[Evildave]

So, I replaced my primary Linux PC with a 24" iMac.

One thing I noticed right away was the keyboard shortcuts for, well EVERYTHING are different. For someone used to touch-typing and using keyboard shortcuts, having your shortcuts 'split' between command and control is a bit disconcerting, and an adjustment that takes time to get used to.

The mouse that came with it is a piece of crap. While I like the scrolly ball, and it tracks accurately, the entire top portion is a single piece of plastic. It's all but impossible to reliable 'Alternate click' (right click) with it.

The display on this thing is eye-popping. I thought my Samsung T260HD had a nice picture. Not next to the iMac. Bright, eye-popping whites and clear colors. Maybe a little too bright. It also doesn't remember my brightness preferences, which is a momentary annoyance per boot.

Everything works fast. OS X handles applications a bit 'differently' from everyone else. Clicking on the 'close' button closes the document, but only hides most apps. The program is still resident. However many times you click the icon, it brings up the same instance of that application. This usually means the next document you load will come up 'quick', and most of the time you're only editing in one instance of an application, but for certain things like using 'Finder' or web browsing, where you want multiple windows open, it can get a bit annoying to right-click and peck 'new window'.

Having everything share the same menu bar is 'different'. Each app gets a little more screen real estate, but also on a system with two monitors, it means going all the way 'back' to the main monitor to get at some functionality that doesn't have shortcuts.

Installing and managing software was initially more difficult since their mechanism for managing it is 'different'. They have an 'Applications' folder that contains all of the applications. Installing is a variety of either the familiar 'agree and press continue' setup, and the odd 'drag this folder to this things' contraptions. Once the light came on in my head, it was easy. Once I got the Apple Development Tools (free), then MacPorts worked and I added a few missing pieces, such as gvim and ImageMagick and the GIMP to the thing. It works more or less like 'apt'.

All in all, it didn't take long to adapt to the new ways of doing things. A busy week, but using Adobe CS4 (and 'saving as' CS3) were my primary annoyances. The differences didn't hinder me in getting things done. All of my familiar applications and development tools worked (albeit 'differently'), including 'VirtualBox' and OpenOffice and since it uses BASH in its command line, I was able to preserve most of my scripts. A few minor build/make alterations were required as well, especially when it came to launching things with 'open' in convenience items, like 'make run' or 'make RTFM'.

I bought a refurbished 500GB 'Time Capsule' from Apple at the same time. The backup's pretty seamless and unobtrusive. As a file server, it doesn't support any other file system but Apple's (it volunteers to format any USB hard drive you plug into it), but aside from that it does the jobs it was made for right out of the box.

[bbvammy]

@Evildave

cool, I want one now.

Can I get one for $299?

I got my last PC at Office Depot for $299 which can do pretty much everything as your iMac.

Can I get the mouse with 2 buttons?

[crazy4laptops]

welcome to the mac world... i just recently joined the mac side recently too =)

i got hired at a graphics design company as their mac system administrator

(i was hired for my technical skill aptitude rather than on mac experience)

and the mac is very easy and much more simplified than windows plus i like it... alot =)

(the command key on the mac is like the ctrl key of windows btw)

also, you can change the preference to activate the right mouse button on the apple mouse

go to system preferences > keyboard and mouse > mouse section

(there will be an option to change the action of both the left and right mouse button)

[Evildave]

If you can get the Adobe Web Premium CS4 (Academic license) for $249 (Full Retail=$1700, with no added functionality), and that price also includes a very, VERY nice 24" WUXGA (1920x1200) monitor (not at all a cheezy monitor), and it all, including better than average speakers, takes the same amount of space as just a monitor, and someone offered to pay $1500 towards the purchase of that machine, and it didn't matter that you could NEVER use the iPhone SDK, and total compatibility with your designers and artists' work ALSO didn't matter to you (some fonts can look downright odd between Mac/PC versions of Flash - and the artists are EXCLUSIVELY Mac users), and your computer came with a free iPod touch (iPhone SDK compatible for testing purposes, but maybe you'd settle for a... 'Zune', instead?), then I'd say 'go for it'.

Oh, I guess maybe there are a few things I can do with the iMac that your $299 beige box can't do.

I already had a multi-button Logitech IR mouse that works OK. I still haven't decided whether the quiet Apple keyboard is better/worse than my almighty UNICOMP keyboard that doubles as a lethal bludgeoning device. UNICOMP was nice enough to give me blank [command] keys to get rid of the windoze logos that otherwise might have polluted my big, noisy 'classic styled' keyboard. I'll have to swap back & forth a few times to make that decision.

