Windows to OS X…how did you find it?

I struggled when I started using OSX. Even getting through the initial setup, I didn’t know how to use the mousepad although I think I was later able to reconfigure it in a more familiar windows fashion.
I never really embraced OSX and after a few issues (2 or 3 time I had to do a full disk reformat and reinstall after failed updates) I got rid of the machine. The only thing I miss is the very quick resume from sleep…my new windows 8 laptop is slower than my old windows 7 on resume from sleep so that’s annoying and the macbook was much faster still.

The only thing I miss is the very quick resume from sleep

not just resume, but resume with WiFi etc. re-established.
Arch Linux (definitely not for non-geeks) was about as quick on an Atom based eeePC.
Chromebook (can’t believe nobody has mentioned that yet on a IT thread) is instant.

When something big happens, usually you just need to know how to reset the PRAM.

The only thing I miss is the very quick resume from sleep…

Get an SSD. Mine goes from sleep to logged in in about five seconds.

Spotlight, for example; just hit the Windows key and start typing.

@cougar thanks – didn’t know this ! I am back at an employer with Windows as work machine so that’s useful

Any hassle with printer drivers I can only assumes refers to XP (which is twelve years old)

I recall something like 40% of Windows machines are still running XP ! Apple helpfully showed a chart to compare with OSX upgrade adoption especially now that’s free

I’ll confess that I had a Mac previously and didn’t get on too well with it when trying to use it for business. I’ve invested in a Mac Book Pro purely for my hobbies nothing work related which I continue to use a Windows 8 laptop for.
I have found the transition slow going and have booked myself on an Apple “Discover your Mac” workshop to hopefully get myself upto speed. Most things I have tried so far have been frustrating. Either quicker in Windows or not working such as network drives shown one moment then not the other time. The “Mac just does it” isn’t working for me yet but hopefully it will.

Get an SSD. Mine goes from sleep to logged in in about five seconds.

I don’t think I can without losing my existing hard-drive as it’s a (Dell Inspiron 7000) laptop. The hard drive is a hybrid affair with, I think, 8GB ‘SSD’ and it’s taking about 15 seconds to wake (okay not too bad but was expecting an improvement with the new kit).

15 seconds to wake is a long time, but it’s probably down to one of your hardware devices being slow I’d guess. All the gubbins in your PC have to come out of their own personal sleep mode before your computer wakes up. It’s a bit like trying to get your family ready in the mornings 🙂

I have swapped out the HD in both my work W7 and home MBP with 500GB SSDs, both now resume from sleep in a few seconds and load large apps etc really quickly.

sorry going off topic (although the MacBook was always great for wake up time) , since I mentioned a problem I’ve found an answer that may help someone else with a similar issue – Control Panel -> Power Options > Change Plan Settings -> Change Advanced Power Settings -> Sleep -> Allow hybrid sleep = turn on (was off)

5 or 6 seconds now 🙂

Ah yes.. You don’t want hybrid sleep.

Not to derail the thread, but a lot of these features and tips also work on Windows.

That’s some nice derailing there, Cougar. 8)

i made the switch 7 years ago and bought a new iMac few months ago and went one shade braver and added Parallels so I could use one MS specific software for my business.

Then, I clicked ‘upgrade’ to Yosemite and wished I hadn’t. Something somewhere isn’t right and it’s like using Vista all over again. Apple looked at it and now recommending a full clean install, despite me using time machine their preferred method of backups, which the now point the finger at for dragging something across that shouldn’t be there, despite the fact that it wasn’t an issue before the upgrade.

Windows -> Mac migrant here, although I still use Windows for work (strictly, Server 2008/2012).

95% of my work is Linux ( DevOps ), so OSX is the perfect balance (MS Office). Definitely at the power user end of the spectrum 🙂

Also works in Ubuntu. I think it was a Windows invention no?

Dunno, first time I saw it was a third-party app called Launchy.[/quote]

Definitely not a MS invention, was also around with an app called Quicksilver before OS X had spotlight and Gnome-do, or synapse in Ubuntu before they launched Unity.

My favourite things from OSX:

* The fact that all apps use the same short cuts (E.g. Apple+P for preferences)
* Expose, when I realised that you could drag/drop stuff between almost all apps willy nilly
* Multi touch gestures (They are common on all platforms now but when I had my old white Macbook, two finger scrolling/right clicking was da bomb).

Can’t remember any more but I’ll pop back here if I remember anything. I use Ubuntu full time now but do miss OSX and how simple it was occasionally.

I recall something like 40% of Windows machines are still running XP

There’s no way it’s that high. I’ll see if I can find some stats.

The fact that all apps use the same short cuts

Most Windows apps to do – there’s a name for the particular theme of hotkeys that was proposed as a standard, but I forget what. F1 = help, F3 = search, F11 = full screen and so on. The only app I come into contact with that doesn’t do this is Notepad++ which I frigging hate.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

Win8 19%
Win7 55%
XP 5%
OSX 10%

So that’s about 6% of the (desktop) market running XP, based on web browser usage. 40% was true about three years ago.

Most Windows apps to do

Ay to be honest it was a long time ago I last used Windows (XP last time I had it installed) so it’s probably come on a lot.

Net Applications gives XP a higher mark; they reckon about 20%, and other sources somewhere in between.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems

The mobile market is interesting too, iOS and Android pretty much neck and neck, with everything else a long old way behind. Though again, it’s based on web traffic so may be skewed.

Most Windows apps to do…

but a lot of these features and tips also work on Windows.

