Finally Got to try Mac OS X! =)
ok, so I unfortunately don't have a Mac yet. I have been wanting to get one, but haven't gotten to try the OS out.
But while we were down in Georgia, we got to go to a Fry's Electronics store, which I remembered had a Mac section.
So I found it and tried out the OS on some iMacs.( which btw, the 24" is huge! in a good way )
Some first impressions and a few questions:
1) beautiful design and layout. Very simplistic on the surface which is what I crave.
2) Very colorful and animated. Loved the big icons. ( another plus )
3) really easy to use. I literally made a song in garage band in about 4 minutes. ( and I had absolutely no clue how to use it, I had never even seen it before )
4) iChat and iPhoto are really cool. I love the integrated cameras.
5) Macbooks are amazing. I am convinced I want either a 13" white macbook or a small macbook pro.
but I have some questions...
1) why doesn't a program close when I click the red button? It would still be open underneath and I would have to "force quit" the program. Is there a way to automatically close the program when I click the red button?
2) why is the mini mouse so aggravating? I couldn't figure out how to right click. I heard it doesn't have a physical right click, and you have to do something to get it to work, what is it?
3) How easy is it to use bootcamp? I didn't get a chance to try it, because their iMac with windows on it wasn't working. ( lol before you laugh, it is just because they didn't enter the product code into it yet, so it hadn't been registered ) Will I be able to easily switch between Mac OS X and XP/Vista? Will I still be able to use features like media center?
4) Is there a way to move the menu bar to the bottom? or move the ( insert name of whatever the program bar is called ) to the top. I remember seeing one picture where it was moved to the left.
5) finally, this one is to new mac owners or windows converts. How long did it take you to learn Mac OS X? You know... basic stuff like managing programs, installing new programs, editing pictures, changing settings, etc?
thanks for the assistance.
-Woody
But while we were down in Georgia, we got to go to a Fry's Electronics store, which I remembered had a Mac section.
So I found it and tried out the OS on some iMacs.( which btw, the 24" is huge! in a good way )
Some first impressions and a few questions:
1) beautiful design and layout. Very simplistic on the surface which is what I crave.
2) Very colorful and animated. Loved the big icons. ( another plus )
3) really easy to use. I literally made a song in garage band in about 4 minutes. ( and I had absolutely no clue how to use it, I had never even seen it before )
4) iChat and iPhoto are really cool. I love the integrated cameras.
5) Macbooks are amazing. I am convinced I want either a 13" white macbook or a small macbook pro.
but I have some questions...
1) why doesn't a program close when I click the red button? It would still be open underneath and I would have to "force quit" the program. Is there a way to automatically close the program when I click the red button?
2) why is the mini mouse so aggravating? I couldn't figure out how to right click. I heard it doesn't have a physical right click, and you have to do something to get it to work, what is it?
3) How easy is it to use bootcamp? I didn't get a chance to try it, because their iMac with windows on it wasn't working. ( lol before you laugh, it is just because they didn't enter the product code into it yet, so it hadn't been registered ) Will I be able to easily switch between Mac OS X and XP/Vista? Will I still be able to use features like media center?
4) Is there a way to move the menu bar to the bottom? or move the ( insert name of whatever the program bar is called ) to the top. I remember seeing one picture where it was moved to the left.
5) finally, this one is to new mac owners or windows converts. How long did it take you to learn Mac OS X? You know... basic stuff like managing programs, installing new programs, editing pictures, changing settings, etc?
thanks for the assistance.
-Woody
Comments
2. If it was a new iMac the mouse was a mighty mouse, with one click set as default. You can ctrl click with the mouse, or set two buttons in System Prefs.
3. Easy.
4. Your thinking of the dock, the menubar cannot be moved. It is something that you will not only get used to very quickly, but you will understand why it is that way, for reasons you have to see for yourself. You can get third party apps to hide it, but I don't.
