So I’ve had a Mac for a little over a week now. Despite spending a few necessary evenings getting Vista installed and set up, I’ve found myself using OS X the most, and I find my appreciation for it growing the more I use it.
I’m starting to get a better feel for XCode now (thanks to the earlier tips, and training myself to single-click rather than double-click on source files to avoid extra pop-up windows) and am beginning to understand things like how Frameworks function (and I have to say, they look very sensible), and what on Earth Carbon and Cocoa are and why they both exist. I’ve brought the project files on CVS HEAD up to date on the Mac now so all is well there. I do plan to spend some more time creating XCode projects of various types from scratch though since I’m still not sure what a lot of the options do or how they would be configured from the ground up. I also need to figure out how to build SDKs and distributable packages.
I still can’t get along with Mail.app due to its poor multiple identity support and flaky IMAP implementation (the save sent items to server feature leaks messages like a seive) so I’m still using Thunderbird. I lose the OS X address book integration but because I don’t need to use iSync right now it’s not a big deal – I need a solid mail client more than that. I also still use Firefox for similar reasons – Safari / Camino just don’t quite cut it when you’ve gotten used to having good extensions at your fingertips.
Other areas have gone well though. Adium is great, easily my preferred IM program now. Quicksilver is useful, although I’m by no means using its full power yet. NeoOffice is very capable until Open Office get an official non-X11 version out. Seashore is competent enough at most things that I haven’t felt the need to reboot to use Photoshop yet, although I haven’t used it a huge amount. Most of all I find the environment very usable and fast – it definitely outperforms Vista by a noticeable margin. I can do all the same things, including building Ogre and other more demanding things but with almost twice the battery life and without hearing the fan once. Visual Studio is fast on this machine too but dear God does it get it hot under the collar. Dashboard and Expose make jumping between apps and helper widgets faster than the equivalent in Vista. It still annoys me that I can’t resize my windows by dragging any border, but I can live with that. Two-finger tapping and drag-scrolling means I don’t miss having a right button either.
All in all, I’m finding OS X rather comfortable, more than I thought I would, given I knew my application choice would be more limited, and my experiences jumping desktop OS’s in the past (Linux of various flavours) hadn’t enticed me away for any length of time before. Windows still has the edge on sheer number of 3rd-party applications, but OS X has definitely turned this long-time Windows users head. I’ve heard from no fewer than 4 previously PC-only friends that they’ve bought MacBook Pros in the last month (looks like I’m not the only one who was influenced by the new model). Maybe it’s possible that the Mac could regain the late 80’s / early 90’s glory years? The world does need a real alternative to Windows on the desktop – and Linux isn’t it for most people IMHO, it should stick to servers & tech workstations until it can decide on a standardised UI – and I may be late in discovering it, but OS X certainly delivers. I can’t imagine it ever being a real threat to Windows in the business world because of the strong consumer / design house focus, but it definitely wouldn’t be a bad thing for it to make it into more homes. I’d even recommend one to my Mum if she ends up having to buy a new laptop 
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:58 pm
For a browser i use omniweb. I think it’s by far the best browser for osx, and i highly recommend you check it out.
July 24th, 2007 at 4:22 am
What is the battery life under OSX?
July 24th, 2007 at 6:34 am
Being a Mac user now for just some few days longer than you, I share most of your exprience
I also like Adium, but it scares me a bit that some people (using Trillian?) will get a warning that I am using a broken IM client when I chat with them 
And I also use MacOsX now more than I had expected, not only for Irrlicht development, so go apple go!
July 24th, 2007 at 7:15 am
“Linux isn’t it for most people IMHO, it should stick to servers & tech workstations until it can decide on a standardised UI”
Speak for yourself, there are many people that have used Ubuntu Linux just fine. You have been burned by your past experiences.
July 24th, 2007 at 8:42 am
@jonnii: looks kinda interesting, but as I said I can’t live without my FF extensions.
@niko: Interesting, I hadn’t heard that about Adium, maybe I’m not talking to anyone using Trillian.
@Tau: depends what you’re doing but on an average session I get around 4 hours. Theoretically the battery life is up to 6 but I doubt anyone will ever actually see that. Under Vista it’s more like 2 even with transparency turned off – I might turn off Aero altogether.
