In just a little over a week I’ve already learned a lot about my Mac. Other then a couple of quirky things, I really like OS X and how it works. In this short amount of time I’ve come up with the following observations:
Installing New Apps Is Easy: All you need to do is download a .dmg file, double click on it and drop the .app file into your Applications folder. That’s it! Some applications bring up an installer when you double click on the .app file however, for the most part all you need to do is drag and drop the app in the applications folder.
AppZapper is your friend: Uninstalling apps on the Mac isn’t as easy as installing them. Yes, you can delete the app out of the Applications folder however, more then likely there will still be extraneous files that are left on your system after you delete the app.
This is why you need AppZapper. AppZapper allows you to delete an application and all of its’ extraneous files so that you don’t have anything left behind when you delete the app.
This is especially great for me since I’m trying out new apps on a daily basis. I don’t know why Apple hasn’t included a similar app with OS X. In any case, AppZapper only costs $12.95 and it includes lifetime upgrades for free! Not a bad deal IMHO…
You can right-click but it is a pain: This has been one of my biggest annoyances with my new Mac. In the world of Windows you pretty much always have a two button and right clicking is easy to do. On my Mac, I only have a one button trackpad so when I want to right click I have to hold down the CTRL key. This really is annoying for me however, I’m starting to get use to it. You can plugin a two button usb mouse and that provides you with a right click however, when I’m using my laptop I don’t always want to use a secondary mouse. Why doesn’t Apple believe in the two button mouse? Isn’t it more inntuiative to have two buttons instead of having to hold down CTRL? Just my .02…
Apple-Tab Isn’t The Same as Alt-Tab: Apple-Tab kind of works like Alt-Tab on Windows however, instead of switching between all open windows it switches between all open applications. I’m not sure I like how this works so I downloaded an application called Witch. This application allows you to switch between windows similar to how XP does it. I’m not saying that the OS X way is wrong all I’m saying is that it’s different. As of right now, I like the Windows way better.
Samba is great on the Mac: Thanks to Samba, connecting to my Windows file server was super easy. In fact, I was extremely suprised with how well it worked. I’ve used Samba before on linux and it didn’t seem to work as well as it does on the Mac.
That’s pretty much it for now. I’m sure I’ll have more to say as time goes on…..
February 4th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Alex, you might try turning on the 2 fingered double click for the trackpad. Right click is as single as simple as holding two fingers down and clicking at that point. Just as easy as a normal laptop right click at that point.
I made the switch a year or so ago and havent looked back.
Good luck.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:27 am
suppose it might help to tell you where it is…
Go into the trackpad preferences inside System Preferences to enable the “tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click” to enable the functionality.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:36 am
I didn’t know you could do this…Thanks a lot! I guess I’ll have to include this in my next post
.
February 4th, 2007 at 2:14 am
Personally, it was always the Windows way of showing identical icons for each document open (ten Word docs open = ten indistinguishable Word icons) when you hit alt-tab that always annoyed me. Why not just let me switch applications and have my most recently used doc get the focus?
Another nice OS X feature with alt-tab is that you can drag documents to an alt-tab icon to open it in that tab. You couldn’t do that if they represented documents.
Mind you, with Exposé, the need for alt-tab switching is practically nil.
February 4th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Above should read “…to open it in that application.”
February 4th, 2007 at 6:26 am
If you want to switch between open windows within a particular application, the keyboard shortcut is Command+` (the back quote, which, on Apple keyboards, is to the left of the 1/! key.)
Try it. Open a bunch of windows in FireFox, for example, and Cmd+` through them.
When you Cmd+tab, you can then use Cmd+` to cycle backwards once the pop-up icon listing shows up.
February 4th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Thanks for the tip. I didn’t know you could do that. In any case, it still is kind of a pain if you are use to the Windows way. Now if I am browsing around in Finder and I want to switch to a window in Firefox I have to hit Command-Tab to switch to Firefox and then Command-` to switch to the window I want in Firefox. I’m not saying that it is wrong just that it is different. Coming from the world of Windows I just have to get use to the differences in the operating systems.
February 4th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Man, a lot of Mac addicts out there, he he. Keep up the good work. I’m considering trying to run OSX on my Core 2 Duo.
February 4th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I know what you mean…. If I were you, I wouldn’t screw around with getting OS X to run on your hardware. Instead, drop the $1400 and get a laptop that runs OS X out of the box.
February 4th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Grats on getting a mac.
Command or Apple + Tab as you call it switched between windows. Hoever Command + ~ thas a tilda will switch window within most apps.
Also get a mouse with a better right click the might mouse is not very good.
Good Luck