For E-mail aren't you using something like an IMAP server? That wouldn't matter which computer you use to access the mail from since it all remains server side. For RSS I haven't heard of a standalone client that has syncing.

I do PC at work and Mac at home. Perfectly happy with it. Macs are great - the GUI is the obvious pro, but stability of the system (both in terms of not crashing and not getting viruses) are what made me buy my second one last year. Also, for those of us who are semi-computer literate, Macs are easier to navigate.

I use an software RSS reader at home and a web-based one. The web-based one (Google Reader) I use for more "work-oriented" feeds, so I don't feel guilty about looking at it at work. The software reader (Shrook, which I'm happy with) I use for personal feeds - friends, etc. That way I can keep up on work stuff intraday, and can make sure I didn't miss anything on a friend's blog - even if I check only once a week.

I use Gmail exclusively for mail, but used to use the Mac Mail client, too. I'd use that to keep a local "hardcopy" of mail and then use the Gmail web interface for emails I wrote during the day - I think there's a way you can download those, as well.

...and now you know way too much about the mechanics of my internet life...

When I was in the workforce I was PC by day, Mac by night. I used Gmail on web at work and POP with MacMail at night. I understand that IMAP can easily have you using mail programs on both your computers. Now I'm all Mac, all home.

I'm a fan of Mac, but I can't really describe it as much more than a lifestyle choice. I did not feel like I was at a great loss using XP at work; I missed some of the creativity stuff was all, but that could have been solved with better software at work. I do some music and occasional movie stuff, for which Mac is favored, perhaps unfairly.

the syncing of the newsgator readers works very well and they have mac and pc readers

I got dragged into the Mac cult years ago by my boyfriend, who is a graphic designer. Macs are better for design work. Anecdotally, they are more stable and crash less. Also, since the new Macs have Boot Camp, you can run Windows and PC apps on them, but not the reverse.

I use Macs at home and a PC at work, and don't have any problems switching between them. I have email through work (Outlook) that is somehow also accessible at home on the web, but I don't really know how it works.

I'm facing the same problem. For all its faults, I know I don't mind Windows XP; it's handy to have the compatibility with work computers, etc. But I'm scared about Windows Vista. Anyone tried it yet?

My Windows XP work machine never crashed once. I was impressed.

Also, my issue with all online RSS readers and most standalone readers besides the one I use (Newsgator Inbox) -- when I read the Unfogged comment feed, I want it to show up as New when a new comment is added and pull in the new data. With all other readers, it shows up once with like "Comments(5)" and the first 5 comments but doesn't refresh if 200 more comments are added. With mine, it will reload if new comments are posted.

I'm scared of Vista, too.

6 Vista is a mess. Avoid it.

Also, if I do get a Mac, is there a huge advantage to the Pro besides the bigger screen?

Eh. I have a PC at work and a mac at home, and I have no problems. On the other hand, I use web-based email and don't use RSS (yeah, I literally type in blog addresses; wtf is wrong with me?), so I can't much help you. I haven't found it to be a pain in the ass at all, but I've been using macs at home and PCs at school/work since I was a kid, so I'm used to it by now. Not that there's really much to "get used to", although I do get annoyed when I find myself using ctrl instead of the apple key for keystroke commands.

Anyway, my mac is ridiculously rugged. It looks like it's been through a warzone; the case is all dinged and scratched. This is from just throwing it into my backpack every day for three years, carrying it all over town and around the country, and generally working it very hard. It hasn't had any problems save a hard drive death two years ago, when I replaced the drive myself. It runs fast, it doesn't crash, and it works great.

This isn't a very good argument, I realize, but someone else will come along and convince you, I'm sure.

For me, the Mac advantage is the time I don't spend maintaining the system, updating drivers when I want to try a new game, and so on. It seems like on my Windows boxes, such things always came up just when I most needed some extra concentration - they didn't, of course, I just noticed them more strongly then, but that's perception for you. Even so, the absence of worry about such things has a tangible value in increased productivity, for me. I get more done in the times when I am prone to distraction or stress, for whatever reason - when I'm good, I can take it all in stride and it doesn't matter, but the Mac buffers me whenever I'm less than good.

Switching is probably going to be fairly easy, with two caveats.

1. If you rely heavily on specialized applications, you may be hosed. This is to research first.

2. The Mac interface is well designed, but it embodies some different assumptions about workflow than Windows does. It is worth any switcher's while to get a general reference book like the Missing Manual series as a handy review. The current OSX help system sucks. A lot. Print reference is the way to go. And budget some time to noodge around and see what the standard commands and operations are like before doing anything really important. People who blather about "intuitive" are generally kidding themselves.

The Mac has a distinct advantage in that the standardization of interface lets you apply a whole lot of what you learn from using any program to any other, but it still is learning.

Others seem to have the mail and RSS stuff covered, so I'll just nod sagely and say, "What they said."

The elephant in the room is surely vista. If you buy a PC now it'll presumably come loaded, unless you know a little place, so you'll have to go to the trouble of stripping it out and reloading your OS. I'm quite serious about this - my bil is an IT manager at a major University, and he now has to flatten (not personally) and rebuild every box he commissions because nobody will accept vista. It drives him mad.

If you use Linux anyway, or know someone who'll sell you a PC with XP, this doesn't apply of course.

oh, and Parallels means you don't have to cut the cord completely.

Also, if I do get a Mac, is there a huge advantage to the Pro besides the bigger screen?

