darrylbraaten.com

First off, i CANNOT BELIEVE you bought a mac - this truly is a sign of the end of days.. I'll try to answer some of your gripes and confusions for you (and of course throw in a healthy dose of Mac elitism):

>>The display isn't very good I like Microsoft's cleartype much better then whatever Apple is doing. You are smoking crack. Apple's text rendering is light-years ahead of Microsoft - just check out this site in Safari compared to IE. I cannot even see pixels when looking at text - unlike Windows. I think it just takes time - I do agree that on initial use, the Mac seems a little "fuzzy" or "blurry" - but this soon goes away..

>>Built in mail while easy to setup didn't find my folders setup on an IMAP server, I could only see my inbox. Not sure what the problem is here - it *should* work fine. (It does for me). Mebbe try googling?

>>I don't like that closing an application with the red X doesn't close it, just minimizes it. I have noticed this with people who have only used a Mac also, they end up with lots of applications running because they thought the X closed them. Yep, this is confusing for Windows users I agree. Worse still, some applications (calculator to name one) DO actually close when you click the "x"... Best bet is to use apple+q to quit an application rather than the mouse.. (you are a developer after all - the keyboard is your friend.

>>The 400MB of patches that needed to be installed after getting the machine up and running. I am glad I have a fast internet connection Um, hello? Windows XP requires 70+ patches, and 3 reboots from a fresh install of XP Pro, SP2. The only reason Vista has less is 'cause it's so new.. ;-)

>>I can't seem to connect to my W2K Server machines file shares. Apple+K to bring up the "connect to" dialog. Then SMB://ip-address-of-computer/share-name to connect to a windows machine using samba. Same trick works for HTTP, FTP, SSH and so on...

>>The menu bar at the top of the screen instead of with the window. You will learn to love this.. trust me..

>>The console app shows log files, where the terminal app gives you a console. I would have found it quicker if they called in xTerm. Not sure this is confusing, however... If you want xTerm, install X11 (on the developer disk tools in your box) and you can use it - it is faster than the built-in terminal, although you do have to be running X11. See below for an alternative.

>>Folders being sorted with files in Finder ???

>>Installing applications is strange. I downloaded Firefox opened the .dmg file clicked on the only thing that was clickable, what looked like an install process happened, but on a reboot nothing was installed. I had to drag the icon out of the .dmg file into my application folder. The Divx installer on the other had behaved as I would expect, when run it put application in the applications folder. Actually, OSX is extremely elegant in the way it installs software. All you (generally) do is drag the file to your applications folder (or any other folder). That's it. .app (application) files are actually a special filetype called a "package" which is actually a folder that contains the executable, plus all associated resource files. The OS knows to "run" the executable buried within the package when you double-click on it. If you want to see the contents of the package, right-click->show package contents. There is no concept of registry on the mac - all prefs are stored in the ~/Library/Preferences folder as .plist files - which are just xml (although they can contain encoded data that is not human-readable). You can double-click on any of these .plist files to open it up in Property List editor to see the values. Generally .plist files are created automatcially - so if you want to reset an app back to how it was when you installed, just delete the appropriate .plist file. This all makes backing up/migrating extremely trivial - simply copy the application from your applications folder, and the .plist files (if you want them). No registry corruption nonsense. ok, now for the good stuff: * Quicksilver (freeware) - http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/ - an amazing application that will have you ditching your mouse for good. It's a launcher and so so much more.. You'll need to google around to see examples of how to use it as it's a massive beast thats poorly documented. I cannot recommed this app enough.

* NetNewsWire (shareware, but there's a free version) - http://www.newsgator.com/NGOLProduct.aspx?ProdID=NetNewsWire - the best RSS reader on the mac. There are a couple of other notable examples, but NNW is pretty much the default rss client. Again, strongly recommended (I am typing this in NNW now).

* Textmate (shareware) - http://macromates.com/ - everyone's favourite text editor. BBEdit is also very good, but expensive (although there's a free version called "TextWrangler").

* Camino (freeware, open-source) - http://www.caminobrowser.org/ - A special version of Firefox compiled using Mozilla back-end, and Cocoa front-end so it looks and feels a little more Mac-like than the vanilla Firefox (which of course you can also use).

* Adium (freeware, open-source) - http://www.adiumx.com - The best multi-IM chat client on the planet.

