Common Myths for the Macintosh

David Alison's Blog ^ | 05/06/2008 | David Alison

[Swordmaker]

There are lots of reasons that people don't want to switch from Windows to Macintosh. I assume the most common reason is simply because Windows works for the people that are using it. The old adage "If it ain't broke don't fix it" tends to apply here. These people are not upgrading to Vista either, they're staying with Windows XP or even Windows 98 and are just fine.

There are however an increasing number of people that are moving to Macs now - many of them people like me that hated Macs at one time. I believe there are lots of reasons for this, not the least of which is that people that are running Windows XP are faced with an upgrade to Vista as their next logical step and feel that maybe it's okay to consider a Mac since they have to go through a full operating system refresh anyway.

One of the reasons I was not interested in Macs for a very long time was that I clung to many facts about the Mac that I felt eliminated it from contention. Well, as with many things in life it turns out the facts that I knew about the Mac were either hopelessly outdated or simply myths. What I wanted to do was tell you the ones that I was aware of and often cited when I dismissed Macs in the past.

Mac's only use a single mouse button
I'm not a Mac historian, my history with the Mac being very recent but I've read that Mac multi-button mouse support has been around for some time. You may look at the MacBook keyboards and only see a single mouse button or a Mighty Mouse and think that it's not supported. The reality is the MacBook track pad has an ingenious way of supporting right mouse clicks that I find better than having the extra little stub that is a right mouse button.

You simply press two fingers to the surface and click the button and it emulates a right mouse click. While the Mighty Mouse (which I personally detest) only appears to have a single mouse button it does indeed support right clicking. I just plugged in my Logitech mice and happily right click whenever I need to.

There are not that many applications for Macs
Windows does indeed have far more applications written for it than are available for Mac. What you have to do is look at the quality of those applications though. Many of the hundreds of thousands that are cited for Windows were written back in the 90s and few have been updated. Sure, most still work but that doesn't mean they are still relevant. I have found no lack of software for my Macs - virtually anything I have needed is available in native Mac format.

Frankly, as a Mac n00bie I was shocked by the volume of quality Mac software available, especially on the consumer front. The number of Mac titles for business software, especially in the vertical markets for small businesses, is much smaller though.

Macs are closed machines that cannot be expanded
I have personally swapped out the memory in my MacBook inside of about 5 minutes. I upgraded my MacBook's hard drive in another 5 minutes. That's about all you can physically do with any laptop, whether it's a PC or a Mac. My Mac Pro upgrades were even easier. That machine is designed to make expanding common hardware about as easy as it gets. It took me less than a minute to install a 1TB hard drive - so little time I grabbed my video camera and filmed how easy it was:

Sure, I can't overclock my processor and the number of graphics card drivers that are supported by OS X is significantly smaller than Windows but to say I can't put non-Apple replacement parts into my Mac is just not the case. The Mac Mini and iMacs are limited in their upgrade options, but the same holds true of the Windows machines from Dell and HP that have the CPU and display all packaged together.

Macs don't work well with Windows machines on a network
I've got a GB switch at home and a variety of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Ubuntu and now Mac machines on it. Sharing files between the machines is very simple. My Macs can see my Windows shares and my Windows machines can see my Mac shared folders. I shared my printer attached to a Windows machine with my Mac and it was able to use it just fine.

Macs are more expensive
This is the one that I struggle with a bit. Yes, the Macs are slightly more expensive than PCs in general, but you have to look at what you are or more importantly not getting when you buy a Mac. Low cost PCs are often subsidized by bundled application software that is included with a new machine. When I recently bought a little HP that would eventually serve as my Ubuntu workstation it came so loaded with crap and Windows Vista that it barely even ran out of the box. The average consumer that isn't a techie would be hard pressed to clear up all of the stuff that bogs down the average new PC.

For techies it's a different story. You can go to places like Newegg and build a high performance system that has exactly what you want on it - nothing more, nothing less - and adjust expectations on price accordingly. But doing that means you are your own technical support clearing house. When the motherboard in my newly built gaming rig wouldn't post I had to call the manufacturer and work through a series of steps before we found that the board was shorting out. I needed to RMA it myself and undergo the same process when the replacement arrived days later. It took me the better part of two working days to build up that machine.

That said, I did that because I enjoyed doing it, however that time comes at a cost. Is your time worth anything to you? If it is and you don't find joy in doing this kind of technical troubleshooting then getting a fully tested and serviced machine that works out of the box is incredibly valuable. You get what you pay for in this case.