Can either of you explain how either of these, or similar, replies are intended to help the OP?

Nice one Three_Fish…a good point well made.

replies are intended to help the OP?

Innit. Page 1 and page 2 of this thread appear to be on different topics.

Can either of you explain how either of these, or similar, replies are intended to help the OP?

Can you explain why that’s a necessity? The thread’s evolved from “Mac tips” to “Computing tips”, I don’t see how that’s a bad thing.

Cast in point,

@cougar thanks – didn’t know this ! I am back at an employer with Windows as work machine so that’s useful

Productivity tips are handy regardless of your platform choice, no?

Can you explain why that’s a necessity?

Of course. The tone is more of a ‘so what if OSX does that, so does Windows’. It’s almost like low-level trolling, you (collectively) just seem desperate to not be out-done by OSX, whereas all the OP wanted wanted was to find out how he can transition and learn a new tool. It may or may not have been your intention, but it came across as a tad contrary. The other fellow just sounds desperate.

Productivity tips are handy regardless of your platform choice, no?

Right so. I’ll remember that the next time somebody asks for user guidance or tips for [insert topic], and derail steer the thread in a direction that will be more useful to people who probably aren’t reading the thread anyway, I’m bound to hit somebody with something helpful – and who gives a shit if I bury the genuinely helpful information or start an argument?

Productivity tips are handy regardless of your platform choice, no?

Not really.

If OP is asking how to do X in Y, how will knowing how to do X in Z help?

Edit: Hmmm. In the time it took me to write a sentence, a new post appeared.

Three fish – I had been reading this thread in a tone unusually unlike what you describe, so if you thought it that way I apologise. I have absolutely nothing against MacOS, it’s just fanbois that annoy me 🙂

it’s just fanbois that annoy me

You know you ‘reverse fanboys’ are just as bad as they are, right?

They created me…

They created me…

Answering the original point of the OP – I found it fine. A little bit of trial and error and some googling has seen me through. I do use Windows on a VM for some stuff though. As it’s for business using Word and Excel to manipulate or create docs in Word so that Windows users can easily share with with me is really helpful – without messing with formats and stuff. I have an Air too and whilst it runs Office for Mac – I prefer the authentic Office experience on my main work machine. Also I run Visio which I haven’t found a good replacement for and MS Project and Project Server too.

I’m finding office for mac slightly odd (feels like a Windows version half converted to behave like a mac application, and it looks a bit cheap), but I think it’s being revised soon. VM’s appear to run really well, my PC based laptop used to take 5mins to shutdown at the end of the day after i’d been running lots of VM’s, but they appear to close in seconds on the mac.

The only real problem I’ve had this week was trying to copy a VM to a portable hard drive…took me half an hour to work out although you can read NTFS partitions, you can’t write to them 🙁

Other than that it’s going well 🙂

Yeah, no problem really. Getting used to the quite cool trackpad took a short while and the shortcuts to make up for the things they’ve forgotten to put on the keyboard took a bit longer than that but I use various versions of windows, linux, unix and my mac on a daily basis and switch happily between them all.

The tone is more of a ‘so what if OSX does that, so does Windows’

I wasn’t saying “so what”, you’ve just made that up. My original post was partly in response to a “OSX is so much better because it does all these things” and I was simply pointing out that you might not have realised that Windows does those things too; I was trying to be helpful, not engage in a pissing contest. But if it helps you any, think of it as balance for all the helpful “buy a Mac / install Linux” comments that crop up with tedious regularity every time someone wants PC help.

Still, this meta-discussion is far more helpful to the OP’s plight, isn’t it.

But if it helps you any, think of it as balance for all the helpful “buy a Mac / install Linux” comments that crop up with tedious regularity every time someone wants PC help.

That’s awfully altruistic and public spirited of you. Maybe if you got an outfit you could be like a computer productivity, internet fairness superhero or something.

Lodious, I beg your pardon for the page of bollocks I contributed to. Enjoy your learning, I’m out of here…

Uh-Oh.

Cougar’s gone all more sarky. Abandon thread…. 😀

Cheers for those how tried to help with the mac stuff,,,i guess it was never going to end well 🙁

,i guess it was never going to end well

To close a tab in your browser, it’s command+w. This is system wide, so will close any active window in all apps.

If things have got really bad, it’s command+q to quit an application.

If you just need some respite, command+h hides the application.

Cougar’s gone all sarky. Abandon thread….

Gone? As opposed to what? (-:

To close a tab in your browser, it’s command+w.

Ctrl-W in Windows.

Nah, it’s your general demeanour. It would be the same if you had fluffy puppy wuffykins next to your name.

I found the most awkward thing in changing at home from Windows XP to OS X (it was some time ago) was the positioning of the close/minimize/maximize buttons on windows. I’d go into work and go up left. I’d be at home and go top right. Now to swap between apps I tend to win+m or alt+TAB at work and use spaces and four finger swipes on the MacBook.

Another ‘problem’ was the difference in the action of the close button on OS X from Windows. On Windows it always quits the program. Well, except when it goes all ‘Not Responding’. On the Mac it seems up to the whims of the developer. Some programs quit. Some just close their windows but are still running. Practically it makes little difference.

Between the two systems I favour the Mac & OS X. Even though Yosemite has changed some things, including stability and compatibility with some older programs, it is still a joy to open my MacBook Pro, have the login screen appear almost instantly, login and start work. It is a different story with my Windows 7 Lenovo Carbon X1. Which is a real shame. If it worked as I’d expect it would be OK.