Switching from PC to Macbook - Things I miss on MAC

Discussion in 'MAC' started by shabbir, Apr 16, 2012.

  1. shabbir

    shabbir Administrator Staff Member

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    December 2011 is when I moved to MAC from PC and there are few adaptions that need to be done for everybody who is willing to switch to MAC. The most common one is the application windows are mirrored i.e. the close button is in top left corner of the window and not in top right corner and scrolling of mouse is reversed.

    Let me share things that are different in MAC and Windows and Things I Miss in MAC

    1. Hibernate option



    Being a developer I had a habit of hibernating my PC which means the unsaved work remains as if we have not closed our PC and everything opens as if it was never closed but MAC does not have the hibernate option and all you can do best is close the lid of the MacBook but that is not equivalent Hibernate and your MAC consumes power when in standby though very little.

    2. Cut Copy Paste



    When moving files I always prefer cut and paste for moving files from one folder to the other but you have no option to cut and paste things in MAC and either you have to be a mouse junkie to move files using drag and drop or you have to copy and then paste and then delete the source files which I always tend to forget.

    I tried reading how to enable cut options and found that Cut is not at an option in MAC because of the word Cut which means it is deleted from the source and if user forgets to paste the cut things, they may be lost but then it could be handled like Windows does which is cut is not deleting but just visual representations that items are cut and waiting to be pasted by making them dim.

    3. Home Button



    The Home button in PC places the cursor at the beginning of a line in any editor in PC but the home button is missing in MAC and you have to use Command + Left Arrow that becomes the functionality of Home button but then this shortcut does not work in Browser's and so if you composing and email Gmail interface writing an article in Wordpress, this function actually becomes back button short cut of browser and so when you use Home button to move your cursor to the beginning of line, you end up on the back page and so all you typing is gone unless saved it as draft.

    This was very annoying for me because most of the time I am using Either using Gmail or on Wordpress or on other online text editors in browsers and each time I try to hit home I am taken on the back page. To avoid this I think you should use KeyConfig Mozilla extension to disable the function of Back button on the Command left arrow key to make your home function work in browser as you expect.

    4. Windows Image Browser



    I have a habit of collecting screenshots because when I see something that I can blog about, I take the screen shot and keep them for when I plan to write about it. The image browser for MAC is not what we are used to in PC. The default Image browser in MAC does not have the option to view the next image in the folder and so you have to double click each image to see them. I installed XEE image browser for MAC which allows you to browse through the images in a folder but that has its own limitations. You cannot delete files from XEE application directly but in PC's we are used to viewing the images and clicking the delete button in the viewer itself but then for deleting those images I have to verify which thumb looks like the current image and then delete them manually.

    5. Minimizing all Open windows



    I miss the Windows+M button because it minimizes all the open windows in one go but in MAC I am yet to find option to minimize everything in one go. Gestures can help you see the desktop with one action but then opening any other window from the desktop means all my windows comes back with the newly open window and so there is no shortcut to minimize everything.

    6. Rename Option in Menu



    Right clicking on any file does now show the option to rename that file and so I have to click the file name to have an option to edit file name.

    7. Open Dialog Suggestions



    When Using Open (or even Save) File Dialog for any application, I prefer typing the name of the file and Windows recommends some file name that can be opened from the current folder based on first few character of the filename but in MAC the open and save dialog box does not have any option to enter any file name and so you have to find the file in the browser using your mouse only.

    [​IMG]

    8. The Windows key Equivalent



    There is no short cut to the Apple's button and so you have to shut down your PC using your Mouse only. At least I couldn't find any short cut key that pulls down the Apple Menu from the top left corner of the MAC.

    Let me also share some extra features of MAC which are at times just too much

    1. File associations File extension associations



    With windows you can have only one application that is associated with an extension. So all your .txt file open in a notepad and if you change your .txt file association to be say WordPad all your .txt files will open in WordPad but in MAC there are more than one type of association.