Macs can't run my Windows software
Well, that of course is not the case. I can take a legal copy of Windows XP or Vista and without spending any money use Bootcamp (which comes with OS X) and boot into Windows if I have to. It's standard PC hardware so it runs great. Better yet, grab a copy of VMware Fusion and run the Windows applications side by side with your Mac apps.

I haven't tried playing any high-end games on my Macs yet. This blog has burned up my remaining free time so they are out for now, though that's the most common complaint I've heard that I can't refute. Perhaps someone can jump in here and clarify that one. Can you play high end games like Crysis on Mac hardware and get decent performance?

Macs are mouse centered machines. You constantly have to grab the mouse.
Macs not only have excellent keyboard support, the use of shortcuts is profound. About the only thing I've found that doesn't work as well as Windows is the use of mnemonics in dialog windows that make it easy to jump to a field in a large form with lots of items in it. When a dialog pops up inside of a Mac I find that I generally grab the mouse.

On the other hand shortcuts on the Mac are consistent between applications and liberally sprinkled throughout. If you have ever seen someone that really knows the Mac well use a keyboard to do some work it's an exercise in humility. It's like productivity++.

So there you have it, the myths that I clung to that kept me from seriously considering a Mac for so long. I'm sure there are other reasons that people think switching from Windows to Mac is a bad idea - I've seen enough flame wars on the topic to know that it's a religious issue for many.

[Codeflier]

I did say “most”, not all. Just having fun with the Mac crowd here on Free Republic. Nothing personal...enjoy your Mac.

[cowboyway]

Nothing personal-just having fun. Enjoy your Mac.

I liked the irony.

You mean Mac's. 3 of em. One in the basement, one on the ground floor and one in the loft. (The one in the loft is a 24" iMac, HD display that I use for watching movies downloaded from iTunes.)

And of course, an iPhone..................

And I said all that without a trace of snobbery.

[Terpfen]

Just an FYI: lately, MacBook display panels manufactured by Samsung have exhibited symptoms of extreme pixellation and dithering, to the point where it looks like a 4-bit panel.

I just exchanged, then returned that exchange, my MacBook due to this problem. LG, AUO, and Chi Mei panels are still good. It just seems Samsung has a bad batch.

Maybe it's a good thing I had to return the MacBook, though.

[Swordmaker]

Re: refurbished means “used.”

No, he means “refurbished” with the same warranty as new.

[the anti-liberal]

"My Dock is auto-hide... and I drag and drop to and from it all the time. Perhaps you don't really know how to use a Mac?"

Or it may be that their OS version doesn't support it.

".. but that was a choice that Adobe made.. Universal dragging and dropping is something that the Mac does very well."

That's good to hear, though I prefer what you call the 'option click.' And yes, I know that can be done in Macs now - I use it with the graphic tablet stylus (Wacom, on their Macs and on my PC) and, I'll admit, the function of the option click in the Mac tends to be frustrating (and with limited functionality), but it may just be their Wacom tablets - I'm using the Bamboo, cheaper, but it seems to work better).

"There are a number of Finder replacements including Quicksilver."

There are tons of little explorer replacements like that for Windows - I stay away from them, they're interesting little gimmicks, but who cares? These are not shell replacements. Litestep, for example, replaces explorer.exe with litestep.exe in the boot menu, runs much lighter than explorer.exe and is far more configurable.

"Yes, you can. I can understand that the University might not allow you to do that to their computers, though."

Well that's news. I looked it over and I see they're many limitations, not the least of which is the small number of themes available. There are literally thousands of Stardock Windowblinds themes - and it doesn't matter what version of Windows you run them on. But it's nice to see that the Mac is making it possible for their users to set-up their own workspaces they way they, the users, want it.

"But why would you want to do those things? ... a custom pointer that's a swinging gorilla..."

If that's you're notion of a custom cursor, I don't blame you - I'd be loath to use one too. Cursor FX themes. They're not all good, in fact, only a few are, but the ones that are, are. And very usable, imo.

"You can use Command Left and Right arrow to move to the beginning and ending of a line."

Thanks! Every Mac user I've asked, including my teachers - who were ostensibly supposed to be teaching me how to use the Mac - hadn't been able to answer that. So really, thanks (though it's still less convenient then simply pressing 'home' or 'end').

In the end, I'd say the many things they've done (Mac), such as add support for 'option clicks,' have made the Mac much more usable, but the many quirks still steer me away.