I believe the external monitor support is better. I think it does dual dvi. I don't know if you care about that.

multipwned

I use macs mostly because of the underlying unix. Which puts me in the minority of mac users I guess. I also use unix machines and an XP machine occasionally.

OS X is a better system for people who don't know & don't want to know much about underlying details, so long as they aren't needing esoteric hardware or software that is windows only. Workflow is a little different, so you'll adjust for a while. On the other hand, it's better thought out on the macs. These days, even the software issue isn't really a problem because of parallels and boot camp. I'd recommend it for anyone for home use with the above caveats.

As far as RSS and mail etc., you can do all this with IMAP for mail and a cross platform or web-based RSS reader.

Tom switched a couple of years ago, said he was basically happy.

I think I'd go with the regular MacBook rather than the MacBook Pro if you're going to be using your laptop in bed. The plastic ones are much more rugged than the metal ones.

Man, I need a new computer so bad, though. My mac still works just fine, but it's an early-2004 release and it just doesn't have any of the awesome features they're all coming with now. Sigh. I didn't even get iSight!

Also also also - I like to do as much with the keyboard as possible. I can't use a mouse or I get SHOOTING PAINFUL carpal tunnel and it's best if I avoid even having to use the trackpad too much. Anyone know how Macs are using mostly hotkeys/keyboard navigation.

Also, if I do get a Mac, is there a huge advantage to the Pro besides the bigger screen?

Not unless you're doing a lot of graphics work or gaming -- the big difference is dedicated video RAM. (Also faster processors, if you're a developer who compiles things a lot.) A top of the line MacBook probably compares pretty favorably to the cheaper MBP.

As Ogged said, the NewsGator apps -- FeedDemon for Windows and NetNewsWire for Macs -- do online sync.

Threadjacking question: I decided I want an Asus EEE, the 8GB model, given that I'm not going to be reading blogs at work at the new job (it'll be small enough to carry around with me all the time, and read and post on my lunch hour.) But they seem to be out of stock everyplace. Is there any clever way people in the know find stuff when it's apparently out of stock?

Also also also - I like to do as much with the keyboard as possible. I can't use a mouse or I get SHOOTING PAINFUL carpal tunnel and it's best if I avoid even having to use the trackpad too much. Anyone know how Macs are using mostly hotkeys/keyboard navigation.

It can be done, especially if you're willing to fiddle with things, but this is an area where PCs are better. OTOH, the Mac has Quicksilver, which is teh hott.

Anyone know how Macs are using mostly hotkeys/keyboard navigation.

I think you'll find this easier than on a PC. Mac has put much more effort into UI consistency etc.

Ok I'm interested by the disagreement in 25/26 , perhaps I just don't use windows machines enough these days.

Also, quicksilver is excellent, and you should use that.

Macs are using mostly hotkeys/keyboard

Easy peasy, though you do have to get used to using the command key rather than the control key.

Anyone know how Macs are using mostly hotkeys/keyboard navigation

I've never had a problem, but I do also use the trackpad. My boyfriend uses hotkeys all the time working in Illustrator, etc. He uses a Wacom tablet and the hotkeys, and never uses a mouse or trackpad.

Anyone know how Macs are using mostly hotkeys/keyboard navigation

This can be done very successfully, but for ideal use, you're going to have to (a) install a few extra bits of software, and (b) learn new key combos. (B) is going to be the really annoying part.

I intended to buy a computer about a year ago, but then I heard about how awful Vista is. So I still haven't bought one.

That's about all I have to say on this issue.

Also, Macs hold their resale value. I just sold my 4-year-old iBook with a completely broken hard drive on eBay for $225! w00t!

Becks, in addition to the outstanding independent freeware Quicksilver, about which it is difficult to say too many good things, OSX has a lot of keyboard support built in that's really unobvious. Some googling around for info on Macs and disabled users will turn up a lot of it, though.

I use Mac at work and home and use lots of hotkeys. The designers in our office are insane with their hotkey virtuosity.

I've tried to make the switch, and basically have failed. Learning a whole new system is no fun, even if it's a better one. I do not find widget type things fascinating.

I still kind of miss my Mac, but because if I use the home computer at all for work, the Mac is a problem. Our Citrix remote network stuff (no, I don't know what that really means, just what I use it for) won't run on the Mac and the software for reading electronic deposition transcripts is PC only. If you have any intention fo working from home on your Mac, you should probably confirm that you can run what you need to on it before you invest.

Ok I'm interested by the disagreement in 25/26 , perhaps I just don't use windows machines enough these days.

Basic navigation -- switching apps, switching windows, switching tabs*, tabbing around on a form -- works just fine on a Mac, but Windows does a much better job of letting you drive menus and the like via the keyboard. To do similar things on a Mac, you have to enable some options in the Universal Access control panel, and it still doesn't work as well as it might. (There are third-party apps that make it work better.)

* Although, as rfts just popped up in my IM window to say, keyboard tab commands aren't standardized they way they should be.

Home networks WAY easier with Mac and related accessories. I need to buy a time capsule.

Rory just bought her first ever very own computer with all her carefully hoarded birthday-Christmas-odd job money. She went PC over Mac for the exceedingly simple reason that you cannot buy a Mac laptop under $500.

39 is cute. I think the first thing I bought with my saved-up money was a stereo. Then another stereo.

40: for me I think it was a fedora. and then a Creepy Crawlers maker oven thing. Both about $30.

Home networks WAY easier with Mac and related accessories.

This is true!

