Comments on: Are You Scared to Make the Mac Move?

By: Taryn Merrick

Taryn Merrick — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:50:22 +0000

I am a Mac based Virtual Assistant and help clients make the switch to Mac from PC. This article is a great resource to have in hand to present to them when they are on the fence about switching. Thanks!

By: Joelg88

Joelg88 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:25:45 +0000

This is a great Top 5 List. This is what people need to hear when there thinking about making the switch. When people start talking about the price they need to put good thought into what they’re buying, A great computer with a Great OS that Are made to work perfectly with each other. OS X is great for “Office” Work with it’s great organization and stability. 2 things that you really need with office work. Also as you mentioned it is easy to install and uninstall software. The only problem with that is that removed apps will leave junk behind that can cause your computer to run slower than usual. Thats why its a good idea to get a app like App Zapper or free equivalent to get rid of the left behind junk.
Overall great list. Good Job.

By: jake3_14

jake3_14 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:56:15 +0000

The blog software deleted a key part of my post. Where there appears Alt+, it should say Alt+[letter].

The reason I use keyboard shortcuts so much, BTW is RSI injury. The less I use a mouse, the better.

By: Neurotic Nomad

Neurotic Nomad — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:39:45 +0000

@jake3_14 – The crux of your complaint is:
It’s not how I’m used to doing it.

Well, your three choices are:
1. Adapt
2. Go back to your old way.
3. Change your computer.

You’ve mentioned a very complex (and MS-think way) of accomplishing #3.

I suggest you look into Quicksilver before you hurt yourself or your machine.

By: Neurotic Nomad

Neurotic Nomad — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:33:22 +0000

Earlier his week, I sent this e-mail to a friend of mine:

Subject: Seriously. Buy a Mac, already.
Body: I know you need a car. I know you need the lower half of your body replaced. I know that you have to eat.
But, seriously… buy a Mac mini. You won’t regret it. Food and the ability to walk are overrated.

The learning curve is tolerable, the support system is grand, and the platform is crazy-full of photographer’s goodies.

Screw Photoshop and Lightroom. Use Graphics Converter and iPhoto, or Gimp and Picasa,
or PixelMator (http://www.pixelmator.com/) and Shoebox (http://www.kavasoft.com/Shoebox/)...

Buy the base model mini and upgrade it later with parts from http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/mac-mini/

It’s worth the $600. It’s not a speed demon, and it’s no gamer’s box – but it will do everything you want it to do.

You don’t even have to switch to the Mac full time with a Mac mini. It can be your photo and music center (I’m sure you’ll be syncing your iPhone pictures to it, so it may as well house your paltry music collection as well), available at the turn of a knob on a cheap Keyboard/Video/Mouse switch.

There is no need to step out of your comfort zone for “everything else” while you find a home for all your pictures.

…you know you wanna….

Who needs hips anyway?

- NN

Last night I got the call…. she got the mini.

By: jake3_14

jake3_14 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:02:41 +0000

I have been a long-time Windows user, and in fact, a power user of MS Word. I recently took on a contract at Apple, and started using the Mac versions of MS apps. At this point, I have to say that the keyboard acceleration facilities of Windows enables me to be 25% more productive on that platform than on the Mac.

The Mac versions of the MS apps have a few keyboard shortcuts built in, plus the Mac Ctrl-F2 accelerator that lets you maneuver clumsily about the app. menus. Windows, by contrast, lets you activate a menu in any app. by pressing Alt+. The next Alt+ combination executes a menu command (shown as an underlined letter in the menu choice) or opens a daughter menu. Therefore, all commands are *easily* accessible from the keyboard within 1-2 seconds, usually without having to take one’s hands off of the “home” row.

I could, in theory, build my own keyboard shortcuts for the Mac versions of the MS apps, if the Mac MS version of the macro recorder recorded mouse actions in menus, like its Windows counterpart. Sadly, however, it doesn’t. Moreover, I don’t want to waste my time building custom key commands when the OS should provide a generic mechanism for such operations.

I would be open to changing my mind if I could find a utility that provides a global menu access keyboard acceleration method. Until then, I remain a fan of Windows.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:09:46 +0000

“they do crash, but no way as regularly as a Windows machine might”
Why can’t people shake Window’s BSOD image? I have been running Vista as my main OS for over a year now, and have not had a single crash. This may be because I’m not using any old/unsupported peripherals, but regardless I’ve personally had nothing but good experiences with Vista. It certainly doesn’t regularly crash!

By: Partners in Grime

Partners in Grime — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:34:57 +0000

Mac OS X is stable. I have 24 Grade 4 students using iBooks with Mac OS X 10.4.11 pounding on applications such as iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb, Keynote, Pages, and GarageBand for approximately three hours a day. I booted the computers in September, gave them to the students and haven’t rebooted since … they’re in the 90+ days range now without a restart.

By: Ron Knights

Ron Knights — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:30:54 +0000

That’s another great article.

I confess I bought iLife back in 2007 when I bought my iMac.. I’ve never used it.

By: Matthew Hillyer

Matthew Hillyer — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:33:24 +0000

I made the switch as soon as Apple started using the intel chip. I figured if OSX wasn’t living up to my standards I’d still have a nice laptop and load windows in boot camp and never look back.

OSX won me over right away – for my PC needs I use Parallels in coherence mode, basically this allows me to run windows apps in a VM, but in coherence mode each app is in it’s own window, just like on a PC. I use outlook daily for work and it runs great, along with office 03 and my VPN client for work.

Making the switch to mac was a great move for me – just remember, Mac, PC or some form of UNIX/LINUX a computer is a computer – it’s not 100% nor 100% secure.

By: Kit

Kit — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:55:05 +0000

That is a very good article, and having recently won a bid on a early 2007 MacBook Core 2 Duo machine, I am looking forward to trying Secrets! Also, I loved the description of the Finder as a “happy little icon” it cute. And I like cute. (=] x 9999999)

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:54:02 +0000

Very nice post. I have been using leopard since it came out, and have never had a “kernel panic” crash on my laptop! (i got it alot with an old iMac running panther)

By: Zero’s Gaming Place

Zero’s Gaming Place — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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