5. I'm new about 2 years, I got used to it in less than a week, and I'm no computer geek. Alhough you can learn new things forever. You made a song in Garage Band in 4 minutes, say no more, except that most other apps are even less complex then Garage Band.
Engoy!
Enjoy!!
I feel so old.
but I have some questions...
1) why doesn't a program close when I click the red button? It would still be open underneath and I would have to "force quit" the program. Is there a way to automatically close the program when I click the red button?
2) why is the mini mouse so aggravating? I couldn't figure out how to right click. I heard it doesn't have a physical right click, and you have to do something to get it to work, what is it?
3) How easy is it to use bootcamp? I didn't get a chance to try it, because their iMac with windows on it wasn't working. ( lol before you laugh, it is just because they didn't enter the product code into it yet, so it hadn't been registered ) Will I be able to easily switch between Mac OS X and XP/Vista? Will I still be able to use features like media center?
4) Is there a way to move the menu bar to the bottom? or move the ( insert name of whatever the program bar is called ) to the top. I remember seeing one picture where it was moved to the left.
5) finally, this one is to new mac owners or windows converts. How long did it take you to learn Mac OS X? You know... basic stuff like managing programs, installing new programs, editing pictures, changing settings, etc?
thanks for the assistance.
-Woody
1) You have discovered the "force quit" feature - which is more or less the same as "end task" in windows - except slightly simpler to use (and in my experience the force quit feature in osX almost always does the trick instantly, whereas I do sometimes find end task frustrating). So force quit is simply for quitting an unresponsive application. If you want to quit an application in the usual way you can hold down command-q, or simply select "quit" from the file menu. Applications in osX remain open even when there are no windows open. This is wierd I suppose to a windows user, but I personally find it quite useful because one annoying aspect of osX is that applications can take a while to launch, so you don't have to keep relaunching the program every time you want it within a session - you can just leave it running in the background - you won't even notice it, and as long as you have a decent amount of RAM installed it won't affect your system's performance. Obviously you might not want 20 apps running at once, but there is a balance. In other words - it's flexible and you would soon get used to it.
Another subtle feature which is related to this, but unfamiliar to a non osX user, is the application hiding feature. I personally love this feature because it allows you to instantly hide the active application (and all windows belonging to that application) by pressing command-H. It's kind of like quitting the application except that the application only disappears, to be hidden from view rather than closing down. If you click that application's icon in the dock or select it by command-tabbing then the application will instantly become active and visible. In addition to this, you can type option-command-H to hide all other applications - which removes all the clutter of windows and lets you focus on the current application. You can also option click on another application's window (or its icon in the dock) to switch to that application and hide your current application at once. The same thing with option-command clicking will hide all other applications and make the target application active.
This hiding feature is really useful when you are working in a lot of applications at once - and kind of makes the dock unnecessary.
2. As someone said, if you are using the apple scrolling mouse (or a trackpad on an apple laptop), you have to activate the right click from within system preferences. If you plug in a 3rd party usb mouse with multiple buttons, the right click function will work automatically. Ctrl click always acts as a right click regardless.
3 Sorry I've never used bootcamp.
4 You can't move the menu bar, but you can move the dock to either the left side or the right side by right clicking on the docks little divider line and selecting that option from the menu. Alternatively open the dock preferences within system preferences.
Its worth noting that there are 3rd party applications which allow you to hide the menu bar at the top, and also to let you access that menu bar anywhere on the screen with a keyed mouse click as a contextual menu.
5 When I switched to mac os X from os9 I could do all the things you mentioned pretty much within a couple of hours, because osX is similar to os9. I think it would also be easy to master these coming from windows. It takes a bit longer to get used to the file structure I think.