A point in favor of PCs: It's much, much easier to upgrade/replace your hard drive in most PC laptops than in a Mac laptop, though no other Mac laptop reaches quite the dizzying complexity of the (no longer manufactured) 12" PowerBook.

I think changing it in a MacBook (not a MBP) is about the same as changing it in most PC laptops. It's a pain on the Pro, though.

Vista is fine. i've been using it for over a year both at home and at work, and have no problems with it at all (once i turned off the UAC). the Vista hate seems totally unfounded to me.

Can't say anything comparative, but I just replaced the hard drive in my MacBook about a month ago and it was quite easy.

tabbing around on a form

Really? Then how come I can't hit tab to go from this textarea to the "preview" and "post" buttons?

Really? Then how come I can't hit tab to go from this textarea to the "preview" and "post" buttons?

Moral failing?

Seriously, can you? Because I tab through: this area, the URL bar, the google search bar, the tab, the window, the name, email, and url fields, and then back to this area.

Not even the remember personal info checkbox!

Really? Then how come I can't hit tab to go from this textarea to the "preview" and "post" buttons?

A preference set in a way that does not reflect your actual preference. What browser are you using?

Firefox.

Go to about:config and change accessibility.tabfocus, Ben. I've got it set to 7.

Type "about:config" in your address bar and hit return. Double click on "accessibility.tabfocus" change the value to 3 (if you just want to be able to tab to buttons and checkboxes) or 7 (if you want to be able to tab to links, too).

Damn you, Snark.

I realize my instructions were probably also a little over-explain-y, in addition to missing an "and," but I wanted it to make sense to future non-w-lfs-ns, too.

I realize my instructions were probably also a little over-explain-y, in addition to missing an "and," but I wanted it to make sense to future non-w-lfs-ns, too.

In the future, we will all be non-w-lfs-ns for 15 minutes.

Since I don't have an accessibility.tabfocus param in about:config, I find your instructions less than useful.

I've been a Mac user since 1987 and PC at work since, I dunno, 1990 or so. I find it effortless to switch. Macs are hugely better when I'm writing in Spanish, as remembering things like Alt+165 for Ñ is maddening, plus I never seem to type fast enough to hit the darn combo properly. When I'm writing in Word I've had a couple of hiccups due to the fact that I know Word for Windows better than Mac, so I reach for a shortcut that just isn't there.

I used Citrix at my old job for remote access, and it was terrific. My network admin set up all of the home-Windows users, and I set up myself, as the sole home-Mac user. It was extremely, extremely easy. (Like, download the software from their website, set one setting and forget about it forever.) That did away with the problem that Di identifies above, of work-related software that won't run on a Mac, because at that point you're running your work desktop on your home computer.

My main Vista-related problem is the people sending me resumes that were created in Vista, which I can't open. We won't be upgrading anytime soon, either. Can somebody who knows what they're talking about explain to me why Word for Vista doesn't just default to saving as a file that earlier versions of Word can read?

I also find it amusing that in the possible world in which that config option were present on my version of FF (2.0.0.12), the developers still thought it was a good idea to keep that option in about:config, even though it's obviously something one might want to have documented, readily available control over, especially since default behavior across platforms differs.

For me, Vista is fine, stable, and easy to use (and I'm a power user), especially if you get Ultimate or Business. Spendy, but good. With SP1 coming out any day, most of the issues some people have seen should no longer bother anyone.

I used to hate MS with a passion, but they have progressed to the point where their shit actually works just fine.

Apple, on the other hand, is now to computing what MS was in the 90's -- an our way or the highway approach, with constant compromises for style over substance. Unless you have a specific app that is clearly superior on a Mac, or get all fizzy and vaporous cuz it boots faster, go PC.

Since I don't have an accessibility.tabfocus param in about:config, I find your instructions less than useful.

You can add it from the about:config screen. And people say open source projects will never have good UI!

Damn, my original version was all "If accessibility.tabfocus already appears..." but then I thought I must have been mis-remembering that it used to be something you had to add. You can add it. Control-click anywhere on the page, to bring up a contextual menu. Create New --> Integer with preference name accessibility.tabfocus. WHY on earth they made it a non-standard parameter, I have no idea.

JESUS CHRIST.

At least you bothered to tell poor addled w-lfs-n how to add it. I left it as an exercise for the reader.

59 comments before people started OS-flaming. Is that a new Internet record?

It's also really goofy that it's not just a preference in the actual Preferences. Oh, Firefox, you and your zany ways.

And poor addled Blume, too. I was thinking to myself, do I ask? Does everyone else already know how to do this?

Oh my god, this is the most idiotic thing in the world.

Amazingly, accessibility.tabfocus doesn't appear in prefs.js on my linux box either, yet there the default behavior is different!

In this thread, it is demonstrated that while Snark and I do agree on a great many things, we coordinate our actions very poorly.

Oh my god, this is the most idiotic thing in the world.

It is really, really stupid. Let's hear it for an intuitive and transparent user experience!

And poor addled Blume, too. I was thinking to myself, do I ask? Does everyone else already know how to do this?

Hooray! Now I truly feel that I was a productive member of society today.

I'm deferring all future Firefox customer support in this thread to rfts.

Amazingly, accessibility.tabfocus doesn't appear in prefs.js on my linux box either, yet there the default behavior is different!

Default behavior depends on the OS, I believe. The buried tabconfig is the dumbest feature of Firefox, even dumber then taking away our precious animated about:mozilla.

with constant compromises for style over substance

This is indeed increasingly true, and I resent it. FFTF.

