I’ve been a PC since 2000 and am very comfortable with it but as the work load increases I find myself fighting with this machine more and more. With having to have Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Outlook, FireFox (with 3 or 4 tabs open), and Pandora running at the same time and juggling between 3 or 4 files in Photoshop the PC I’m on just doesn’t have the muscles to perform.
I’ve used a Mac before and liked the performance but getting used to it is a whole different story. However, what is encouraging is that I’ve been through this kind of switch before on a smaller scale. I switched from IE to FireFox. I’ve dreaded having to do that for a long time before one day making a decision and getting rid of the IE icon from my task bar, replacing it with FireFox. I have not looked back since, FireFox is great! Now I am hoping that the PC to Mac switch will be just as smooth.
I am going to get me one of these new iMacs. I hear that they are pretty good for my kind of work. I know many of you will say I should go with the Mac Pro but those start at $2,500 and I just can’t afford that at this time. Plus I’ll need to buy me a Adobe Master Suite which will be a chink of cash too.
It is exciting and I can’t wait till the day this happens. First I need to get an SUV or a Van, the baby’s on her way and going to be here soon.
I have questions, have you had to switch from PC to Mac? How was the transition? What are the things I should watch out for? I would appreciate any tip. Thanks!
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I have switched 2-3 moths ago.
What has happen 1 day my HP did not want show me anything. So there was a need for new one. Of course there was a lot of thinking and web surfing involved. I was not sure if what to do. Obviously Mac idea come to my mind but I was really scared of new – never ever used Mac before.
Finally I decided to safe some money and get MacBookPro and I have to admit I love it from the very first minute.
- design
- screen
- features
- very intuitive
- very powerful
I don’t think I will ever switch back.
I bought a MacBook about a year ago. However, I also have a Vista desktop for my games and things.
Anyway to the point.
Some good things to remember when first starting out are:
– Find as many apps as you can that run on both Windows and Mac. If they’re the same thing, they’ll run relatively the same way and it won’t take much getting used to
– Get an app called Quicksilver. It works VERY well
– Keep as many apps as you can in the dock and keep the dock visible. More apps means the dock is smaller (but you can make it smaller anyway) and means that if you want something, you don’t have to go looking through the Applications folder for it
– Installing apps is usually dragging to the applications folder but most DMG files you open will have a shortcut that you just drag the app onto
– And remember, on a Mac it’s “COMMAND + C” and “COMMAND + V” rather than CTRL + C and CTRL + V!
Hope those are pretty good. Email me if you need more. I’d be happy to help.
These are awesome tips Adrian, thanks!! Also thanks Rafal for your story! I am feeling pretty confident that I won’t have any problems migrating over.
Hey Valik,
I’m making the switch to Mac too this year (sometime). I’ve had it with the traditional pc. I’m sure I’ll keep this one (just purchased in January) around for awhile. But…I’m going Mac.
When’s the baby due? Exciting times ahead for you and your family! Wishing you the best…
~Tim
I bought an IMac maybe 4 month ago. For the only sometimes I miss the pc is only for playing games, some games aren’t on mac… but I think more than games you want to know about design and applications: all the programs needed are avaiable on Mac (photoshop, dreamweaver, indesign, fireworks…) and you can run several programs that hardly ever it will go slowly…
I really recommend that, if you can, buy a Mac.
(sorry for my poor english :S)
I recently started using a Mac at work after having been a long time Windows and Linux user and to be honest it has been frustrating. All the nice little things that you have learned over the years for Windows now goes away and there is a whole new set of things that need to be learned or picked up. Even the simplest things will often require a search or two which is a bit embarrassing but it has to be done. To make the switch a little easier you might wan’t to stick with a standard keyboard/mouse as opposed to the Apple keyboard and mouse. Its a pretty big difference and can make the change a bit more difficult.
I’m a windows user but have no problem using my partners iMac, as long as you go in with the expection that things will be in different places.
Personally, it didn’t take long to get used to it – a little like getting used to the shuffle Vista had, just a little nicer looking.
As much as I like them, I’m sticking with my PC for pure compatability (hard & software). I wouldn’t rule out ever buying one though, they are impressive to be sure.
Use spaces.
Set them up with emails in one, adobe apps in another, bridge in one, etc so you always know what key to press to instantly get your app screen visible.
There is a great free (I think) app called Butler that adds a super-charged, fully customizable “application picker” (for lack of a better term) in your Mac’s menu bar. Think of it as a Windows START menu that can do much more. That way, you don’t have to clutter up your dock with dozens of apps.
Personally, I use my dock for keeping the multitude of open documents I’m currently working on — makes the workflow much easier.
I hope this helps!
-David
I’ve been using a mac for a few days at work experience- it’s quite a shock.
I do pretty much what you do on my windows system and it performs fine.
Mac, however, is not as great of an OS as all those mac-obsessed idiots make it out to be. Yes, it is impressive, and yes it does FEEL tailor made for designers, but there are so many inconvenient things that in fact SLOW DOWN workflow. The lack of a right-mouse-button is one. Having to hold control every time you want to right click is very annoying.
The system I’m using at work has just under 512mb, and it performs as good as a 2gb vista system, which was a major shock to me.
My suggestion is to get yourself an iMac, and partition the drive and install XP/Vista on the partition. It’s what I’ll be doing when I have enough money for one.
I really appreciate all the tips and suggestions. Lots of info to process.
Also, Jon, you do know you can just get a mouse that has a right click button that will work just like on a PC? I found that out when I had to do some work on a Mac at one of my past employers.
I’ve taken Mac into consideration before but found Linux to be a cheaper (obviously) and better solution (especially in terms of hardware).
To me Linux has productivity written all over it. If you’re comfortable with hand coding and developing sites without a WYSIWYG application (which any serious developer should be) it’s definitely the way to go.
I’ve found the efficiency of it in comparison to Windows incredible. So many niggles about Windows set you back. The simplest of things such as not being able to move things re-arrange things in the taskbar, having dialog windows preventing you from minimising things (the list goes on).
On Linux you can scroll on windows that aren’t active, you have workspaces (a god send, how can people get by without it?) and if you use PHP, Apache and host sites on Linux servers you learn a lot like Unix permissions.
Window management on Windows is terrible. The whole structure of Windows is based on restrictions, it’s just badly designed. I use Windows Vista at work and it’s not bad but you notice a massive difference in development time through small things, something that will be noticeable on a Mac too.
This is getting long but to me designing and developing on Linux is more efficient, productive, less restricting due to being a much more intuitive system.
in regards to the right click mouse thing, mac does have it, just get a mighty mouse and it has that option, or a cheap logitec will do the same thing.
I have switched to a MacBook Pro for about 5 months ago and to be honest – it takes some time to learn the new OS!
– Closing a program/window (you have to terminate/quit the program – it’s not enough just to close it.
– The touchpad – WOW, the multitouch is just amazing, making everything just that much easier!
– The folders and file handling is still something I’m trying to figure out – when you have made that many changes in the windows folder etc. it’s just weird to change to a new type of file-system.
I’ve had my iMac now for over 2 months and am loving it!… Running multiple programs (like Photoshop & Dreamweaver & Illustrator & FireFox) all at the same time is a breeze. Check my http://www.iMacology.com blog for other things that I love about my imac.