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Mac V/s Windows March 9, 2008

Posted by Vikas Tandon in Gadgets & Tech.
Tags: , , ,
3 comments

I have been using a mac for the last month or so now and thought I should compile my experiences so far. To put it in short, a Mac is a great girlfriend, but not wife material. She’s young, beautiful, sexy and fun. But I’m not!!

All Apple communication (and die-hard Apple users) claim that a Mac can do everything Windows can. And they are absolutely right! Especially with the Intel-based Macs which can also run Windows, the case is sealed.  The question is how much more of a pain it is to do those day-to-day tasks. So here’s an interim list of niggling (and perhaps some very individual) issues I have been able to compile. I’ve been told by a few that its all a matter of “getting used-to” and I have lived with Windows for too long. However, as you will see from this list, its not about having to find your way around. Its about there being no other way!!

1. No Page Up/Page Down Keys. Requires two keys (fn+Arrow) for the function

2. No (forward) delete Keys. Requires two keys for function (fn + delete, which is really a backspace)

3. No Contextual Menu (Right-Click) Key. Requires control to be depressed.

4. In browser, on a web-page cannot toggle between HTML hyperlinks and other click-able items easily. Firefox in Mac tends to skip hyperlinks and drop-down menus.

5. In browser, when you click in address bar does not select complete url by default. Hence if one needs to type a new URL, have to first delete existing URL.

6. No Home and End keys. Requires two keys for function. Pain when you want to navigate to end of line, etc

7. Fewer keyboard shortcuts in office (e.g. F2 in excel to edit a cell, or to insert Page break in word).

8. Entourage sucks compared to Outlook as a PIM.

9. Rest of MS Office is not that great either

10. I find my MacBook really slow considering its got 2.5Gb RAM. No System Optimisation tools like Defragmanter, disk clean-up etc. I hope its because a Mac doesn’t need them! Mac OS 10.5.2 seems to need around 10GB of space. XP Pro needed around 2GB; around 6 including a lot of the extra programs that Leopard comes with.

11.Huge issues when working on a windows network. Can connect and access files etc alright. However, drops connection when computer goes on standby (sleep), requiring a reboot. Or can’t login to a mobile network account if connected to a different wi-fi network! You didn’t even have to think about all these issues with Windows.

12. No “Print Screen”! Have to tediously use Grab to capture screens.

13. iPhoto sucks when editing pictures compared to Microsoft Picture Manager.

14. Can’t truly “maximise” a window at the click of a button. Have to necessarily drag a window to expand it. The plus button is quite misleading and seems more like a restore button.

So really, what is all that talk about a Mac being more user-friendly than Windows?

Switching to a Mac January 20, 2008

Posted by Vikas Tandon in Gadgets & Tech, Life, mobile telephony.
Tags: ,
4 comments

My first ever new year resolution was to start taking Guitar/Singing lessons and commence Yoga. Almost at the end of Jan and I haven’t really made much progress on either. However, fair amount of effort has been put into a completely unplanned (and indulgent) exercise – figuring out how I can switch to a Mac and what kind of potential issues I could face. As some of those who know me would vouch, dealing with these kind of tech and gadget challenges is quite a high for me.

Anyway, to start with, Why switch to a Mac? you might ask. Well, simple answer, sex appeal. God (and wife) knows I need some.

So have spent some time on Google and its results, chewing the brains of mac dealers in Mumbai, experimenting with a borrowed ibook etc. And I have to say, its really not as easy as Apple makes it sound.

My impression so far is while you can pretty much do everything on a Mac that you can on Windows, you can only do so at the basic level. If you are an advanced user, and use some of the less common features and services of Windows and its software, its difficult to let go. Compatability is not that much of an issue, you just have to work harder and may have to opt for workarounds. Some of my key obstacles:

1. I work in an office which runs a Windows  network with Active Directory and the Mac needs to join the domain, access its services, etc. While joining a Windows is no longer an issue, will I be able to access services like firewalls, proxies, play administrator, and manage things like security permissions etc from my client?

2. I use Outlook 2003. While Entourage provides all the basic functionality of Outlook, at first glance it does not seem to be as full featured as Outlook – the address card does not seem to hold as many fields, not sure how easy it is to create a distribution list, manage multiple email accounts and sending mails with chosen account etc.

3. One of the biggest issues is likely to be 3rd party applications – like sync for my Sony Ericsson with Outlook. Again, iSync etc will allow basic syncing of contacts, calendars and mails, how accurate and reliable will the syncing be – will it sync all fields, alarms, categories, notes etc? What about using my phone as a modem via Bluetooth?

4. And then of course there are the little utilities that are available for windows like password managers that sync with my phone – not sure how easily I will get that for a Mac.

All in all, I guess my problem is that I’m just too comfortable with Windows. Its like a marriage – you know there are problems, and the other women really looks appealing, but you’re just too cosy in the current familiarity.

And the final obstacle – for all the praise that Mac gets for being far easier to use than windows, I still haven’t found that one single feature about the Mac yet that makes a really strong argument to support that claim.  But I’m still waiting and haven’t given up yet…