Someone oughta file a bug report.

Whereas not only does it appear in about:config on my elderly PC, but I find it set to 7 by default.
The question in 58 importunes us: surely this should be in the tools menu in any sane world.

LB - they don't seem to have the 8gig either but you might try contacting Central Computers here in SF, who have a lot of the ASUS Eee's. Maybe you can get on a waiting list?

I'm also looking for a new laptop, but Mac's too spendy for me, so I've been pointed towards HP as having good deals under $1000. A big part of this is that I don't want to pay for Mac versions of some software that I use frequently, like Final Draft, for example.

This is indeed increasingly true, and I resent it. FFTF.

"Fuckin' fuck those fuckers"?

Mr. B. uses a PC at work and a Mac at home. The newer macs, of course, will run windows, so this really should be a complete non-problem (his mac doesn't, but with open office it's kind of a non-problem anyway). I haven't found any difficulty interacting with windows users; most mac applications will let you save things as windows files. (And there are actual mac applications that Do Not Suck the way Word does! Whoo!).

As to email, I should think that the easiest way to do it would be to set one of the computers as the default, and set up your email to actually download onto that computer? Then when you check your email on that machine, it's "deleted" from the server, and when you check it on the other machine, the emails you've already read aren't still sitting there.

Of course, I have no idea what to do about email you read and then want to reply to later, from the other machine.

"Fix The Fucking Finder"

is there a huge advantage to the Pro besides the bigger screen?

I suspect not; at least, Mr. B. plans to get a regular macbook next time, and he's the tech guy in the family. I personally *really* like the 15 inch screen.

Impossible. You must mean "Fix Fhe Thucking Finder".

Running Windows occasionally on a Mac (via VMware or Parallels) is a great fallback. My GF got a MacBook (not pro), and frequently has it on her desk, with a large external LCD plugged in (DVI!) such that Windows is on one screen, OSX is on the other, and one can trivially slide back and forth. With 4GB in the machine (a $90 third-party upgrade), it's quite fast.

The only thing that would push a MBP or maybe a PC for me is heavy gaming; lots of games aren't ported to the Mac, the MacBook has relatively wimpy hardware for 3D, and even on the MBP, virtualization of the 3D inside VMware is new and experimental (I was disappointed that I couldn't get Portal to run under VMware).

74: Yeah, I can just get on the Amazon list. Or does anyone want to recommend something else, similarly light (2lbs) and similarly cheap (around $500)?

57: explain to me why Word for Vista doesn't just default to saving as a file that earlier versions of Word can read?

Not even going to try for an explanation. (And note that it is Office(Word) 2007 which can also be loaded on XP, it is not just Word for Vista) But there is a conversion tool available for Macs at this link. (They still call it "beta" so ... I guess they are learning from Google.)

That aside, there are some potentially positive aspects to the new XML-based file formats (they are compressed for one thing) as they are potentially more "open" than the old ones and are becoming a "standard" although that is fraught with the usual controversies when MS gets involved in standards.

Oh, and as for the email issue, I think IMAP should solve all problems where synchronization is concerned. What I've done in the past is access Gmail via the web when I'm at work (and when I'm not accessing it via my BB), and then on my home computer I'd access the mail via Outlook. And because it was set up as IMAP and not POP, any deletions made from one means would be reflected on the others. Pretty nifty.

For contacts, I use Plaxo, which syncs with Outlook Contacts, but if I'm at a computer without it, I can access my contacts via Plaxo's web-based app.

Oh, whoops.

Fucking Finger Typing Failure?

Try typing with more than just your fucking finger.

Re. keyboard v. mouse: I haven't used a mouse for *years*. I'm all about the keyboard. Yes, I do use the trackpad some, but I know there are keyboard commands for most of the trackpad functions. I'm just lazy, and find the trackpad perfectly fine, since it doesn't require me to take my hands off (or far from) the keyboard.

I just use rsync to move my mbox files around.

Yes, IMAP solves synching, except for Sent Mail archives, which sadly remain local to the computer where you did the sending. (This is not, of course, true for webmail, where it's "local" to the remote server you're connected to through your browser.)

I'd like to hear people's strategies for how they keep two computers in synch if they access things like personal email or RSS feeds both at home and the office using two different computers.

For most things, Google Browser Sync; for RSS feeds, Newsgator.

82: The new Word 2008 for OSX does do this. At least I sent a file to Foxytail and she was able to read it. I was pleasantly surprised.

re 81 - yes, if anyone knows of anything like that, I'd be interested too.

I just use rsync to move my mbox files around.

Or you could just ssh into the machine the mbox files are on and read it that way. That is what I actually do to keep my mail in sync.

Question for "Mac can boot in Windows" users. Do you not also need to pay for a Windows license? And what about other licensed software (Office etc.) - I would assume you need another license as well, unless I am missing something. (Which I probably am since I don't see it discussed much.)

I am the only person I know who switched back to a PC after having had a Mac for four years. My iBook decided to start shutting itself off randomly which was not good for the dissertation. I've always found it very easy to use both systems.

The biggest factor for me was that as I don't do any design/movie/music stuff, the replacement for my iBook was about $500 more than I wanted to spend for a lot of functionality I didn't use. Also, I couldn't play games.

I have a laptop with Vista. It's a bit of a pain in the ass because it likes to freeze now and then, which my iBook never did until it was dying. But I disabled a lot of the annoying features and it behaves itself pretty well.