1) You have discovered the "force quit" feature - which is more or less the same as "end task" in windows - except slightly simpler to use (and in my experience the force quit feature in osX almost always does the trick instantly, whereas I do sometimes find end task frustrating). So force quit is simply for quitting an unresponsive application. If you want to quit an application in the usual way you can hold down command-q, or simply select "quit" from the file menu. Applications in osX remain open even when there are no windows open. This is wierd I suppose to a windows user, but I personally find it quite useful because one annoying aspect of osX is that applications can take a while to launch, so you don't have to keep relaunching the program every time you want it within a session - you can just leave it running in the background - you won't even notice it, and as long as you have a decent amount of RAM installed it won't affect your system's performance. Obviously you might not want 20 apps running at once, but there is a balance. In other words - it's flexible and you would soon get used to it.
Another subtle feature which is related to this, but unfamiliar to a non osX user, is the application hiding feature. I personally love this feature because it allows you to instantly hide the active application (and all windows belonging to that application) by pressing command-H. It's kind of like quitting the application except that the application only disappears, to be hidden from view rather than closing down. If you click that application's icon in the dock or select it by command-tabbing then the application will instantly become active and visible. In addition to this, you can type option-command-H to hide all other applications - which removes all the clutter of windows and lets you focus on the current application. You can also option click on another application's window (or its icon in the dock) to switch to that application and hide your current application at once. The same thing with option-command clicking will hide all other applications and make the target application active.
This hiding feature is really useful when you are working in a lot of applications at once - and kind of makes the dock unnecessary.
2. As someone said, if you are using the apple scrolling mouse (or a trackpad on an apple laptop), you have to activate the right click from within system preferences. If you plug in a 3rd party usb mouse with multiple buttons, the right click function will work automatically. Ctrl click always acts as a right click regardless.
3 Sorry I've never used bootcamp.
4 You can't move the menu bar, but you can move the dock to either the left side or the right side by right clicking on the docks little divider line and selecting that option from the menu. Alternatively open the dock preferences within system preferences.
Its worth noting that there are 3rd party applications which allow you to hide the menu bar at the top, and also to let you access that menu bar anywhere on the screen with a keyed mouse click as a contextual menu.
5 When I switched to mac os X from os9 I could do all the things you mentioned pretty much within a couple of hours, because osX is similar to os9. I think it would also be easy to master these coming from windows. It takes a bit longer to get used to the file structure I think.
how is the file structure different? so will I be able to find programs/applications I installed?
my biggest worry is that I will be unable to use it ( Mac OS X ) and have to revert to bootcamp/windows. any problems or differences you guys really had to adjust to? or did everything just come naturally?
*thanks*
-Woody
-One thing I forgot to mention. You can drag you favourite or most commonly used applications onto the dock (or optionally remove less used ones) and keep them there for easy access. That way you can simply click the applications icon on the dock for easy launch rather than having to drill through a bunch of folders to find it every time.
This is a big different between Windows and Mac. On a Mac you open an Application and that application has multiple windows. When you click the button you are telling the computer I'm done with this window, not I'm done with this application. This way, if you're done with say a word document you can close the window and immediately hit cmd-n to open a new window rather than having to reopen the application.
To properly quit an application select Quit from that application's menu, type cmd-q or right click (which as mentioned can be accomplished by either holding ctrl when you click or setting the mouse settings in the preferences) the application in the dock and select quit.
As far as number 1...
This is a big different between Windows and Mac. On a Mac you open an Application and that application has multiple windows. When you click the button you are telling the computer I'm done with this window, not I'm done with this application. This way, if you're done with say a word document you can close the window and immediately hit cmd-n to open a new window rather than having to reopen the application.
To properly quit an application select Quit from that application's menu, type cmd-q or right click (which as mentioned can be accomplished by either holding ctrl when you click or setting the mouse settings in the preferences) the application in the dock and select quit.
oh I think I understand now.
So if you were to open a program, it may pop up with two or more windows, so even if I were to close one window, the program would still be running ( and the other window still up ). Alright I think I got it now. It just was frustrating when I had 5 applications open and couldn't figure out how to use the iSight camera. ( it said it was being used by iChat. But I figured out how to close iChat and then took a pic with iPhoto, which is surprisingly fun )8)
"But doesn't it take up memory or CPU cycles?" is generally the next question. Nope. MacOS X's virtual memory manager is *MUCH* more robust than XP's - if an app is 'inactive', it gets swapped out to disk, and left dormant, not taking any CPU cycles. Essentially, it's left in a state where it's ready to go much faster than if you launch it again, but it doesn't cause problems while it's like that.