@Andrew: “Speak for yourself”: I never claimed to do otherwise
I have indeed been burned, and that’s the point. I’ve tried Ubuntu too (twice) and so far no desktop Linux distro has made me feel the need to switch; too much time wasted with fiddly driver support and inconsistent app UIs. Desktop OS’s are all about being productive quickly and getting the hell out of the way and I personally never felt that way about a Linux distro – they have always been a time sink for me, mostly because of a few small niggling issues, but that’s enough to spoil the experience. In contrast Linux on the server side has been perfect for me, does what it says on the tin and no faffing about. Very much personal experience, but having given it several goes each time I don’t feel any inclination to make a permanent switch – I don’t hate desktop Linux, I just don’t love it either, certainly not enough to make it my main environment. For me OS X is the first experience of *nix in something that is actually a joy to use.
July 24th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I have to agree with Steve. I tried using Linux many times and in the end I just gave up:
- inconsistent UIs
- poor SATA performance
- having to fiddle with xorg.conf (e.g. monitor setup), audio problems (I have to do what to use a DAW???)
- fragmentation (how many distros or editors do I need?)
- neither KDE nor GNOME work well for me but I need a desktop.
For me OSX is what Linux + GNOME/KDE should have become. I don’t use OSX though my next PC will be a Mac when I can afford it. I’ve used my brother’s Mac and I used it without thinking what I was doing.
So my (humble) opinion is that Linux desktops have lost the plot over the years and missed their chance.
I’ve been using Linux on and off since Ygdrassil, so I’ve tried Mandrake, Redhat, Ubuntu/Kubuntu, Slackware, Fedora, Lycoris, Mitel SME (still running a server on it), Foresight and god knows how many other smaller distros.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
@steve: do you use the F-keys for dashboard, exposé etc. or have you tried the ‘active corners’ (translated from german, not sure if they are called that in english) ?
since i’ve turned that feature on it changed my whole mouse behaviour and how i deal with windows
you should give it a try if you haven’t!
July 24th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Linux will never, ever have that.
Because it is open. And because that’s one of the great things about it: no matter what you want, be it GUI, app or widget, chances are that someone else developed it for you, somewhere, somehow.
You can call it fragmentation, if you want – but I would call you totally off the wall wrong.
Linux is not one entity, not a company.
I remember how awkward it was to install only a few years ago.
Not so now: it installs elegantly on almost anything.
So, yes: Linux is getting better all the time.
Maybe Linux will still be for geeks only. If you take out the power and flexibility of it, you get much closer to fail-safe-ness.
Linux is a tinkerers OS more than anything else.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
@bakkdoor: I use a bit of both – I have corners set up for Expose but I also use the F keys, both are useful depending on whether you were using the mouse or keyboard already.
@jacmoe: I think the ‘mainstream appeal’ and ‘completely open, standards-less system’ is unsquarable, so I think desktop Linux will remain mostly in the hands of developers, enthusiasts or people who can’t afford the alternatives. I don’t find Windows or OSX any less ‘open’ than Linux in practice, personally – I can develop apps for any of them, and get open source code and plenty of good apps on all of them. Sure, I can’t get the code to many parts of OSX but I don’t feel I need to. So the main key requirement of my OS is for it to just work well and stay out of my way while I do more useful things. All my experiences with desktop Linux have involved it getting in the way of real work by me having to spend a lot of time poring through docs and forums to resolve various problems, certainly far more than either of Windows and OS X have required. Given that I can get the apps I want on all 3, the ones that don’t need hand-holding are more attractive to me – but for other people who like to spend their time tinkering with OS’s, or can’t afford commercial OS’s, or feel that they gain something extra from a fully open source OS, I’m sure it’s different.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Just mentioning it in case yiou’re not aware: putting 2 fingers on the touchpad and clicking is right click. Saved me a lot of time
A few more app tips, in case you don’t know them already:
- iTerm is a great terminal replacement
- Colloquy is a wonderful IRC program
- Regarding your resizing windows habits – it’s not the same but maybe it’s helpful: http://www.atomicbird.com/mondomouse/