Delurking to say that I use both PC and mac at work, and PC at home, but I think I've been converted and my next home computer will be a mac.

Becks, do you know anyone who could loan you a mac for a little while? When I first started using the mac at work, I found it frustrating and kept switching back to PC. But once I got past the learning curve, I started liking it more and more. I think that if I'd just went out and bought a mac without trying it first, I'd regret it, but now I'm really looking forward to getting one.

The main reasons I haven't stopped using the PC at work are: (1) I use MS Outlook for work email, and my coworkers on macs are constantly having problems with email -- but frankly I think this is an IT issue on our side; and (2) I have to use Excel and Word a lot, and I like them a little better on PC -- but then again, we haven't upgraded our macs to Office 2008 yet, so maybe that will help.

Wish I could say more about the different types of Macs -- I'm leaning toward the regular MacBook for my next computer, but have to do more research. I'd love to get a mac right now, just to play with, but my 3.5-year-old PC laptop is still in good shape (and my dad just helped me upgrade it at Christmas), so I can't really justify spending the money right now.

Also, I couldn't play games.

Why, are most games PC-only? (I don't know shit about this stuff, obviously).

Do you not also need to pay for a Windows license? And what about other licensed software (Office etc.)

Yes you need separate licenses for all the stuff.

Why, are most games PC-only?

Yes.

Also, I couldn't play games.

I've never quite understood this objection (perhaps because I'm not a gamer and don't really know what I'm talking about). If you want to play games, you get 10x the performance at 1/10 the cost by just buying a game console, right?

98.1 Thanks. That is what I assumed, but never heard it explictly stated in the "just fire up the Windows image for task X" discussions.

Becks, I think you should do it. Having a Unix command line is really really awesome. Keyboard menu navigation is a little slower (although Quicksilver pretty much makes that up). Ogged is right that Newsgator readers fix the synching problem, and CJB is right that IMAP should make email a nonissue.

Knowing *something*, at least, about what you do for a living, I'd say the biggest potential gotcha is calendaring. Sadly, iCal is a piece of junk. I'm not sure whether the situation has improved in Leopard, but it's really not an Outlook replacement. If your workplace uses Outlook productivity stuff heavily you might find yourself pissed off. The office suite in general has been historically lame on the Mac, although I'm told the newest version is better.

With that said there are a bunch of synching options out there, so if you're prepared to use the mac as a read-only scheduling machine you'll probably be perfectly happy. And if worse comes to worst, VMWare Fusion/Parallels really do work magically well.

OT bleg--Does anyone know of a good format for uploaded cover letters, neither e-mailed nor sent in the post? Virginia Tech's career services suggests putting the contact information on the bottom if you are sending it by e-mail. I don't know whether they treat the e-mail as a cover letter or enclose one in a word document.

I'm applying for a bunch of jobs at universities, and they have systems where you upload your resume and then you upload a cover letter when applying for the position. I don't know who the contact person is, or exactly where their particular office is. Does anyone have any experience with this?

For calendaring, I use Google Calendar. I add appointments through a Firefox Search Bar and sync it both to iCal and a Google Calendar widget.

I don't sync to a portable device, so probably not too interesting.

22: I have become a much heavier user of keystroke combinations for everything myself, as well, and it has been too long and I don't really know what it is like to work on Windows via keystrokes, but the Mac keyboard shortcut support is very very good, and generally very consistent from app to app.

Also, Apple decided a long time ago that most of their key combos would use the apple/command key, which is on either side of the spacebar where Alt is on a PC. This means that you use your thumb constantly, instead of using your pinkie constantly to press Ctrl. Your thumb is much stronger, and so using keyboard shortcuts on the Mac is actually better for your hands, ergonomically, as well.

Delurking to say that I went Mac in 2000 and have (almost) never gone back, although as a developer I find the utility of Boot Camp and Parallels to be crucial ("whaddya mean it doesn't work in IE6 on XP? I'm looking at it in IE6 right now!"). I didn't have any issues learning or relearning keyboard shortcuts, and for the most part I can still switch back and forth between both systems (and seriously, who thought alt-F3 was a memorable keyboard shortcut for anything you do a hundred times a day?).

That said, a friend's SO is a very unhappy switcher. I think she's probably still using her Mac only to humor him.

The short why: really nice hardware, reliability, ease of use once you've learned the metaphors, best networking of any platform, truly comparable hardware isn't more expensive than a Windows-only machine.

The short why not: there are market segments served by Windows computers not served by Macs (super-cheap machines, ultra-ultra-portables, etc), no learning curve to stick with Windows, (sometimes) access to software from work (*some* licenses allow you to install software on your personal machine you use at home, but I'm no expert as to which or whether your employer will have them). If price is your ultimate concern, there's no Mac cheaper than the cheapest Macbook and there are definitely cheaper Windows machines (but you get what you pay for).

For email you should be using IMAP, since it allows you to have all your mail stored in one place no matter where you're accessing it. My feed reader (Vienna) has no Windows equivalent, so I can't help you there.

As for the advantages of the MacBook Pro over the MacBook, I have the MBP but I advise my friends to buy the MacBook. If you don't know why you need the MBP -- say, if you *need* the bigger screen, LED-backlit screen, better support for external displays, backlit keyboard etc -- then get the more portable, sturdier machine. The MBP isn't exactly fragile, but the MB can take more abuse. And design-wise, the MB is just prettier and has the magnetic screen latch. I love that detail every time I handle one.

If you want to play games, you get 10x the performance at 1/10 the cost by just buying a game console, right?