I still have my 'old' Dell Vostro 1700, which I actually paid MORE for than the iMac (even before any underwriting and/or discounts) which still runs CS3/CS4 in virtual machines (and the iMac runs those same VMs as well), but I didn't want to have to waste half of my RAM runing windoze at all (though I still will use those same VMs on the iMac for certain kinds of testing). Most of my recent programming has actually been Flex SDK based, but there's no escaping 'fixing' what the artists do, and as a minimum, that requires Flash, and believe me, time spent 'fixing' differences in rendering details between OS X and Windoze, then having the artist(s) 'unfix' the fixes, then re-doing the fixes, then getting complaints that the 'fixed' versions are 'different' is no fun at all, especially when deadlines and air dates are looming, and people are calling at 11:00pm to panic at you.

[Evildave]

Yes, I did discover both of those things early on. The little white mouse just mechanically sucks at telling the difference between 'left' and 'right' click. About half of the right-clicks end up being left-clicks. The command/control discrepancies are wide-ranging. For instance, command-arrow works in some applications to move the text caret forwards/backwards one word. In other applications (like Safari), it doesn't do anything. Even worse, in Firefox, command-arrow wants to activate the 'back' and 'forwards' buttons. WTF were the folks at Mozilla smoking when they decided THAT? NOTHING is consistent in this behavior. Everyone appears to have defined 'some' keys they liked for editing, but not others. Some things, like jEdit can be configured to operate 'normally' with control arrow. If you're used to controlarrow and controlshift+arrow on Windoze/Linux machines while editing, this is a bitch and a half to get used to. An annoyance that shouldn't have been necessary.

[Evildave]

But I finally did a little digging, and these helped a bit...

http://forums.applei...d.php?p=1394553
http://www.erasetoth...x-key-bindings/

So, if you create and edit ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict, and paste this in...

{
"UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; / Home /
"~UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:"; / Opt + Home /
"^UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:"; / Control + Home /
"$UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection:"; / Shift +Home /
"$~UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocumentAndModifySelection:" ; / Shift Opt Home /
"$^UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfDocumentAndModifySelection:" ; / Shift Control Home /
"UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:"; / End /
"~UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocument:"; / Opt + End /
"^UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocument:"; / Control + End /
"$UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection:"; / Shift + End /
"$~UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocumentAndModifySelection:"; / Shift Opt End /
"$^UF72B" = "moveToEndOfDocumentAndModifySelection:"; / Shift Control End /
"UF72C" = "pageUp:"; / Page Up /
"UF72D" = "pageDown:"; / Page Down /
"~UF72C" = "scrollPageUp:"; / Opt + Page Up /
"~UF72D" = "scrollPageDown:"; / Opt + Page Down /
"$UF72C" = "pageUpAndModifySelection:"; / Shift + Page Up /
"$UF72D" = "pageDownAndModifySelection:"; / Shift + Page Down /
"^UF703" = "moveWordForward:"; / Ctrl + -> = next word /
"^UF702" = "moveWordBackward:"; / Ctrl + <- = previous word /
"^$UF703" = "moveWordForwardAndModifySelection:"; / Ctrl Shift -> = next word /
"^$UF702" = "moveWordBackwardAndModifySelection:"; / Ctrl Shift <- = previous word /

}

Then logout/login to get your Library data re-scanned, and SOME things will behave a bit better.

And it has the merit of being something you don't have to manually do a LOT of things, and the script can be shared.

[smax013]

Evildave said:

So, I replaced my primary Linux PC with a 24" iMac.


One thing I noticed right away was the keyboard shortcuts for, well EVERYTHING are different. For someone used to touch-typing and using keyboard shortcuts, having your shortcuts 'split' between command and control is a bit disconcerting, and an adjustment that takes time to get used to.

It takes a bit of getting used to using cmd-v, cmd-c, cmd-x, etc instead of ctrl-v, ctrl-c, ctrl-x, etc. since the command keys and control keys are in different places. For me, it was the opposite as I "grew up" on a Mac using the cmd key combinations....but I have adjusted to the ctrl key on my Windows computers.

Quote

The mouse that came with it is a piece of crap. While I like the scrolly ball, and it tracks accurately, the entire top portion is a single piece of plastic. It's all but impossible to reliable 'Alternate click' (right click) with it.

>

While I do like my other mice better, it is not that bad once you get used to it. I am do not have any issues with the right and left click...but I had to turn off the "squeeze" side buttons...I would continuously active it accidentally. It all comes down to how you grip the mouse and place your fingers on it. I seem to do it in such as way that I do not have trouble with the right click, but do have trouble with the "squeeze" side buttons.

The "scolly" ball is rather nice. While I have several Logitech mice that have the side click scroll wheels to scroll horizontally, they just do not compare to the "scrolly" ball.

