The MAC and the keyboard

Here it is six days into owning a MAC and I still feel like it is the first day. I want to explain that I am trying my hardest to stay objective and not favor one OS over the other when writing my little reviews. But after ten years of the Windows OS it’s hard not to favor it. I’m not saying that it is better, but it is more familiar, so it is therefore easier for me. I do have a gripe about OS X that I’ll write about today, and that gripe is the way in which you close applications. In Windows if you want to close an app. You just click on the X in the upper right hand corner, that’s it, it’s closed. Now in OS X when you want to close an app. You must go to the Finder bar, click on the applications name, then click QUIT. Or you can right click the DOCK icon for the app. And select QUIT, OR (yes OS X offers NUMEROUS ways to do anything…and that is good) you can press—CMD+Q to quit the active application. But if you click the X in the upper left hand corner it doesn’t really quit the program, it “closes” it. It is still running in the background, (and you made aware of this by the indicator below the applications icon in the dock), but it is still using system resources to stay available. Why doesn’t the X close the app.? Am I just too used the way that Windows handles closing apps.? I am also starting to notice how “keyboard-centric” OS X is. And that is pretty cool, providing I can remember all these keyboard commands! I know that this sounds like a negative post, but it isn’t. It’s just observations being made and commented on. I could do the same thing about Windows.

Now, on to a different topic. OK, maybe not. I have more to talk about in regards to the MAC.

I feel like I need to mention the process of installing an application in OS X. This isn’t anything new to MAC owners obviously, but if you’re a Windows user, and interested in learning about the MAC OS, then read on.

The first app. I installed when getting my MAC Mini was Adium. Adium is an IM client along the lines of say Trillian. It supports numerous IM services such as Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Jabber etc. The installation could not be easier (listen up MS developers). First I downloaded the Adium DMG file. What is a DMG file? It’s basically a disk image file, if you want a more detailed description of DMG files I might suggest a Google search, or maybe a Wiki. Ok, back to the install. I have my Adium .dmg downloaded, now I double click it, and I agree to the license stuff. And now there is a little window that appears…it has an icon for Adium, then an arrow pointing to the right, then an icon for my applications folder. ……What does this mean? It looks like it means I need to drag the Adium icon to the right? And drop it over the applications icon? So I do it. And voila`! Adium is installed! Kind of cool, a lot more user friendly than a Windows installer! My five year old son could have interpreted those instructions with no problems. Now just for fun…I decided to see how to UN-INSTALL my new software. How do you do it in Windows? You either go to Start—Programs-select your program folder—choose un-install (if it came with an un-installer). If it DIDN’T come with an un-installer you need to go the Control Panel—Add/Remove Programs—then find your program and un-install it.
On the MAC to un-install a program, just delete it from the Applications folder. That’s it. Your done. I don’t know if that is the same way with ALL MAC apps. But the four or five apps. I’ve removed so far were all done in that fashion. It works that way because there is NO registry to have to try and remove entries from for one thing. No files getting put into WINNT/or System32 as in Windows.

Wow, this turned into a rather long post! I better end it now before you fall asleep.

If you find anything that is not accurate in this post PLEASE comment and correct me, I hate to make mistakes….