Purists say that consoles are a poor substitute for the control you get with a mouse and keyboard. I've always preferred consoles, though.

For an uploaded cover letter, I would format exactly as for print.

cleek: vista is ok if you are a) lucky enough to have ended up with a new machine that fully supports it ... not actually an obvious choice, and there was much vendor confusion on this. b) don't need to use any older or current hardware that (doesn't have a driver and in some cases won't ever have one) c) don't need to do anything that runs into the morass of DRM control stuff in it which make break your software in non obvious and difficult to fix ways.

As I said, it's a mess. See some of the leaked internal memos from MS execs who couldn't get their new machines to run it, for example.

You can get a vista machine that will work just fine on its own, but there isn't much gain, and it won't run as well as XP on the same hardware for watching videos etc. so why bother? If you have to play with other hardware, etc. it's a crapshoot and really not worth trying.

For anything other than World of Warcraft and Civilization series, I'd go with a console, yeah. Halo was a revelation to me, Silent Hill 2 another, and I find that console gaming just is my cuppa for anything where a lot of typing isn't part of the setup.

Thanks RFTS. For MIT, it's a bit confusing, since I don't know who the hiring managers are, and I'll have to hunt to find the address of HR.

What do you do when you can upload your resume, but you're supposed to cut and paste a cover letter?

106: I don't know from purists, but for me, I'm much more comfortable with a computer because I can type and (uh)..mouse much better than I can use a controller. Plus, when you're a kid, it's much easier to get away with sneaking playing games on your computer than it is on a console. And it's one piece of equipment vs. two.

111:

I've heard that the `serious' FPS players still prefer mouse and keyboard, but lots of people play that sort of thing on consoles. The racing games are much better done on consoles, apparently). So it probably depends what you want to play. I'm pretty much ignorant of the current state of things though, not playing games.

From a hardware point of view, you're simply not going to get the same kind of graphics performance out of a PC without spending quite a bit of extra money, because the consoles are subsidized or break-even that way. I suspect audio is similar, but don't know.

What do you do when you can upload your resume, but you're supposed to cut and paste a cover letter?

In that case, I would upload the resume and write the cover letter as a formal email -- that is, with the salutation and sign off as in a letter, but of course no need for the date and address stuff.

It's sad, but I agree with 109. Mouse plus keyboard really can't be beat -- god but I was good at Quake 1 -- but the price differential between a well-specced gaming PC and a current-gen console is just insane. Halo is still a pale imitation of superior games that preceded it, but that hasn't stopped me from playing it more nights than not over the last month (gamertags, anyone? I'm "club loser"). The one caveat is that if you have or are thinking about having teenage male children you will probably find Xbox Live extremely depressing.

I'm still sort of hoping the Wii swoops in and saves FPS fans with its new control scheme possibilities. I was very disappointed when I heard that Metroid had ditched multiplayer.

Mac and console for the same reason: fire and forget user experience. When I want to sync the iPod, the iPhone, download pictures off the camera and check my email, I dock the dockables and boot the computer and then it's off to change clothes or take a leak or whatever else I could be doing in the time I don't have to spend interacting with the system. I don't have to sweat driver updates, I don't have to sweat anti-virus or anti-spyware as often (I do have both and the worst I've ever turned up has been tracking cookies for online advertising), Boot Camp gives me Windows when I need it and the game shelves at the Mac store have more on 'em every time I'm there.

Consoles beat PC gaming for the same reason. In very limited situations I prefer the variety of control available with mouse and keyboard - say, when playing Civ - but for most games the ease of use and the confidence that the game will just work when I put the disc into the console make a console - any console - superior to the experience of patching, drivers, etc., on a PC.

In both instances, the important factor for me is knowing I'll be able to just use the device and get on with things rather than make the device itself the center of an unpleasant experience.

Oh, and I use Windows at work and don't have any problems. OpenOffice (free), NeoOffice/J (free), Pages (not free) - OS X has a lot of options to deal with and export as .doc if you really need it in addition to, of course, having native versions of Word, etc., available for purchase. Another advantage: you can turn anything you can print into a PDF on a Mac right out of the box. I never send resumes in Word format anymore (I was always weirded out by sending them in an editable form, which is paranoid, yes) because of this.

I think the obvious argument that OS X is more secure may to some degree be misleading. Any OS has vulnerabilities. Eventually we Mac users are going to get caught with our pants down and it's just that simple. It hasn't happened yet, sure, and it's going to require much greater skill to make something really malicious happen in OS X than it does in Windows, but don't buy into the hype that it will never happen. Any Mac user should still at least have ClamX (free!) or another OS X anti-virus product (if for no other reason than the possibility we might forward an email that contains a virus without ever having an indication of it on our own systems) and MacScan (not free, but awesome!) to check for keyloggers and the like. We aren't invulnerable, we're just not yet very attractive targets.

I have both a mac and a windows machine on my desk at work and a PC at home. The only machine worse than a Windows one is a Mac, and the only thing worse than a Mac is a Windows machine, although Linux is worse than either of them.

The Mac is, in general, slightly more elegant, but it makes the things that are not elegant stand out like a really non-elegant thing in an elegant setting. Like the Finder, for example (sort of like My Computer on Windows, only even more broken), or the search capability. Both of which make me want to fling my computer out the nearest window, then hop the train down to Cupertino to start cracking heads.

If you have a substantial investment in Windows software, (and aren't willing to just, um, appropriate new Mac versions of stuff, stick with the Windows box.

