Elitist snob

This is very common phrase said with offensive meaning about Mac users. Not every Mac user, but the one with too much attitude about his platform of choice. Mac zealots said to be maintaners of "elitist" image of Mac OS X. As if one would say "I don't care if you don't like Mac, this is your own fault if you aren't aptive enough to pick it out". Others say "This is fine that there are no too much of Windows switchers, otherwise user base in average go lame, and virus writers will put a spotlight on Mac OS X" - which we can consider as being snob.

I agree with people who blame Mac zealots as snobs, and I agree with nessecity to maintain an elitist image of a platform. Not because of too much users coming to Mac OS X to spoilt it, no. I am now Switcher for about three months, and explored quite many Mac OS X applications so far, and I have a point: Mac software is generally more consistent in UI and easier to use, just because software authors are those elitist snobs and cannot make gazillions of too shitty 0.1a applications. Openness of Windows brought huge army of developers (do you remember Ballmer's "Developers!" stunt?) and everyone began to write their own applications. This led to a very wide range of quality of Windows programs, and this is very difficult to choose one.

Number fo choices in Mac OS X is less, but this is often for good. You select between UI-consistent full-featured applications and less-feature rich but still UI-consistent applications, and you should really look hard to find very badly written software. Mac OS X software isn't usually bloated. iWork applications are not that feature-rich as MS Office applications, and I think it is Apple's intention. They still provide applications which are excellent in productivity, but are not overwhelmed with features that almost noone really uses. Same goes about Apperture, which solves less problems than Photoshop, but does it well and without bloat.

There is a big number of applications that exist on many platforms, and they are only good ones, just because poor developers don't have enough resources to maintain all the platforms. Mozilla, Opera, OpenOffice, Skype, Google Earth - to name a few good crossplatform applications. They are not integrated to Operating System as Apple's own titles, but they are so good that one might prefer them to Apple's own programs. At least I do prefer Mozilla to Safari...

Negative 1: Finder

This is also quite obvious for Win-to-Mac switcher. Macintosh software pieces are usually very well integrated into each other, but that is fact you cannot deny - Windows users do a lot with Explorer, and they miss these features until they learn how to do these things on Mac. Mac way to navigate through File System is called Finder, and while doing many cool things, it is not able to make Cut&Paste (Copy&Paste only), and create new files on a Desktop or some folder. In Mac, you should at first open application that creates files of some kind, and only after you save new file in this application, it will appear in the folder you want.

Another thing which is a bit problematic and unfriendly for recent switchers is folder viewing modes. While Column view is (arguably) more convinient alternative to TreeView never seen on Windows, Preview-like mode is a disaster. Finder don't generate Image thumbnails "out of the box", you should do some trickery in Finder's Preferences to achieve that, and while you have control on thumbnail size, the result is not that visually appealing comparing to what you have in iPhoto.

Any switcher is instantly tempted to search for Finder alternatives that would let him feel more like home, and there are some, both free- and shareware. Googling for "Finder alternatives" returns plenty of links to software reviews, and it is obvious that there's no just one that would suite everyone. From all of them I liked PathFinder more than others, although I am not in a hurry to buy a license after 21-day trial period is over, prefering to start thinkg more in Mac way.

Mac purists say that PathFinder has too much bloat in it, but I found most of its features quite usable, starting from iTunesStore-like path bars and iPhoto-like Preview mode to "Program Files"-like list of applications available from an icon on Menu bar and special area in top-left corner of PathFinder window where you can drop all kind of files and objects (this reminded me image tray paradigm used in Picasa, Windows-only counterpart for iPhoto - in my opinion, the killer feature). But of course, this is a matter of taste which Finder enhancer you install on your system, if any.

Just works 1: Canon EOS 350D and Motorola RAZR

My bet is that one of the most important arguments for buying a Mac is that external devices "just work". This is what Apple's marketing machine throws on you, and my own curiosity was almost painful. I don't have that much external devices to test with my new Mini, but those I have were not without problems on my PC-laptop. My digital camera Canon EOS 350D (known as Digital Rebel XT overseas) was not easy to start working on Windows computer without installing special driver, and my Motorola RAZR worked only on one of my two Windows computers, despite the fact that I installed phone software from the same CD into identical Windows systems.

And Mini passed the test, should I say! EOS camer was instantly recognized and both Image Capture and iPhoto were happy to deliver my photos to Mac without ny need to install anything. RAZR phone was a little bit more tricky, because Mac OS has two different programs to access data in the Phone, one for browsing contents, and another to sync contacts and calendar. But Bluetooth wizardry worked fine, and iSync succesfully copied updated contacts back and forth between Mac and phone. This was as exciting as installation of Mac OS X itself which recognized everything that was plugged into computer, and building WiFi network using Mini and Airport Express box.

This positive experience alone (Mac succeeded doing things that were unstable on Windows)
could become a concrete foundation for the house of Mac zealotry...

