Recently, staff writer and long-time Windows user Malcolm Owen returned to the Mac following a five-year absence. Back to the Mac
is a series of posts where he charts his progress in introducing Apple to his computing environment again. In this installment, Malcolm recounts his first full working week with on the Mac mini. Switching between two different ways of using an item or working can be tough to do. Long-established patterns are difficult to break, and altering the way you navigate a computer in the short term could, for people resistant to change, be akin to giving up an addiction. I hate change.
I knew full well that my first week of Mac usage would be difficult, especially when I had a beefy PC nearby that I could theoretically go back to if needed. The problem, however, was that I could've ended up using it as a crutch during my work, and if it was there as a back-up plan, what would stop me from throwing my hands up in defeat and working from the PC? I needed to go "cold turkey" for this.
I copied all the important work-related files (the iTunes library, and my collection of stock image files) to the Mac mini using a USB thumb drive, as I remembered I had had issues with Windows-Mac networking in the past. Once everything looked as if it would work, I disconnected the power cable from the PC, and took it -- along with my Windows notebook -- to the opposite end of the house.
Sure, if I absolutely had to, I could get back into a Windows environment within minutes if I had a crisis, but the time taken would almost certainly be longer than the equivalent online search and download to solve most small problems. Besides, I work in blogging, with most software for work
installed earlier, and the most processor-intensive task being a tie between basic image editing and launching Google Chrome. What kind of issue could cause me to switch back mid-shift to the PC?
The first main issue I had was the dreaded keyboard shortcuts. Cut, Copy, and Paste were no longer combinations of the Ctrl key with X, C, and V. They were ineffectual in OS X, as the Cmd key replaced Ctrl for those and other similar functions. This was tricky to keep remembering, though after a few days, my fingers were automatically switching to the right combinations. While remembering to switch to Cmd instead of Ctrl required practice, the Ctrl key came into a life of its own. At one point, I accidentally pressed Ctrl along with arrow keys, triggering Spaces instead.
Spaces also tied into another oddity that Windows users will also have trouble getting their head around: maximizing a window. While on PC, maximizing a window typically allows the software to fill the display, it still shows the taskbar at the bottom, and users can bring other windows to the front. In Mavericks? Nope. Maximizing the window really does mean "maximize," hiding the dock and the top menu bar, and setting the screen as a separate desktop in Spaces. Want the same sort of Windows fill-the-screen functionality? Double-click the top of the window to stretch it.
This different maximization scheme had its benefits, and though it took some practice, it has since become very useful. I now have a maximized word processor, minimizing on-screen distractions while writing, and another just for Tweetdeck. Slamming the Ctrl and arrow keys left and right to switch between the two and the desktop is easy to do, and pretty quick compared to using the mouse.
Having a dual-screen system throws up its own challenges on most computers, and the Mac is no exception. Take, for example, moving windows between one screen and another. For normal apps, this is dealt with elegantly, with the window being translucent on the other monitor until you drag the mouse onto that screen, in which case it switches to opaque and becomes translucent on the original screen. This doesn't happen in Chrome when you drag tabs from one window to another across multiple screens, though this is probably a Chrome issue, not OS X.
The dock on a dual-screen setup was initially troublesome. Sure, the dock could immediately pop up on one screen or the other, as it does when you bring the cursor to where it usually resides on that display, but sometimes it would not pop across immediately, requiring two or three passes with the mouse before it reacts. The workaround I came up with was turning on automatic dock hiding, making it seemingly more reactive than in its unhidden form.
The Finder does take some getting used to, from a Windows user standpoint. The ability to show folders as an icon grid is a familiar concept, though by the second full day, I preferred the columns view, if only for the quick switching between folders with similar paths.
Moving away from software to hardware, the change in keyboard was my biggest obstacle. My "daily driver" is an old and cheap Logitech keyboard with extended adjustable feet on the back, custom-made due to a cat-related accident. Switching to the flatter Apple Keyboard took some getting used to, but the bigger challenge was what I predicted last time: symbol placement. Throughout the first few days, quotes were briefly prefixed with an @ symbol instead of quotation marks, before I cursed, deleted the mistake, used the "correct" key, and grew ever more annoyed by whomever decided to make the tiny-yet-annoying change to the UK keyboard layout. This was the toughest challenge of the week, but by the end I had become used to it.
The keyboard was also subject to abuse from my cats. While most of the menagerie took efforts to not step on the high-up Logitech keyboard, the flat and light-colored Apple Keyboard was mostly ignored by the furry herd, and was subsequently trampled on whenever any of them jumped on the desk demanding fuss. Aside from a fair amount of cat hair, the keyboard has survived relatively unscathed.
Remaining on the hardware side, I found issues with my first choice of mouse. After discovering the Mac mini believed my Razer Deathadder to be a keyboard when I plugged it in, it started working once the requisite Razer software was installed. Shortly after, I found issues with single clicks being either unrecognized or operating as a double click every so often. Since this interfered with my work and wasn't an immediately-solvable problem, I switched out the gaming mouse for one I packed with the notebook for journeys. It worked fine.
The main Mac mini hardware did raise two completely unexpected "issues" that needed solving. Firstly, the cats were attracted to it on its initial side-of-desk position, serving as a small metal plinth that provided a tiny amount of warmth that was quickly applied to the feline backside. Cue a swift replacement of the unit onto nearby shelves, keeping it easy to access but with only a small amount of space above it to keep the cats off.
The second unexpected problem was its relative silence. My PC has a lot of fans, which obviously made a lot of background noise. With the PC off, I lacked the persistent soundtrack the fans created, allowing me to hear the other distracting noises in the house. This was solved using headphones, but on those occasions where I didn't want the pressure around my ears, I had to put up with the gurgling noises the fridge freezer in the kitchen makes, the droning of the
Jeremy Kyle Show someone else was watching, and the distant clattering of cats remodeling the bedrooms.
Did I survive the week on the Mac? Yes. Was it difficult? Not hugely. Is there more to do? Certainly. For a start, what else can this thing do, and how can I improve the workflow I have transposed to the Mac from my PC? These questions and more ... next time!
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