Nick Dow's blog : How to switch from Windows to Mac without going crazy
I missed this
text on the day I bought my first MacBook.
I decided to buy my first MacBook Air
when I came to work at the editorial office of Hacker magazine, where many of
my colleagues had Macs and I didn’t want to be different from others. At first,
the new MacBook seemed to me a terribly inconvenient thing that was impossible
to work with and could only be looked at.
But, watching colleagues who work on a
Mac 100% of the time and sincerely enjoy comfortable and productive work, I
decided that I also need to completely switch to OS X.
After many months of inconvenience (and
the first days with a Mac were just hell), I finally stopped using Windows
computers. My eyes no longer get tired, 100% of the time in front of the
monitor is spent efficiently (I don’t spend 10-15 minutes every day turning on
the computer and contemplating freezes), there are fewer reasons for negative
emotions, working with code/text goes much faster.
And now I only need one computer, which is always with me.
Before buying a Mac and completely getting used to it, I used a powerful home
PC, a Windows laptop that was lying in the office, and on the iPad 2 I had a
whole gentleman’s web development kit installed in case of urgent edits. Now
this entire mountain of hardware is brilliantly replaced by the MacBook Air.
But before the happy time of enjoying
working on a Mac arrived, there was a long period of painful adaptation. Years
later, I would like to turn to my past self and give some advice that would
shorten the time of this period. But this is impossible, so I’ll just share
them with the readers.
I hope these tips will help you switch
to a Mac in no time and experience the benefits of the world's best operating
system.
1. Make it difficult to turn on
your Windows computer
In the first days
of working with a Mac, many people experience, along with wild delight, severe
discomfort: it is not clear how to type characters on the keyboard, keyboard
shortcuts do not work, the Start button is missing, etc. Everything is very
beautiful, it works quickly, but it’s wildly inconvenient. But this is just out
of habit. When, after a few months of working on a Mac, you sit down at a
computer running Windows, you again experience discomfort and think: “Wow, what
the hell, what the hell…”.
The more you work on your Mac, the
easier it becomes. At first, work tasks are completed more slowly than on a
computer running Windows, but the OS X operating system works faster and an
experienced user achieves maximum productivity on it.
In my opinion, you should strive as
quickly as possible to gain that critical mass of working time, after which you
feel free on your Mac and no longer waste your life contemplating the hourglass
and endlessly rebooting the computer.
In the first weeks, when I worked at
home on a MacBook Air, it seemed to me that the Windows computer was looking at
me and mentally saying: “Traitor! Give up this little freak now! I'm twice as
powerful and three times more convenient! You will never learn to work behind
him anyway!” And sometimes I quit and sat down at a Windows computer, because
everything turned out much faster with it. With such actions I was simply
harming myself, delaying the happy moment of completely switching to a Mac.
I advise you to
take the power cord/battery from the laptop and put it in a place where the
removal process will take at least five minutes. And put it there every time
you turn off the computer. So,
gradually, you will learn to solve all your computer problems exclusively using
a Mac.
2. Transfer your data using iCloud
for Windows
It is worth
making sure that files, mail, calendar events, bookmarks are immediately on the
new computer. Otherwise, you can sit down at Windows for a minute, get carried
away and lose an invaluable day of getting used to OS X.
Download the iCloud app for Windows,
put all the files you need on iCloud Drive and sync your
bookmarks/emails/events to the cloud. They will now be available on any device
you sign in with your Apple ID.
5GB of cloud storage is available for
free. 50 GB costs 59 rubles, 200 GB costs 149 rubles, and 1 TB costs 599 rubles
per month.
3. Create a Google account and
thoroughly explore all its features
If you still
don’t realize the full power of Google’s free services, then when you buy a new
computer, it’s worth mastering them at the same time. Why a person needs a
Google account is the topic of a separate article. But when buying a new Mac,
there are three main reasons to get one:
·
1. To put 15 GB of files
(that did not fit on iCloud) for free on Google Drive;
·
2. To use Google Docs, Google
Spreaedsheet and Google Slides until you have paid for MS Office/mastered
iWork;
·
3. To synchronize bookmarks
in the Google Chrome browser (at the same time, consider switching to it).