Positive 1: Exposé + Dashboard

The first thing to show in OS X to your curious Windows friends is what you can do with just four keys of your keyboard. F9 to F12. This _is_ the most addictive feature of OS X. Once accustomed to it, you will miss them all the time in other OSs, unless they have something similar. Well, Windows has full analogue for F11, which is Windows+D, showing a desktop (you can think of it as instant minimizing all the windows). But on Mac, you press F11 again and all your windows are where you left them. And other two keys dedicated to Exposé go even further.

Press F9 and all your open windows will be tiled on the screen. The more windows you have open, the smaller tiles will be, but main thing is that all applications get displayed on one screen at once, with nice transition effect. You point your mouse over the application you want to switch to and click. You can do it without your mouse too, Tab key will go cycles through all applications. This is a bit better way to browse open applications than good old Command+Tab (Alt-Tab in Windows), because you are not just choosing application icon (which are much more beautiful on Mac, in their glorious size at least!), but see how this window looks like.

F10 does the same thing that F9 does, but only for open windows of current application. This comes handy if you have several Web browser windows open and want to jump to another window of the same application, which is not possible using Command+Tab.

And F12 is not Exposé, but its Exposé-like über-convenient togglable nature makes it very addictive. It switches on/off your Dashboard - set of applets, called Widget in Mac OS X. All that small applications you don't want to get listed in Command-Tab, and which you usually want to come up instantly, like Calculator or Calendar. You decide which Widgets you need and arrange them on screen by your liking. Konfabulator (now Yahoo widgets) looks great on Windows, but it is not that dead-simple and comfortable, and Google Desktop is a bit different and slightly less productive. Already because speed of using F9 to F12 keys is simply unbeatable.

Lesson 1: Replacement for your programs - the whole idea

You've bought a new Mac and said to all your friends that you switched from Windows. You have heard before, that things are done a little bit differently on a Mac, and everything "just works", but surprisingly, you productivity is suffering from the switch, just because you can't find things quickly because they are not where you search for them... That's fine. Just because Mac is different. You should really think different, that old advertising campaign did not lie. Thinking differently is not a bad thing, but you should spend some of your precious time to learn thinking differently.

Well, the first thing you need to understand is that there are very few exact replacements for your favourite Windows programs. Those exact replacements are not really _replacements_, they are just the same applications ported to Mac OS X platform. Like Mozilla Firefox, or OpenOffice, or Opera. If you came to Mac world thanks to Halo effect of your iPod, then you must have already been using iTunes on Windows. But that's it, the vast majority of Mac software is different, and - that is important - designed with other rules and ideas in mind. Before you make a small step towards understanding these new design principles, you will feel yourself uncomfortable while using your new computer...

Problems can start from Start Menu - the most addictive Windows feature that alone made Windows 95 so much better than Windows 3.11. This is not that dead simple in Mac OS X to launch whatever program from Dock - obvious analog of Taskbar for switchers. First you open Finder clicking on leftmost icon in Dock, there select Applications and then navigate through long list of items or program icons... Not that exciting? Yes, if you continue to launch programs in Windows way.

Actually, this is just one showcase of "Defaults matter" principle. Briefly, this principle says that in most cases, we need just one something, be it one program to handle file of some type, or one route to the nearest supermarket. Thanksfully, in Mac OS there are two ways to quickly approach your applications. At first, the icons in the dock are actually shortcuts to applications (this is like Quick Launch on Windows). Second, Apple Menu (click the blue apple sign that resides in the left in menubar regardless what program is active) provides handy Recent Items submenu, which is basically Recent Documents you know from Windows Start Menu _plus_ recent applications you have been running. And you can still put shortcuts on a desktop. If you absolutely hate opening Finder window to launch application which is not in Dock, Recent Items or on a desktop, you can still avoid doing it, clicking the blue icon in the right corner of menu bar. This is a Spotlight, integrated search application that will look for applications as well as for documents. Enter first letters of application's name, and you will see it in the list of Spotlight search results...

The same logic can be applied to all other techniques you are so used to use. Think differently and don't look for a complete replacement of things. The more Windows people come to Mac, the more "replacement" programs will appear, but not necessarily the old way of doing things is the most efficient one. Think about it.

First post

Hello everyone!
As you can see from the description of the blog, this is Yet Another Mac Switcher Blog. Without pretending to be geeky, I will post here about my experience in a Brave New World.

To clarify all possible questions - I am 10+ years-long Windows user, and I remember that dark age of pre-Windows era of MS-DOS. I have friends that still use NortonCommander-like programs doing their job in XP, and yes, my country of residence is _VERY_ much Mac-less. Only design-candy junkies and "try-it-all" freaks like me use Apple computers. Heck, there is no even iPod-madness in this country!

Almost everything I knew about Mac I learned myself, so this blog is "From the guy who did it all himself"-type, which is definitely good for some other fresh Win-to-Mac perverts from all over the Globe (at least its Mac-less part). I will post about MacOS tricks, Apple hardware, third-party software (mostly freeware), everything that recent switcher might need to feel more comfortable in new unfamiliar environment.

I will keep myself closely to the topic of the blog, and if I will feel that other hot topic emerges, I will start a new blog and you will find it through my profile.