With Windows, OTOH, it's a good thing to release as many resources as possible as you go, so apps completely quit whenever they can. Otherwise, things tend to bog down pretty quickly.
As an example, I have a ThinkPad at work, and a PowerBook at home, with comparable hardware specs. At work, if I run just two copies of Eclipse, things start to get... ugly. Other apps hang waiting for resources, simple things take forever, the CPU gets hogged, and you can hear the poor disk thrashing like mad. On the PowerBook, I can have up to *four* copies of the same workspace in Eclipse that cause issues on the ThinkPad, plus... Lotus Notes, Sametime, iChat, Safari, iTunes, iCal, Address Book, Terminal, and a few others apps all open and going, and no problems.
So you can purge the "must quit all apps!" mentality, and leave it behind as unnecessary baggage.
how is the file structure different? so will I be able to find programs/applications I installed?
my biggest worry is that I will be unable to use it ( Mac OS X ) and have to revert to bootcamp/windows. any problems or differences you guys really had to adjust to? or did everything just come naturally?
*thanks*
-Woody
Spotlight, Spotlight, Spotlight.
The file system is not that different; it just has different names. The column view makes it very intuitive going back and forth, so that is the best way to learn.
But spotlight, the little blue search button in the upper-right hand side will find just about anything, anywhere, provided it has words in it. It searches filenames, types, metadata, and ever within the documents. It is awesome and will get better in Leopard.
If the application does not support multiple windows, clicking the red button will also quit the application - things like calculator; system preferences; etc....
how is the file structure different? so will I be able to find programs/applications I installed?
my biggest worry is that I will be unable to use it ( Mac OS X ) and have to revert to bootcamp/windows. any problems or differences you guys really had to adjust to? or did everything just come naturally?
*thanks*
-Woody
took me about an hour to get used to it, a week to FINALLY adjust to things (on windows that i have now forgotten) like close buttons, crashes dont happen pop-ups dont happen virus probs disapear.
the file system is similar to file sistems from 20 years ago right up to tomorrow
if you are ready to buy a mac NOW then buy one, dont hold out for leopard, it might come in march, or it might be june... but if you want to wait.. then wait... up to you, the mac will be ready for you no matter what
welcome to the boards
took me about an hour to get used to it, a week to FINALLY adjust to things (on windows that i have now forgotten) like close buttons, crashes dont happen pop-ups dont happen virus probs disapear.
the file system is similar to file sistems from 20 years ago right up to tomorrow
if you are ready to buy a mac NOW then buy one, dont hold out for leopard, it might come in march, or it might be june... but if you want to wait.. then wait... up to you, the mac will be ready for you no matter what
welcome to the boards
yeah but I need to save up money, so I don't mind waiting.
trust me, if I had the money to buy the macbook I wanted ( fully maxed-out aka future proof ) then I would. But I can't afford to make the purchase right now, so I will start saving and hopefullly have enough when leopard comes out. Besides, I really wouldn't want to buy something, only to have something new come out 1 week later.It is better to wait until something is brand-new, then buy it. That way you know you at least have a few years with it.
thanks for all the help. As far as application... yeah I am still in that mentality of constantly control alt deleting and checking my system processes to see if I can close any programs. I am always trying to make my programs work faster. ( like when converting video files, and downloading tv shows off of itunes )
I did notice on the mac I was using, ( 24" iMac with standard specs )
that it had about 9 programs open in the "inactive" mode and about 3 programs open, and still had no problems and barely noticeable lag. very nifty indeed.
-Woody
btw, I am going to college soon and may be using my mac for basic programming and such, should I stick with a maxed out macbook or do you think I need to upgrade to a macbook pro?