimes because you were 'thinking Windows' instead of thinking 'Mac'. This fades over the first couple weeks.

Will you be satisfied? Hard to say. On any given day I'd rather use my Mac than my PC but that's me.

If you intend to work on a Mac but give presentations on a PC it would be smart to use the same software - when possible - as is being used at work or school. That being the case, create presentations in PowerPoint and they'll open in Windows.

This is actually my very first apple computer, but I've had some experience with the old OS 9 systems. It's just so easy I never understand what people talk about when they say that macs aren't user-friendly. It works, and works well. Files and programs are no harder to find or use and I personally like the layout of the Mac OS better than windows.

It's a fact, we live in a Windows world. While the OSX operating system is beautiful and very user friendly, it's not always compatable with all of the applications and internet funtions you may be used to coming from windows. Video applications are a good example. While there are programs that will allow you to view most video file types, you'll find that watching streaming videos online may be a problem. In my opinion Apple takes a form following function approach to many of it's products. But at the same time they are usually on the cutting edge of the funtion end, if that makes any sense. You may not get all of the bells and whistles you may get with a Windows machine, but what you do get is a beautiful and smooth operating computer with an equally smooth operating system. The only thing that may take some getting used to is troubleshooting a problem, which hopfully you'll have fewer of.
Brian

I was in the same situation as you( using a PC my whole life) and then I bought a MacBook and it was so easy to make the transition.

The Apple layout is so user friendly that it makes it almost impossible to no not how to use it.

If you deicide to get one then just play around with it and you will soon get used to it.

Hope you get one!


Sam

Basically everything is very similar IMO. Just how you install applications is quite different. You don't install/uninstall programs. You just drag and drop the program to the application folder then you're done. It's weird at first.

It's not too bad. Hardest part is figuring out the software issues. Many programs I used for Windows do not have a Mac version. Even with bootcamp I can't get certain things to run like Nero CD software. One of my favorite photo app, Picasa, is not available for Mac. If you have a Intel based Mac, you can reboot into Windows and use some apps, but that isn't what I bought a Mac for.
My biggest nit to date after switching some four weeks ago? When I click the red X in the upper left, I want the program closed! Mac just "hides" it until I pull down from the menu bar and close. Maybe I'm missing something, but that makes the red X the same as the minimize!

Mini Mac OS X (10.4)

i've also been a pc user all my life, except in the way way beginning when i was a commadore 64 user 🙂

switching has been easier than i expected. i set up dual boot into xp an my macbook just in case i freaked, but as of yesterday, i removed xp from the drive to free up room and remove the ugly xp harddrive from my OS X desktop.

one thing that i find nice (albiet a bit hard to get used to at first) is that OS X has a tendency to duplicate files a lot. for instance, let's say you downloaded a music file into your desktop. well, if you click on that file, it'll play in itunes, but it'll also make a copy of that file into the itunes folder. so you can then delete the file from your desktop. very cool, but also takes getting used to. at first, i had all these duplicate files in itunes or iphoto. figuring out where OS X wants to "put" things, i'm still getting used to that...

but overall, i wouldn't hesitate to advocate switching and in fact, i've been advocating switching to a bunch of my friends who are in the market for a new computer or notebook.

OS X has a tendency to duplicate files a lot

Actually what you refer to is a feature of iTunes that exists on both Windows and the Mac. If you want to stop it, open iTunes and select Preferences and then the advanced tab. Click off "Copy files to iTunes when adding to Library"

On two other occasions OS X will copy rather than move a file. First, if you attempt to move a file from one volume to another (for volume, think hard drive). The other is when you try to move a file into a folder to which your rights are limited to 'write' - for example, the Drop Box of another user's Public Folder.

In 2002, I was the ultimate PC user. I was a high school student and that is all that we used in school. When the Flat Panel iMac came out I instantly fell in love with the design. I HAD TO HAVE ONE! So, later that week when it came out, I ordered one without even knowing that it did not run XP! (How messed up is that?) But, I loved the MAC OS system. Yes, it will be kind of hard, but once you play around with it everyday you will love how everything is organized and displayed.