All that said, when I replace my home machine (which is going on 8 years old now), it'll likely be with a Mac mini.

Whatever machine you do get, budget for at least 2GB of RAM (memory). This is especially crucial if you run Vista or if you are planning on running VMWare or Parallels on the Mac.

Imap is, as everyone says, a trouble-free way of synching mail across two or more computers. The attraction of macs for me -- and it's not enough to justify the price difference -- is all the juicy little utility programs, outliners, clip collectors, and so on. Also, textwrangler is the flat-out nicest text editor I have ever used on anything. On the other hand, the air is ridiculously priced, and nothing else comes close to the portability of an x series thinkpad.

LB -- I got a chance to play with an Asus EE in a bar the other night: it is on loan to a friend, an IT journalist. I was disenchanted. The keyboard is painfully small and the battery life, he reports, is terrible. Less than two hours, which would make it worthless for me. I'd wait, if you can, for the next version.

I basically never use the finder. Is this the brokenness of which people complain (still, six years later)?

An acquaintance with an Asus reports things similar to Nworb's journalist friend. I'd find a store that has one and obsessively test drive it first.

Drat. It seems like such an obvious market niche -- why isn't there more in there?

I basically never use the finder. Is this the brokenness of which people complain (still, six years later)?

Yes. Thanks to the combination of Quicksilver and Google Desktop, I also have relatively little interaction with the finder, but when I do, boy, is it annoying.

Mail.app + IMAP Gmail = perfect email solution

iCal + Google Calendar + Spanning Sync = decent calendaring

Quicksilver = indispensable

Go Mac!

(Also, werdnA? I just emailed you at your blog comments email.)

89:

That depends on your email client. They almost all default to storing Sent Mail in a local folder, but on many there's a configuration option tucked away in the "Manage Your Accounts" (or whatever) section to save it in whatever folder you choose, which includes remote ones.

That depends on your email client. They almost all default to storing Sent Mail in a local folder, but on many there's a configuration option tucked away in the "Manage Your Accounts" (or whatever) section to save it in whatever folder you choose, which includes remote ones.

Huh! I knew this not.

We manage a PC/work Mac/home plus iPhones household. Outlook work goes to Entourage home to iPhone. Gmail IMAP works nicely in the Mail app on iPhone and on Mac desktop. Office is big, dumb, and overloaded with features, no matter the platform--but cross-platform compatible. Time Machine is neat. I expect it will be even cooler with a Time Capsule.

I tried to switch from a PC to a Mac about a month ago and ended up ditching the experiment and returning the Mac. Main reasons:

(1) I'm whiny and bad with change, so take numbers 2-5 with a grain of salt.

(2) The keyboard shortcuts were not up to snuff. I didn't try this Quicksilver thing, and some of the problem might have just been that I was unfamiliar with the Mac shortcuts, but they seemed a lot less user-friendly and robust than PC. For one things, there are more three-button shortcuts (Apple+Shift+random number, etc.). And then there are some things I just couldn't figure out without the trackpad. But I only had it for about two days, so maybe I missed something.

(3) Alt-tab only lets you cycle through programs, rather than windows, so it was a huge hassle to jump around, say, two browser windows and two word documents. Plus, it was harder to keep all the info on the screen that I wanted at once, since all the open windows in a program would jump to the fore at once. I found that I could get a lot less useful info on the screen at once. But again, maybe I just didn't get savvy enough quickly enough.

(4) A couple programs crashed, undermining the "Ooh! Ooh! Stable!" appeal. This might've just been because I had a bad build -- the Q through O keys stopped working the day I returned it, which I take it is not a normal bug.

(5) No notable advantage in speed, screen quality, etc.

I also have relatively little interaction with the finder, but when I do, boy, is it annoying.

FWIW, I am not annoyed by Finder. I rather like it. I added a couple of commonly-used directories to the menu on the left and otherwise it's just a Unix file system.

3: Alt-` cycles through windows of a single program.

128.3: Cmd-` switches windows within an application. I only figured this out recently. It has changed my life.

Right, Cmd, not Alt. You see to which keyboard paradigm my soul remains in hock.

I think I usually call that "apple-tilde", although it doesn't require a shift, its just I use ~ far more than `, otherwise. I too could not live without both apple-tab and apple-tilde. When I last found myself working on a windows box I was extremely annoyed that alt-tab did not bring ALL of my cmd.exe windows to the front at once.

The one thing I really wish I could do in OS X is easily remap keys. I'd dearly love to remap Caps-Lock to Ctrl, but last I checked I'd have to spend money to do so.

One thing I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is that you can install X for OS X, and thus get a whole bunch of FOSS tools/programs. I haven't used it in a while, but from what I recall it was better than Cygwin on Windows.

This seems to be the place for this question: Is there a way in Microsoft Word to copy all the information out of a table without copying the table format? Without copying the info cell by cell? I have a blind student whom I send a lot of our in-class worksheets in electronic form, and her text reader doesn't do well with tables.

I may or may not be getting pwned on this one, but one solution might be to get a Mac with both the Mac OS and Windows XP on it. This avoids having to use The Dread Vista, and i'm kind of toying with the idea of doing when i get a new computer.

Is there a way in Microsoft Word to copy all the information out of a table without copying the table format? Without copying the info cell by cell? I have a blind student whom I send a lot of our in-class worksheets in electronic form, and her text reader doesn't do well with tables.

You could copy it and then paste it into Notepad, so that it just gets separated by tabs. Then paste it back into Word.

