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"Some General Tips for Switch to Mac From Windows," is Walt Mossberg's new post in which he tells users, well, how to switch from Windows to a Mac with ease. He covers the menu bar, task bar, Start menu, control panel, keyboard shortcuts, quitting programs, minimizing windows, switching programs, right-clicking, and finally, dealing with the screen. So, if you are a new Mac user, you might find these tips and tricks helpful. (Walt notes that you can also find tips similar to his on Apple's Mac 101 website.) I'm personally grateful to Walt for writing this blog entry, which is part of a larger article in the Wall Street Journal. This shows that there are still true big media journalists who are open to other platforms besides Windows/PC.
TUAW also invites you to check out our ever-growing Mac 101 section to find tips, tricks and more for getting around in Mac OS X.
Thanks, Christine!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-04-2008 @ 9:12AM
RobK said...
Some of his tips are misleading or just plain wrong. For example, he wrote:
"But on the Mac, if you click on the equivalent button — a red “X” in a circle in the upper left corner — you are merely closing the window, not quitting the program."
Sometimes when you click on the red "X" in the circle in the upper left corner of the window in Mac OS X, you DO quit the program. It all depends on the program. (e.g. Click on the red "X" in the Disk Utility window and Disk Utility Quits).
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7-04-2008 @ 9:54AM
Galley said...
I believe it depends on whether the program supports multiple instances or not.
7-04-2008 @ 10:04AM
LuminousNerd said...
That all you got?
It's not meant to be an exhaustive list of every single minute difference. It's a quick guide for people who are switching.
Generally speaking, it does not quit the app to close the window. And putting more detail than that will needlessly confuse people who are just looking for the basics.
7-04-2008 @ 10:08AM
Dave Barnes said...
"I'm personally grateful to Walt...besides Windows/PC."
What!?
have you not been reading Walt's columns over the last 5 years? He has been an Apple fanboi for a very long time.
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7-04-2008 @ 10:36AM
JohnPQ said...
Word. He's nothing more than a fanboy. Apple could release iCrap and he'd like it.
7-04-2008 @ 11:50AM
LuminousNerd said...
He likes Apple's products. So do I. So do you, I hope, if you're here.
I think he takes a very objective view when reviewing them, but you can't call him a fanboy simply because he approves of all recent Apple products.
Apple is a good company that puts out good products. They screw up once in a while, but not very often. Doesn't make me a fanboy to say that, doesn't make Walt a fanboy to give postive reviews.
Calling those of us who like many Apple products "fanboys" is your only defense to make our arguments seem invalid, since you know that you can't refute the actual points we make.
7-04-2008 @ 12:32PM
scott said...
"Walt Mossberg on switching from Windows to Mac"
...Finally I can sleep at night.
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7-04-2008 @ 1:29PM
Mathew Duggan said...
The reality of Mossberg is that he has been getting a bad rap lately for being an Apple fanboy, but what people don't understand is that Apple stuff has been getting amazing reviews from every angle. Pick up PC Magazine and read their review of the MacBook Pro and it will blow you away.
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7-04-2008 @ 1:46PM
shakenmartini said...
When I switched I went cold turkey (no VMWare or Parallels or bootcamp)
It was actually much easier than I thought because 90% of my files are compatible with Office, Adobe or the built in Apps.
Moreover, App quality from Mac third party devs is WORLDS better than those for Windows and there are more of them.
The ONLY pain I had was MS OneNote files, but for those I just made PDF's of the notebooks and now they work anywhere.
I also made PDF's any other proprietary format program, but again I have found that I just don't use that many apps that have proprietary formats anymore. If so, usually a PDF is good enough to preserve the data.
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7-04-2008 @ 6:16PM
Shunnabunich said...
There's an article on Mactivist! which expands on the points Walt made, covering the logic behind the close button's behaviour (which I'm sure RobK will appreciate) among other things.
http://www.mactivist.com/blog/macemx/2008/07/quick_mac_guide_for_switchers_from_windows_addition_to_walter_mossbergs_tips
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7-04-2008 @ 7:23PM
Allister said...
People just need to realise OS X and Windows are *different*. I have heard of only three people who tried Mac and went back to Windows - all three didn't want to take the time to learn the differences.
The one thing that blew me away is how much less screen real estate I have for a given resolution. I have excellent eyesight and used to run my PC with slightly less than 1600x1200 (because my CRT couldn't quite cut it up there). I am surprised how much "smaller" my 1680x1050 iMac screen is because all the 'furniture' is bigger. E.g. the default Finder font is enormous. Sure they look nicer by using more pixels but that's at a cost. And there's not much I can do about most of it.
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