Going mac

For the next 21 days or so I'm gonna write brief snippets about my experiences going mac. This is as much for me as anyone interested. I have a couple of super-geek buddies that have done this in the past few years and I'll post a bunch of useful – or useless links – along the way.

Before I start I'll make some admissions. I have always thought macs were great, but over hyped. I think they are shiny and beautiful in every way – which makes people who use them feel they are better than they actually are. Aesthetics count for sooo much, they make experience fun and if its fun you perceive it to be better and in these kinds of cases I think perceptions make things true.

I'm currently on day 3 of mac-ing. So I'll roll up a few days into one here.

  • Unpacking and setup was breeze
  • I was blown away by the display (27" imac)… I set it up near the TV and it made me realize I need a new TV :(
  • I struggled with some typical window user angst,
  • I couldn't turn it on, had to read the manual to find out how
  • It seemed super easy and slick installing apps, but when I restarted I couldn't find them again. I still don't know why they didn't go to the application folder. I still seem to need to install things twice to get them to show up there. I don't find the system gives me good feedback about what I'm doing and have done. Sometimes windows treats you like an idiot, but I guess I've become comfortable with that feedback and the continual prompts "are you sure you want to do this?"
  • It took me a bit to figure out right clicking, its an essential behaviour to me. Got it now and I'm right clicking away. I like the idea of 'making interfaces direct' I think right click does that really well.
  • Installed Microsoft Office, I hate the new Ribbon interface in Office on Windows. On mac its all different, I don't have a clue what to do and haven't really figured it out– granted it's only been a few minutes. I figured out how to edit a spreadsheet. I hated that the basic formatting stuff was not on the toolbar. But the startup screens were so beautiful they made me like it better almost based on those graphics alone. I was comforted
  • I have no idea if I'm moving files or copying files. 
  • Dropbox, essential, got all my work onto the mac lickity split like a barbar trick
    • nice previews on files I can't edit yet. Love that
    • Freemind worked for me, I don't know what Bryan's trouble was?
  • I love that the mac has only a single cable, it is amazingly quiet and doesn't run hot. I moved it to a sunny room and am struggling a bit with the glare on the screen
  • Posted via email from 7thgroove’s posterous



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    • Posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 in: fatman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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