Oh, of course that would work. Easy! Thanks!

I have had a devil of a time figuring out a way to copy/paste between OSX and X11, and this is using apple's X11, too.

(That is, I can copy from X11 and paste into Aqua, but not vice versa.)

Controllermate is a $15 shareware app for Mac OS that will let all you keyboard shortcut winers remap the shit out of your keyboard, and any other input devices you plug into your computer. Paste an "Alt" sticker on your "Command/Apple" key and knock yourselves out. There is a bit of a learning curve, so be warned.

I grew up with Apple IIs and later Macs, but I switched to PC in the 90s when Apple basically sucked. I tried switching back a few years ago and bought a nice powerbook laptop. But I couldn't stand the thing. I thought the UI was silly.... it looks beautiful but usability takes a back seat to eye candy. I can't understand why the tiny little gumdrop maximize window button doesn't actually maximize the window. Also, the "Finder" application was pretty weak - way less powerful than Windows Explorer, which itself is no prize. And don't get me started on the ridiculousness of only having one mouse button.

Turns out I'm a lot happier with XP. Or Ubuntu Linux, for that matter....

And don't get me started on the ridiculousness of only having one mouse button.

Macs support two button mice and the standard Mac mouse has had two buttons since ages ago.

By now, if the problem is the number of buttons on the mouse, that's a bad reason not to go with a Mac.

I can't understand why the tiny little gumdrop maximize window button doesn't actually maximize the window.

I could be wrong, but I think if you read the HIG, you'll find that, in point of fact, the behaviour of the green button on Macs is perfectly consistent. It isn't the maximise button at all. It merely happens to occupy the space that the maximise button occupies on Windows and sub-Windows system. (See this article on the so-called `maximise' button.

James Fallows, who blogs sorta-with Saiselgy over at the Atlantic, uses both and reports semi-regularly on things like the travails of dealing with Vista and point-counterpoint on the Mac Air. He's doing more and more on the Mac over time.

134: You can re-map the caps lock, control, option and command keys in keyboard prefs (click "Modifier keys...")

I used this to turn my caps lock off, on account of it is useless.

Also if a Macbook is powerful enough for what you do then seriously consider a Macbook Air. I just replaced my regular old Macbook with one and it is completely wonderful to behold, use, carry about etc.

Bottom line, almost all objections to either platform are completely subjective. Mouse buttons? I've been using a 3rd party five-button mouse with a Mac for, like, years. On the other hand, I booted into Windows last night to do something I can do under OS X but found easier on the XP side because I'd have had to do a lot of little manual steps on OS X but there was an obscure tool to do it all for me in Windows.

My experience with pricing laptops has been that there's effectively no difference anymore. A Mac is more expensive by default but a Windows laptop with similar specs is no cheaper. There's almost complete file portability between the two OSes. A Mac will give you both (or three or seven or whatever) OSes with either BootCamp or some sort of virtualization like Parallels, but it'll cost extra. OS X is more secure but won't be forever. There's no objective metric for which is better than the other.

As such, Becks, I recommend that you go to the Apple store and spend twenty or thirty minutes using one to see if you like it. The one here has internet access on all the test machines so you can really test drive them. I don't recommend necessarily signing up for an appointment with them because they're going to bring a lot of Kool-Aid but do spend more than thirty seconds using one. I like to see people switch to Mac for purely emotional reasons. My improved experience on a Mac is entirely my own and I do know people who actively prefer Windows. You won't know unless you spend some serious time using it yourself.

I'm thinking this through too myself right now. One of my primary uses for my home desktop is PC gaming, however. I'm not happy with the idea of a Vista machine, but I'm worried about whether even with Boot Camp, I can run some of the games that I'd want to run. Any thoughts?

148: As in the PC world, it all depends on hardware. If you want Boot Camp for gaming, get a model of Mac that meets or exceeds the hardware specs for the PC game you want to play. It's PC hardware, after all.

Actually, on second thought, I may have misunderstood your stated concern. Boot Camp isn't Windows virtualization, it's booting into Windows. OS X isn't running underneath, you are really running Windows with access to all the hardware including the graphics card, etc. Earlier versions of Parallels couldn't run anything that required hardware for graphics acceleration; the new version might but I doubt it really runs everything. With Boot Camp, when you boot into Windows you are running a Windows machine, period.

Alertle is a very "real" RSS feed reader. Works exactly like a desktop app, is very fast, and yet all within a website (its 100% AJAX-driven).

You can browse through 100s of feeds and a lot of articles within a few seconds on it. Its got 3 things going for it:
- Unique 3-panel interface
- Intuitive keyboard shortcuts (up/down arrows..instead of 'j','k'!)
- Autoplay - you can choose a speed to play your headlines, from 2 seconds onwards.

Check it out at http://www.alertle.com.

For a comparison with Google Reader, see http://blog.alertle.com/?p=10

"Is there a way in Microsoft Word to copy all the information out of a table without copying the table format? Without copying the info cell by cell? I have a blind student whom I send a lot of our in-class worksheets in electronic form, and her text reader doesn't do well with tables."

Posted by: Cryptic Ned: "You could copy it and then paste it into Notepad, so that it just gets separated by tabs. Then paste it back into Word."

Or just use the command Table=>Convert=>Table to Text. Choose to use tabs rather than paragraphs to separate cells.

For those who are unwilling to try Vista until a somewhat debugged version is released, there are manufacturers still selling computers with Windows XP: Dell and Lenovo, that I know of.