* Fink (freeware, open-source) - http://fink.sf.net - A version of the "apt-get" package manager used in debian. Lets you compile and install thousands of linux-type applications (things like kde, gimp etc.) - check out the page for a list of packages.

* XCode (freeware) - should be in your box, but if not go to http://developer.apple.com and sign up for a free account where you can download it. There are a LOT of open-source products on the mac, that are very high quality - one of the best places to find software is http://www.versiontracker.com. Also the unofficial apple weblog - http://www.tuaw.com - is very good for keeping up to date with mac news. For help with OSX (and a lot of windows-user tips), check out: http://www.macosxhints.com. Have fun, and ping me if you need help with anything. D.

Oops, i almost forgot. Ditch terminal and start using "iTerm" (again, freeware, open-source): http://iterm.sourceforge.net/ - its terminal with tabs, and is way way faster than the built-in version.

D.

Oh yeah, and ditch quicktime and use VLC (which you probably already know about since it's on windows too): http://www.videolan.org - it even works with the mac mini remote!

D.

Your blog software ate my post - i think. Don't blame me if it's a double post!

The display isn't very good I like Microsoft's cleartype much better then whatever Apple is doing.

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Tripe. Haddock and Milk. Actually, Vista has a nice type rendering engine, but as DC says once you get some quality fonts and get used to it Apple's type engine is way better than XP.

Built in mail while easy to setup didn't find my folders setup on an IMAP server, I could only see my inbox.

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Mac Mail is shite IMO. I love most of the iLife suite, but Mail (not technically iLife) is so limited I had to throw it over. Thunderbird on OS X is intel native and way better. I also had problems getting IMAP accounts set up properly in Mac Mail.

I don't like that closing an application with the red X doesn't close it, just minimizes it. I have noticed this with people who have only used a Mac also, they end up with lots of applications running because they thought the X closed them.

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It's a UI convention switch, most Windows users have an issue with it. When you want to absolutley quit a Mac app you don't use the mouse to hit the X. You Command-Q. I've used Mac's and windows for so long I don't have an issue but it is a big UI change, menus at the OS level vs. menus at a Window level etc. You do get used to it.

I can't seem to connect to my W2K Server machines file shares.

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Again Duncan's advice. One thing that I've experienced that is odd but repeatable for me on multiple mac/pc configs: things go faster if you're accessing the mac shares from a PC than the other way around. Not by a huge margin, but measurable. No idea why. Not an issue linux-->mac and back.

Installing applications is strange.

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No, it's awesome, you've just been beaten with a hose for so long you're not sure how to react once the pain stops :). Seriously - no registry, no uninstall apps, no .dlls, it's awesome. Apps are almost universally self-contained, barring a few pref files in /library/. And IMO even better than the /etc/ ... /var/ ... /usr/ dance in *nix traditionally.

Additional thoughts spurred by Dunc's comments:

* Only a Mac can make a substandard coder enjoy it - I am teaching myself Objective-C using a bunch of X-Code/Cocoa tutorials. It's really cool for me, YMMV.

* There is a vi replacement for Term [http://macvim.org/OSX/index.php] (vim) that makes ssh editing and so forth much easier if you happen to like vi over pico or emacs.

* Blender. http://www.blender.org - amazingly good, intel native 3d app, OSS. Great fun even if you never do anything productive with it (like me heh.)

* Unity. http://www.unity3d.com - sweet game engine/IDE for the mac. Compiles for Win32 as well with a pro license but I just like fucking around with it

* NeoOffice. MS Office runs under rosetta - very badly. I use bootcamp for gaming and work Outlook/VPN but NeoOffice is a really decent Office suite for free excepting any mail/calendar functionality. The spreadsheet doesn't do pivot tables which sucks but other than that it's very serviceable.

* Another vote for QuickSilver - *** hot little utility. Seems kinda pointless at first but grows on you until you can't live without it.

* TightVNC - Dunno if you need VNC but alot of people use ChickenVNC on the Mac. I hate it. TightVNC's java client needs a little tweaking and a term script but after that it's faster and has a lower memory footprint than Chicken in my experience.

Lastly - you did buy a mini. It's a great machine but it lacks the chops to be a killer mac, just as a $800 Dell is never going to be a screamer. Go check out a fully loaded MacBook Pro - or ping me and I'll bring mine over. You may never go back :P