I suppose those quirks are beloved by the Mac user the way the old Porsche's quirks are beloved by the Porsche driver but which, to everyone else, are just quirks.

For me, I've disliked Windows, but disliked the Mac more. Now I continue to dislike Windows and dislike Macs just a little less then before, but can use it if needed.

Thanks for your sincere and considered response, btw.

[MarkL]

I don’t recommend that people buy those. But they always seem lured in by the $399 price tag and they don’t listen. Then they complain about the bill.

A small title loan insurance office had just moved to a new building. The manager had been reading some PC magazines for a few weeks, and decided that she knew everything she needed to know about setting up a network of 5 systems and the Internet. She went out to Sams Club and bought 5 computers at $350 each (including 15" monitors), and had the Internet installed on site. Within 4 hours every computer was completely infected with all sorts of malware. When I arrived on the scene, after just one look at one of the computers, and the fact that they had a cable modem and public static IP addresses on each computer, I told her that the only way to guarantee that the computers would be "clean" would be to a) buy a firewall/router and b) that each computer needed to be wiped and had the OS completely reloaded, staring over from scratch. She insisted that I try cleaning her computer, since it had something on it she wanted, so I estimated that it would take at least a 3 hours at $75 an hour to recover her data. And that I'd be happy to show they how to reload their workstations.

She actually decided that it would be cheaper and faster to just give those 5 systems to charity and buy another 5 computers from Sams Club!

Mark

[MarkL]

Even the case of an Apple is crap! It’s just pretty.

Actually, for channeling air in order to keep the "guts" cool, it's one of the best designed in the industry, on par with HP Proliant Server designs.

All computers are pretty much the same when you look at their components. Some manufacturers choose better components than others. Some manufacturers, like Apple, have very stringent requirements on their components to ensure that they meet certain standards, and will work without the incompatability problems you can see from time to time when putting together your own system.

The simple fact of the matter is that when you're dealing with businesses that need to ensure that their systems are up and running at near "five nines" reliability levels in a corporate environment, you NEVER see PCs or systems built up by the techs. NEVER. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

Mark

[Eragon]

Thanks I understand now. It sounds like a serious hunk of book and perfect for the philology inclined.

[Leonard210]

I, um, WHAT?, er, I don't know where to start. I gotta guess that you know maybe 3 Mac users. Correct? If Macs represent, as Windows users insist, 5 to 7 percent of the computing public, and liberals represent, let's just say 40 percent of the population, then what operating system do those other 30 plus percent use? Simple math will tell you that more left wingers use Windows than Macs. I don't hold it against you that you use a computer that seems to be preferred by a majority of liberals.

You will notice that on this thread it was a Windows fanboy who attacked, not an operating system but the people who use it. Let's hit a couple of other things. Hemp is not pot. If hemp is as useful as (and I don't know if it is) cotton, why not use hemp, coconut, kudzu or any other crop, along with cotton, to produce clothing, paper and the like? Do your Mac friends want to legalize pot as a recreational drug? Your comment here doesn't indicate that at all.

Bob Jones and ORU? If they're good college campuses they will have both Macs and PC's, as will their students. One local campus (secular, liberal) I attended was PC ONLY! Couldn't find a Mac anywhere!

I know many wacky, left-wing Mac users. I also know many wacky, left-wing PC users. You have, on this forum, access to many conservative, Christian Mac users. You've agreed with W. Great. Get to know some of us before you make blanket judgements.

[antiRepublicrat]

The author's assertion that low cost PCs are often subsidized by bundled application software that is included with a new machine is a weak argument at best.

Except that it's true for most OEMs. Not long ago Sony offered to ship its computers without all the crapware, but was going to charge IIRC $25 to do it. Public outrage had them pull the extra fee. It's widely known that most OEMs subsidize costs through crapware.

[Swordmaker]

Or it may be that their OS version doesn't support it.

It's worked that way on all OSX Macs from version 0, so they may have locked your Dock which is possible with a limited account.

So really, thanks (though it's still less convenient then simply pressing 'home' or 'end').

'Home' and "end" do what they were originally designed to do: go to the beginning or to the end of a document.

a custom pointer that's a swinging gorilla..."

If that's you're notion of a custom cursor, I don't blame you - I'd be loath to use one too.

Not "my notion", just an example of one I ran across on a client's machine, that while cute, was less than useful. ;^)>

Thanks for your sincere and considered response, btw.

You're entirely welcome.

[Swordmaker]

She actually decided that it would be cheaper and faster to just give those 5 systems to charity and buy another 5 computers from Sams Club!