Quote

Everything works fast. OS X handles applications a bit 'differently' from everyone else. Clicking on the 'close' button closes the document, but only hides most apps. The program is still resident. However many times you click the icon, it brings up the same instance of that application. This usually means the next document you load will come up 'quick', and most of the time you're only editing in one instance of an application, but for certain things like using 'Finder' or web browsing, where you want multiple windows open, it can get a bit annoying to right-click and peck 'new window'.

This takes some getting used to. Since I have been "Macing it" for a long time, I am well used to it...I do not close windows on the Mac...I cmd-Q it to quit the application.

Quote

Having everything share the same menu bar is 'different'. Each app gets a little more screen real estate, but also on a system with two monitors, it means going all the way 'back' to the main monitor to get at some functionality that doesn't have shortcuts.

Again, something to get used to. Since I grew up on a Mac, it is just second nature to me and I do not notice it (I tend to more notice it when I use Windows and I do NOT the single menu bar.

Hope you continue to enjoy the new computer.

[dabigkahuna]

Congrats - and I can well understand all the issues you mentioned. I went nuts for awhile simply trying to adjust to the new ways things worked too.

You mentioned you had another, multi-button, mouse. This was a big issue for me (my logitech has 8 buttons and I used them all). Besides being concerned about whether it would work on the mac (it did), there was also the problem that the mac doesn't normally support lots of buttons, plus when it did allow some extra buttons, they seemed to just do certain things.

If you want to use that mouse and have the buttons do what you want, check out Steermouse. I think it cost $20 (don't recall if you can use it free for awhile). I can't guarantee it works with every mouse, but it works just fine with mine. Besides the usual three buttons, I have one that closes tabs in Safari (I think other windows too, but I use it for Safari), another increases text size in Safari and mail on each click while another reverses that process. The other two buttons bring up things which I don't recall the names for (one is the list of running programs and the other is the widgets for calendar, calculator, etc). Sure beats having to find the keys on the keyboard.

[smax013]

BTW, you can swap the Command and Control key (as well as Option and Caps Lock keys) functionality in the System Preferences. It is under Keyboard & Mouse in the Keyboard "tab". There should be a "Modifier Keys..." button.

[niccapo]

I just bought an entry level 20" iMac and I had similar issues. The biggest change for me was that you have to control click to right click. This really annoys me as I makes tons of spelling mistakes, when I go to correct them with Firefox's build in spell checker I have to control click every mistake. Another thing that took time to relearn was the difference between control and cmd. Since I go between my Dell laptop and my Mac, I have to re-remember keyboard shortcuts. Great post by the way - it really outlines some of the main differences between Mac and PC.

[smax013]

niccapo, on 25 August 2009 - 10:30 AM, said:

I just bought an entry level 20" iMac and I had similar issues. The biggest change for me was that you have to control click to right click. This really annoys me as I makes tons of spelling mistakes, when I go to correct them with Firefox's build in spell checker I have to control click every mistake.

Just use a two button mouse and you will have regular right-click. Just about any USB based mouse will work with a Mac (you might not get all the "fancy" buttons unless the manufacturer has a Mac driver, but the main buttons and scroll wheel will work).

And if you just got your Mac, then it should have come with a "Mighty Mouse". Mighty Mice on a Mac can be configured to work as a two button mouse. Just go the System Preferences, select Keyboard & Mouse and then should be able to "turn on" the right button functionality under the Mouse tab.

[NanoGeek]

Glad you (mostly) like your new Mac. I just purchased a MacBook over the sumer for collage.

In case you didn't know this already, you can open a new window by pressing Command+N. That's a lot easier than constantly drilling through menus.

[Grr8008]

Congrats Evildave! Enjoy that new computer! I am getting one myself. (Though with windows) Still Linux will be going on my new computer in the form of a VM.

[niccapo]

smax013, on 25 August 2009 - 07:51 AM, said:

Just use a two button mouse and you will have regular right-click. Just about any USB based mouse will work with a Mac (you might not get all the "fancy" buttons unless the manufacturer has a Mac driver, but the main buttons and scroll wheel will work).

And if you just got your Mac, then it should have come with a "Mighty Mouse". Mighty Mice on a Mac can be configured to work as a two button mouse. Just go the System Preferences, select Keyboard & Mouse and then should be able to "turn on" the right button functionality under the Mouse tab.

Thanks a lot for the advice. Switching over right now.

[smax013]

niccapo, on 26 August 2009 - 11:05 AM, said:

Thanks a lot for the advice. Switching over right now.

Mac OS X has had two button support from the get go from what I recall, but it took a while for Steve "Do It My Way or the Highway" Jobs to allow Apple to actually include a mouse that can uses two buttons (technically, the Mighty Mouse is still one physical button, but it has touch sensors to detect if your button push is a left or right "button" click...ya, I know, kind of "fancy, schmancy", but it works ).