Trust me- once you go MAC, you'll never go back.

When I click the red X in the upper left, I want the program closed!

And this is one of the aspects of Windows that drives Mac users nuts. Back in the old days I remember a Windows developer converted one of their programs for the Mac and got soundly smacked across the knuckles by every reviewer for quitting the program when the last window was closed.

If I am using Word and close all the document windows am I really saying I'm done with Word? A Mac user would say, "No, I'm clearing the decks before starting a new document." A Windows user would say, "If I wanted to start a new document I'd start a new document, not close all the windows. I close the windows when I'm done!" And so it goes.

Maybe I'm missing something, but that makes the red X the same as the minimize!

Your impression that the X is a minimizer is based on the old Windows concept of the 'Application Layer'. For some reason, instead of putting the menubar at the top of the monitor and leaving it there, Microsoft created an application layer and put the menubar on it. The application layer can be minimized and moved around the screen meaning the menubar can move around and the windows can only rest atop that layer. Some Windows programs let you close every document window until only the application layer is left while others shut the program down when the last document window is closed.

The application layer has never made the least bit of sense to me - especially the part about letting the menubar move from the top of the screen. But given that it does exist, if the program allows you to shut every document window leaving only the bare application layer, it does make sense that closing the application layer quits the program. But that's the only time it makes sense.

The MY DOCUMENTS and other dedicated folders that handily sit on your XP desktop are gone. Not there. Be sure to learn how to get to dedicated folders.

True, unlike Windows, the Mac desktop isn't the dumping ground for every application and folder shortcut. But that doesn't mean the user's document folder doesn't exist or isn't easy to get to. First, you can create an alias (think shortcut) of any folder you want on your desktop. Second, and I think a better solution, the window pane to the left of each Finder window can contain any folder you want. It defaults to a group of user folders but you can add your own or drag any out you don't want.

The Mac designers are wanting to wean us away from looking for files, rather than using them.

And the day is coming when that will make more sense than looking for a file by navigating folders. As we have more and more files it does become more difficult/time consuming to drill down looking for files. Over a three year cycle I teach 12 classes. For each class I have a multitude of files that are the finished product as well as all the separate files that went into making the finished product - not to mention the research, clippings, notes, and PDFs that relate to that lessons. Several years ago I found that DevonThink did a better job of organizing all this than the Finder did.

iPhoto is another example of this. For years I kept my digital (and scanned) pictures in Finder folders organized by year. Sometimes a year folder was further organized by month or event but that was quite haphazard. And since hard drive space was always at a premium I didn't have any index with a nice sized thumb nail of each photo. When I wanted to search those files I either had to look at small thumb nails or index the pictures temporarily or randomly load them into Photoshop. iPhoto is just one of several solutions to this problem. In fact, one of my students actually explained to another student - Think of iPhoto as the Finder for Photos.

Where's my Restore function?

The biggest reason that the Mac doesn't have a restore function is that we don't have a mangy Registry to get fouled up at the worst possible moment. Would a Restore function be nice? Personally and professionally I'd have used it twice in the last 5 years - actually I'd have liked having it much more in the old pre OS X days. In those same 5 years I can't count the number of times Restore and the commercial (what was it called, Rewind?) failed to do the job.

It'll feel really odd for about a week.

Then it'll start to "click", as you'll get acclimated to the environment, where things are, etc... You'll start developing "muscle memory" for keyboard shortcuts you use often.

I may have had a bit of a leg up, since I grew up on DOS rather than Windows, and heavily use linux/unix in my day job.

After a month or so, for me, it felt really weird going back and using a Windows machine.

As for presentations, I'd assume you're talking about Powerpoint-style stuff. Powerpoint is available for the Mac as part of Office 2004. There's also Keynote, which is an Apple-branded presentation application which works similarly. I believe you could do an export of a presentation as Quicktime if you wanted to, but it's probably not necessary =)