I've had clients make that decision as well.

[ThomasThomas]

Everybody that I have known that lived in Seattle for the past several years has been a conservative Christian. So much for my peer group being a true sample.

I think I would be very happy using a Mac. I support a 100% PC environment at work so here I stay. We had some Macs for a while but back then they didn't play very well with others.

As for hemp it was that he also believed it was a government and clothing industry conspiracy to keep hemp clothing off the markets. If people's clothes NEVER wore out the clothing manufacturers would go out of business and the government would lose tax money. He also had a pony tail.

[coon2000]

I have my dual G4 still running at my office. It is 8 years old, I have never had to wipe it clean and reinstall everything like I did with my windows machines. I have thrown out probably 100 computers in the same time frame that were dell, sony, compaq, and hp. My office is now all apple, has been for about two years. Not one instance of having to rebuild and reinstall any computer. The only decent non Apple I have had is my rack full of Compaq Proliant servers. The case on an Apple is crap? What are you smoking? You should see my MacBook Pro...It has been dropped many many times, looks like it was put in a washing machine. It is beat up and ugly now but will outlast any garbage you buy. You sound like George Castanza when he was upset because it was cold and he had shrinkage.

[coon2000]

Hey pal, my house is paid for. If you are driving a 1999 Buick you would be a person of suspicion in my neighborhood. I have bought at least 200 computers for my office over the years. All of them except my Compaq Proliant servers were junk that lasted on average 2 years. In contrast, I have an eight year old Mac dual G4 still chugging along performing its’ duties. I bought a brand new XServe about three months ago. Best, most rock solid heavy duty machine I have ever seen, and I have had SUN Sparc’s that were over $25,000. On top of that my entire office is running on iMacs...going on two years now. Not a single issue. My old network support guy said all windows machines needed to be wiped clean and everything reinstalled once a year. My experience was more like every 6 months.

My Denali goes to 60 pretty fast, my Suburban is a little slower but so what, and my Silverado 3500 with a 8.1 litrer and Allison tranny gets probably less than 7 MPG...now that car sucks, does that make me an asshol#?

[Spktyr]

Amusingly, it’s Windows that’s broken in that respect. Pretty much every OS *but* Windows has always used “Home” to take you to the top of a document or screen (where appropriate), and “End” to take you to the, well, END or bottom of a document or screen.

As someone who started off using then-old UNIX terminals in grade school and had used everything else from a Commodore PET to a NeXT Cube, I find Windows’ use of Home and End to be extremely frustrating when navigating through a long document. Where’s the command to go to the top of a document from deep within it? Alt-Some-Weird-Not-Memorable-Code-Other-Than-Just-Pressing-The -Home-Button?

That said, if you’re on a single-line entry field on a Mac (in anything other than FireFox or other program that doesn’t use the built in input handlers), such as a web browser’s address entry field, you can press the up arrow to go to the start of the line, or the down arrow to go to the end of the line. Simple. Wish Windows had it.

[the anti-liberal]

Actually, it's ctrl/home, and ctrl/end.

I go to the beginning or end of a sentence much more often then to the beginning or end of the document, so for me, Window's setup is more logical.

[Spktyr]

Forgot to mention - Windows/Microsoft isn’t even consistent in how the home and end keys work:

Windows Explorer Shortcuts:
END (Display the bottom of the active window)
HOME (Display the top of the active window)

Word Shortcuts:
Start of Line HOME
End of Line END
Start of Document CTRL+HOME
End of Document CTRL+END

Not *real* consistent. And there’s no single line single key shortcut, like on a Mac.

[Spktyr]

I type a lot and do not find that I navigate to the start or end of a sentence often. Usually, when I do, I’m on a single line field and the up and down arrow keys are much more readily to hand.

[ReignOfError]

if you’re on a single-line entry field on a Mac (in anything other than FireFox or other program that doesn’t use the built in input handlers), such as a web browser’s address entry field, you can press the up arrow to go to the start of the line, or the down arrow to go to the end of the line. Simple. Wish Windows had it.

That's one of the little things that bugs the *&^% out of me on Windows. On a Mac, if I want to copy a URL from the address bar to paste into an e-mail or AIM, it's a piece of cake -- shift-up-arrow goes to the beginning, shift-down-arrow selects the line, and command-C copies. Windows one-line text fields also don't seem to have a consistent double- and triple-click behavior.

In fairness, there might be an equally simple way to do that in Windows, but it's not as automatic to me.