As a person who has been using a Mac for about 5 years now, not much. Macs have a slightly better UX(for now, personally I think Win7 makes them equals) if you don't like the command line at all(or are command line only, but then it offers nothing over Linux). If you are a fan of both the command line and the GUI Mac OS is a bizarre halfling that doesn't play well with itself. Windows is much more coherent if you use both(even when you use Cygwin for the CL side of things.) If you stray off the blessed path with Macs things get ugly quickly(Steve Yeggie has a rant about trying to make Focus Follow Mouse work properly that is quite amusing.)
I've done a half-switch, but completely agree with stonemetal. I have both a Mac and Windows that I use for development. OSX is pretty. I'm running Windows7 on my other machine.
stonemental's 'halfling' comment is dead on, and I find it the strangest thing about macs.
Also, what I wasn't prepared for was the need to learn so many keyboard shortcuts. No button to go right to your desktop, there's a keyboard shortcut for that (but who knows what it is). Not 'rename' in the dropdown menu, but there's a short cut for that (I don't know what it is).
It seems like the things like this that I use all the time and are basic on a PC are obscured on a mac.
Default shortcut to go to the desktop is F11. Default shortcut to rename a currently selected file is Enter.
These keys are unusual if you're already coming from another OS but I've found them to be quite comforting after you get past the initial learning curve. But that's the point, there is a curve to everything.
I don't think it really matters what OS you use as much as the fact that you constantly try to get more adept at using it (w/ the underlying assumption that the limit is not infinite yet unattainable.. but that's another story ^_^).
My brother said that go to shortcut was F11, but F11 is volume control on my mac. F11 was screen brightness on my brothers older generation MacBook Pro.
These is some of the inconsistencies that I'm really surprised to see, but kinda go hand in hand with the inconsistency with command-line from linux.
I agree with your comment about getting more adept. However, with Microsoft, I find that you learn as you go. Keyboard shortcuts are listed, menus may be longer, but show you the functions you can use. It is more cluttered, but it is a platform that allows you to learn. Macs (and of course Unix) force you to go look for the solutions. This makes for a cleaner interface, but doesn't provide the opportunity for discoverability.
Personally, I'd rather spend my time learning a new language than a new OS.
Comments
>wondering what can I gain from switching to Mac
As a person who has been using a Mac for about 5 years now, not much. Macs have a slightly better UX(for now, personally I think Win7 makes them equals) if you don't like the command line at all(or are command line only, but then it offers nothing over Linux). If you are a fan of both the command line and the GUI Mac OS is a bizarre halfling that doesn't play well with itself. Windows is much more coherent if you use both(even when you use Cygwin for the CL side of things.) If you stray off the blessed path with Macs things get ugly quickly(Steve Yeggie has a rant about trying to make Focus Follow Mouse work properly that is quite amusing.)
I've done a half-switch, but completely agree with stonemetal. I have both a Mac and Windows that I use for development. OSX is pretty. I'm running Windows7 on my other machine.
stonemental's 'halfling' comment is dead on, and I find it the strangest thing about macs.
Also, what I wasn't prepared for was the need to learn so many keyboard shortcuts. No button to go right to your desktop, there's a keyboard shortcut for that (but who knows what it is). Not 'rename' in the dropdown menu, but there's a short cut for that (I don't know what it is). It seems like the things like this that I use all the time and are basic on a PC are obscured on a mac.
Default shortcut to go to the desktop is F11. Default shortcut to rename a currently selected file is Enter.
These keys are unusual if you're already coming from another OS but I've found them to be quite comforting after you get past the initial learning curve. But that's the point, there is a curve to everything.
I don't think it really matters what OS you use as much as the fact that you constantly try to get more adept at using it (w/ the underlying assumption that the limit is not infinite yet unattainable.. but that's another story ^_^).
My brother said that go to shortcut was F11, but F11 is volume control on my mac. F11 was screen brightness on my brothers older generation MacBook Pro.
These is some of the inconsistencies that I'm really surprised to see, but kinda go hand in hand with the inconsistency with command-line from linux.
I agree with your comment about getting more adept. However, with Microsoft, I find that you learn as you go. Keyboard shortcuts are listed, menus may be longer, but show you the functions you can use. It is more cluttered, but it is a platform that allows you to learn. Macs (and of course Unix) force you to go look for the solutions. This makes for a cleaner interface, but doesn't provide the opportunity for discoverability.
Personally, I'd rather spend my time learning a new language than a new OS.