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Mac(k)ing the Transition
By RR | January 25, 2010
Just how embedded is Windows in my cognitive process? This is an interesting question–and one that I will answer firsthand when my new Macbook Pro arrives in a week or two. I know that the right-click is a big part of the way that I operate online and offline. I may end up getting a two-button mouse for this reason. But just how else the Windows interface has permeated my thinking?
I do know that this is going to be a big transition. I need to clean up my old laptop, turn it back in, and then start plugging new apps into the Mac. Here are a few Windows programs I am hoping to retain via Parallels:
- Adobe Pagemaker for editing web graphics and images
- Adobe Premier CS4 for video editing, if the processor can handle it
- Adobe Acrobat for creating PDFs, unless Mac makes something comparable or better
- Macromedia Fireworks, for vector-based graphics
- Snagit for grabbing screenshots. I think this is available for Mac, but why pay for it twice?
There are also a bunch of little applications that I’ve grown quite fond of over the years.
- Filezilla for easy FTP access to my blog is available for Mac, though I may have to pay for the newest version
- Handbrake, a convenient tool for video conversion, is also available for Mac
- Dropbox for file syncing and backup is also available for Mac (yes!)
I’m pleased to think that I won’t be using Internet Explorer much anymore, though I’ve heard mixed things about Safari. I’ll likely stick with Firefox for web browsing, though I may also try Google Chrome for Mac. For word processing, the Mac will have Office for Mac. I don’t think Mac even tries to compete with Word. Might be nice to get a license for Final Cut Pro sooner or later.
Lastly, I’m looking forward to the design. I’ve been spending time with the strictly functional for far too long. Time to bring in some beauty.
Categories: News | Tags: mac | 3 Comments »
I highly recommend the Magic Mouse. It is very popular right now so you probably can’t get it at the Mac store and if you buy it online you’ll have to wait, but you can get it at Best Buy and it is the same price as at Mac stores. It’s so awesome!
Posted by: Greg H on January 26th, 2010 at 9:03 amAlso, right now Google Chrome for Mac really sucks, I don’t know when it’s going to get better, but it seems like Firefox is the way to go (on Mac) for the moment.
The mouse thing remains an issue for me, and I got my Macbook Pro back in October. I got a neat little Bluetooth mouse from Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826105238
…and it’s been more than adequate (albeit a bit of a battery hog – I left it on overnight once a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed to drain most of the remaining battery). This has been my first real experience with Bluetooth, however, and I gotta say, I’m loving it; I even have my old, broken laptop still hooked up to my external sound card (which isn’t Mac compatible) and 5.1 speakers, and, with a little $10 Rocketfish Bluetooth adapter I bought from Best Buy, I can Bluetooth over to that laptop and use the speakers, there, as my Mac’s sound source. It’s pretty neat. Not to mention the Bluetooth headset I nabbed (Altec Lansing BackBeat 903) is pretty cool for it, too; although they’ve gone up in price significantly on Newegg since. Mine only cost $22, shipped, and now they’re running over $70!:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875978112&cm_re=backbeat-_-75-978-112-_-Product
I’ve been thinking of switching over to Chrome, myself. I didn’t like it much on my Windows machine, but I don’t remember exactly why. Maybe because it seemed a little bare-bones…which is kind of what I’m going for, now, as long as “it works good”. Firefox for Mac is doing me just fine, however. Still – if Chrome has some Google functions built in (I haven’t looked at it for awhile), that may make me switch over – I’ve been keeping my life on Google for awhile, and accessing it more and more, too, since I picked up my Droid a few weeks ago (which is an amazing, priceless little gadget!)
One of my complaints is that the newer Macbooks don’t have the same analog video-out that the old ones did, so I either need to a) get a new TV, or b) spend $100.00 finagling up a set of 2-3 different adapters and converters to hook the thing up to my old one. Lame.
Posted by: Joe on January 26th, 2010 at 9:09 amAnother thing, as to the mouse issue:
Posted by: Joe on January 26th, 2010 at 9:18 amMacbooks have a builtin feature on their touchpad that makes it ‘multi-purpose’ by default; there’s the whole 2-finger-click=double-click thing, but there’s also 3-and-4-finger-clicking and swiping that have additional functions. I haven’t gotten used to using them much, myself, but it’s pretty cool when I remember it’s there; you can clear stuff away to access your desktop with the swipe of your fingers, for example (though Windows-key+M always struck my fancy, and there doesn’t seem to be a Mac equivalent, unless I’ve overlooked it…)