Windows withdrawal

[Tilluss]

Anything I can do on a Mac I can do on a PC just as easy and vise versa. It's all down to personal preference.

I dont like the quirky window management that OSX uses, it's just annoying and that's something that windows has down. But on the other hand the simplicity of some things on OSX is superior to windows.

So PC's are for people who want more bang for their buck and want detailed customization, Mac's are for people who are willing to spend the extra cash on something that works with minimal effort.

Thats my opinion anyway, and I have both

 

[Fillado]

I do have one query, what is the equivalent of Services in Windows? I have seen Activity Monitor but I'm looking into disabling unecessary services such as Bonjour from running.

There isn't. Or at least there isn't in the unified way that Windows has a services management console. It's incredibly annoying as for example there is an Airport related service for Apple's access points. I don't use one. I don't want this service running but Apple decides I should need it running

To give you an idea of what you'll be doing if you want to go against Apple's wishes:

Turn off mDNSResponder by disabling Bonjour

Launch the terminal and type:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist


Turn on Bonjour aka mDNSResponder

To reenable Bonjour simply type the following to reload the mDNSResponder daemon:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

Both of these commands to enable or disable Bonjour will require your administrator password to execute as root, hence the use of sudo.

 

[geekyEd]

Id just leave them running, unless you are having issues with something hogging ram or hammering the CPU.

 

[Fillado]

 

[allosunshine]

The biggest issue I have is with Office for Mac, until Microsoft make a decent version of equal quality to the Windows counterpart then that is my only real issue.

I've recently switched to Mac and find it pretty good compared to Windows but its definite downside is Office. Outlook is the biggest thing for me. The Mac version just doesn't come quite as close so I'm not really using it at the moment and just using Mail. If only Outlook was as good on Mac then I could ditch 3 icons (Mail, iCal, Address Book) from my doc. Plus my other gripe with Outlook being the fact I have to use a 3rd party app (which doesn't work 100%) to sync my Hotmail folders.

 

[PR.]

Office 2010 will have Outlook in Mac. Bit late for me unfortunately as I used to 'use' Entourage back in the day before moving back to PC (now have Windows desktop and Mac laptop), but just stick to Gmail via the website.

I agree about the lack of Cut in Finder, yes you can use Cmd+Drag but on a trackpad it's either a two hand operation or a very fiddly finger movement!

I remember using Tiger on my old PowerPC MacMini and only being able to carry one file operation at a time, if I was copying a file to my home server, I couldn't empty the trash or copy any more files until the first one was done!

Also the majority of Windows is in the GUI even the deep stuff (like services). Last night I needed to copy hdapm to \usr\local\bin but couldn't see it. In Windows it would be Folder Properties > View > untick Hide Protected Operating System Files (recommended). In OSX it's a meaningless 50+ character command in terminal and I have to force Finder to releaunch to do the same thing, and if I want to hide them again I have to type the whole command again!

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Office 2010 will have Outlook in Mac. Bit late for me unfortunately as I used to 'use' Entourage back in the day before moving back to PC (now have Windows desktop and Mac laptop), but just stick to Gmail via the website.

I agree about the lack of Cut in Finder, yes you can use Cmd+Drag but on a trackpad it's either a two hand operation or a very fiddly finger movement!

I remember using Tiger on my old PowerPC MacMini and only being able to carry one file operation at a time, if I was copying a file to my home server, I couldn't empty the trash or copy any more files until the first one was done!

Also the majority of Windows is in the GUI even the deep stuff (like services). Last night I needed to copy hdapm to \usr\local\bin but couldn't see it. In Windows it would be Folder Properties > View > untick Hide Protected Operating System Files (recommended). In OSX it's a meaningless 50+ character command in terminal and I have to force Finder to releaunch to do the same thing, and if I want to hide them again I have to type the whole command again!

Pressing the up arrow key in Terminal will cycle through previously used commands.

Not what you want to hear, but it's handy if you hate typing long commands

 

[Fillado]

Also the majority of Windows is in the GUI even the deep stuff (like services). Last night I needed to copy hdapm to \usr\local\bin but couldn't see it. In Windows it would be Folder Properties > View > untick Hide Protected Operating System Files (recommended). In OSX it's a meaningless 50+ character command in terminal and I have to force Finder to releaunch to do the same thing, and if I want to hide them again I have to type the whole command again!

That's what I don't get. Take this:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

What that does is stop Safari spewing new windows everywhere and go with the logical one-window-multiple-tabs approach like every other good browser. I will not use Safari without it. I hate Safari without it! It isn't a hack. It is a full feature of Safari that was coded in. I simply can't grasp why they have this feature available (many people hate Safari opening new windows) but not in the preferences. I don't think Apple realise that is what an "Advanced" part of Options is for...

Just because I've been all doom-and-gloom...things you'll hate when NOT using Mac OS X:

iLife Media Browser - provides an interface in the file browsing dialogue to your media. So for example you can browse your iPhoto events and select a photo to upload using the view that you get in iPhoto itself.

OS X doesn't lock files down - a good example of this is if you use Dropbox. Under Windows the file is locked when it is open. So if you edit a Word document it will only be uploaded back to Dropbox when you close Word. On OS X once you save the file it is uploaded, even if you still have it open.

The Dock - Closing a window (for the most part) doesn't close an application. This is probably one of the best ideas ever. It means all your apps are still running which makes multi-tasking the most fluid thing in the world. Some people don't like this though but for me it's what all that CPU and RAM in your computer is for.

In the end you'll realise both have their things that make your experience better than the other in certain areas

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I always run that Terminal command when reformatting.

Simply cannot use multi-window mode in Safari

 

[Prime]

Anything I can do on a Mac I can do on a PC just as easy and vise versa. It's all down to personal preference.

This is pretty much bang on, neither is superior to the other. Whatever works and the best bang for the buck as it will be upgraded in a few years anyway.

 

[Dewotter]

There isn't. Or at least there isn't in the unified way that Windows has a services management console. It's incredibly annoying as for example there is an Airport related service for Apple's access points. I don't use one. I don't want this service running but Apple decides I should need it running

To give you an idea of what you'll be doing if you want to go against Apple's wishes:

I think this exact problem is where the Windows/Linux fanboys get off on saying OSX is restricted from modifying certain 'deep' settings albeit ironically as it doesn't provide a nice interface to do it.

Id just leave them running, unless you are having issues with something hogging ram or hammering the CPU.

That's one thing I take issue with with Apple. While it may be true many users have no interest in changing these kind of settings it still represents a waste of resources. That's not to say I'm a use as few resources as possible kinda guy, I'm a use as frw unecessary processes as possible kinda guy.

Options should be provided within the UI to allow changes to these settings as mentioned above, I have no Apple Airport so that is a waste, I don't connect to or share iTunes libraries so I have no need for Bonjour running.

As time goes by these are the kind of things that security exploits will be found in, and, as there is no intuitive way for a user to disable them, will heighten the number of 'hits'.