4. Create a virtual card for
purchases in the App Store
You can skip this
point if you have reasons to trust online payment systems with your salary
card. If you have become an OS X user, then there is a high probability that
you will soon need to purchase software and link the card to the App Store. I
advise you to get virtual cards for this (for example, QIWI Visa Virtual, which
can be topped up in cash through the terminal) with an amount only for the most
necessary things, so as not to waste money on trifles and protect your main
account from fraudsters (such incidents are rare, but they do happen ).
5. Get things done with punctuation
First of all,
click open Keyboard -> Input Sources and
use the +/- buttons to change the layout from Russian typescript to Russian PC. Now it
will be more difficult for you to type the letters “е”, but you will be able to type periods
and commas in the usual way.
For the first two days I didn’t know
that this needed to be done and I was in great pain.
Here's a list of keyboard shortcuts for
typing popular characters that typically cause trouble typing when switching to
a Mac:
·
— (em dash) — Shift + Alt + –
·
€ - Shift + Alt + 2
·
® (registered trademark) - Alt + R
·
© (copyright) – Alt + G
·
... (ellipses) - Alt +; (where is the letter Z)
·
° (degree) - Shift + Alt + 8
·
« (opening Christmas tree) – Alt + \
·
"(closing herringbone) - Shift + Alt + \
·
(Apple logo) - Shift + Alt + K
·
∞ (infinity) – Alt + 5
·
ƒ (function) - Alt + F
·
≈ (approximately equal) – Alt + X
·
≠ (not equal) – Alt + =
·
√ (square root) - Alt + V
·
± (plus/minus) – Shift + Alt + =
If a shortcut doesn't work, press Command + Spacebar to
change the layout.
6. Learn how to do basic operations
on a Mac
You need to learn
these keyboard shortcuts before going to the Re:Store to buy a new Mac:
·
To open Launchpad with a list
of installed programs, press F4;
·
To open the Finder (analogous
to Explorer), you need to press Alt + Tab several
times to switch between windows;
·
To take a screenshot, press Command + Shift + 3;
·
To copy an element, press Command + C;
·
To cut an element, press Command + X;
·
To paste a cut/copied
element, press Command + V;
·
To rename a file, press F2 /or Return;
·
To cancel an action, press Command + Z;
·
To start the search, press Command + F;
·
To close the active window, press Command + W.
Enough for the first time. Naturally,
all these actions can be done without using a keyboard, but it is better to
immediately learn the fastest and most convenient methods. If you know the
Windows hotkeys, then in most cases you just need to get used to pressing Command instead of CTRL, pressing F4 instead of the Win key,
and learn a new way to take screenshots.
7. Make a plan to learn keyboard
shortcuts
The above 10
shortcuts will make your life easier, but to feel like a soaring eagle behind
your Mac keyboard, you need to know more keyboard shortcuts! You can read in
detail about the methods of learning them in Artem Surovtsev’s article 3
ways to learn OS X hotkeys. I also recommend looking at the List of
Keyboard Shortcuts on the Apple website.
8. Learn to use Spotlight
Spotlight is a global search across the entire
Mac, that is, immediately across files, contacts, notes, mail, etc. It can be
launched from any program by pressing Command + spacebar or Alt + spacebar (if it
doesn’t work, look in the settings to see how it turns on for you). For
starters, just knowing that it exists is enough. Then you can master search
operators and filters, a currency converter and a calculator.
9. Take your time buying Microsoft
Office
A full-fledged
desktop Microsoft Office with kms activator for Mac costs almost 15 thousand rubles. But it’s
better to subscribe to Office 365 from Microsoft for 400 rubles per
month. Free 1TB of One Drive and 60 minutes of Skype calls. One license can be
used on 5 computers (Windows and Mac) and 5 mobile devices.
I myself manage without Microsoft Office
and use Google services. People who have worked on a Mac since childhood can
get by just fine with Pages, Numbers and Keynote. You can also try the
open-source office suite Libre Office (successor to Open Office). I have it
installed (for the needs of IT journalism), but I have no desire to use it:
·
Brakes;
·
Shuts down suddenly;
·
The default settings in Libre
Office Calc are terrible;
·
To run macros you need to
perform a whole shamanic ritual.
But this package has more capabilities
than Google Docs and iWork. And some people like it. Therefore, I advise you to
try it and make a choice based on personal impressions.
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