    Extensions are by default work like PC but if you right click and press the option button you can open a file in some other viewer but it does not actually change the extension association for such file types but it just associate an application for that one file only.
    For changing the association for particular file type you have to Right Click the file and from Get Info Menu option edit the open with option. Once done click Change All for opening all file extension with the new application you just selected.

    [​IMG]

    Remember this will not change those associations where you have file name associated with other applications.

    2. Faulty Replace of Windows Which we are used to



    Let us say we have 2 zip files. Zip1 and Zip2 and both have the following files under the folder name zip.
    1. Zip1 > Zip > file1.ext
    2. Zip2 > Zip > file2.ext
    Now when you extract both the zip files you find those files in your explorer (Finder in MAC)

    Now if you copy Zip under Zip2 and paste in Zip1

    • In Windows you get both the files file1.ext and file2.ext under Zip of Zip1
    • In MAC your folders content are replaced and so you would have only file2.ext under the Zip of Zip1
    This is actually not a replace but Merge but Windows term it as Replace and we all know this is replace and I had horrible time installing vBulletin with vBSEO where I had to copy files extracted from vBSEO zip into vBulletin content and as I select Replace, the vBulletin files gets deleted from folder and so I got lot of error which annoyed me before I realized what was actually happening.

    Make sure you don't opt for Replace option in MAC but opt for Merge option.

    [​IMG]

    3. _MACOSX folder in the archive



    I am not sure why but whenever I compress anything and upload it to my server I get an extra folder _MACOSX which contains data about the compressed archive. I think it is unwanted piece of data that I don't want to upload to my server but cannot do anything to remove it from the zip file. All I can do is upload, extract and then delete that folder from the server.

    Sound off in comments
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2017
  2. lionaneesh

    lionaneesh Active Member

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    1) Well, to solve the extra _MACOSX directory in a zip archive issue we can use ZipCleaner from http://homepage.mac.com/roger_jolly/software/.

    2) Regarding the Hibernate option - I dont think its really an important thing to add as mac claims to have a 30 days standby time, so its for from enough IMO.

    I'd also like to add some more issues to the list :-

    1) Moving the typing cursor takes a lot of time.
    2) I miss a delete key, The delete key on mac replaces the backspace on a normal keyboard but we still dont have a del key (like on normal keyboards).
    3) Appstore requires a attached CC even for free apps. That really puts me off.
    4) Lacks a lot of customizability - mac really sucks in this, Actually I have been a linux user for a long time now and I like to customize a lot of things, mac doesn't even supports the basic ones. eg: Its not possible to change the behavior of closing the laptop lid on mac without having to install a app like InsomniaX etc.

    And I'd like to add some Pro's too:-

    1) The keyboard layout is awesome, The keys are properly spaced and Its less probable to make a typo on mac compared to a normal keyboard.
    2) Fast booting as well as fast shutdown speed, The best I have seen so far on any OS, Maybe Ubuntu is a little bit faster but mac outruns windows by a hefty margin.
    3) Excellent UI, better than Windows IMO.
    4) I love the touchpad gestures, it gets things done much faster.
     
  3. shabbir

    shabbir Administrator Staff Member

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    Yes other utilities to zip does but then why get a utility and I think there should be an option to avoid that in the OS version as well.

    What you say is true from MACBook point of view but what happens for MAC desktops. Also I don't think Hibernate can be replaced by Standby.

    I'd also like to add some more issues to the list :-

    Not for me
    Code:
    2) I miss a delete key, The delete key on mac replaces the backspace on a normal keyboard but we still dont have a del key (like on normal keyboards).
    Backspace is named as delete and delete is Fn+Delete.
    Yes and that is true even for students.
    Yes. Actually I download lot of things and I have to keep my lid open where as in Windows I could just keep PC running even when lid is closed.

    And I'd like to add some Pro's too:-

    Yes but then Windows Keyboard is lot different and so you are bound to make mistakes to start with but yes I agree that keys are just awesome.
    Will slow down like Windows. My 6 months old MAC now takes more time to boot than before.
     

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