Moving from Windows to Mac - things I learned

[robyn1]

I’m an IT consultant who moved from a Windows machine to a MacBookPro, for a few reasons, including windows problems and a desire to use a much stronger operating system which was easier to use, and to do my work quicker.

While this is generally the case, I’d like to manage the expectations of other people who are looking at doing the same thing. While I am happy with the Mac, as a heavy business user, there are some things I wish I’d known first.

I went from windows XP with OfficeXP to a MacBookPro OSX with Office for Mac2004 and these are the glitches I’ve found after 6 months with the Mac:

Mac–specific:
1. To set up a shared folder on a network, you create another user on the Mac and assign read/write rights for the shared folder to your main user. Then for your main user, need to create an alias to the new user’s public shared folder. Then on the windows machine, they need to know the username and password for your new user. It’s confusing. Call the help desk.

2. The Mac will only read windows-standard-formatted harddrives. This means if you have an external drive as your backup drive, the Mac will only read it and not allow you to write to it. Apple’s answer is to re-format the drive. This is unacceptable and for me, not possible.

3. There are no restore points or system restore facilities. So if it mucks up, you can’t undo.

4. PDAs (in my case, an O2 XDA II) aren’t recognised as USB or bluetooth devices. Ie, if you plug in your PDA or connect using bluetooth, your Mac won’t recognise the device. The Parallels facility to do this works sometimes. Both of these issues affect syncing, below. In these situations, the bluetooth help isn’t any benefit and the bluetooth options aren’t explained.

5. Syncing between a windows mobile device and the Mac is difficult. Most people I know use a blackberry or windows PDA and, with windows, have a one-step sync using free software. On the Mac, this requires either of two third-party programs, the missing sync or pocketmac. Both of these have common facilities and then they do a couple of things that the other one doesn’t. I use most functions and create documents in pocket word, and neither does everything I want. Syncing is now a long process with me having to do lots of steps myself. Bluetooth profiles for other devices cause conflict and the USB device recognition often involves restarting both devices.

6. Associated with syncing above, there is no translator for pocket word and pocket excel files that are created on PDAs. This requires a third-party program or parallels/windows/activesync. I now sync twice to get everything I need.

7. The DVD reader region code restricts the number of times you can switch the region DVD you’re watching. Ie if you’re an international road warrior and buy DVDs in different locations, you will be stopped after about 5 times. This is built into the DVD player firmware. There is much discussion about it, but nothing about how it will be rectified.


Microsoft-specific
1. When migrating from Windows/Outlook to Mac/Entourage, there are no migration facilities and the Windows *.pst files cannot be read on the Mac.

2. In Entourage, attachments to Rich-Text-format emails are put into an attachment WINMAIL.DAT which can’t be read. The workaround is to download the WINMAIL.DAT file onto the desktop and use a program TNEF’s Enough to extract the files. You cannot make TNEF’s Enough the default program for WINMAIL.DAT files, either due to Mac OSX or the program itself. I don’t know why not. I also tried writing an applescript to open them automatically and failed.

3. Powerpoint slide shows, file type *.pps, will not open directly from an email and may crash your Mac. These again, have to be downloaded to a folder or desktop, have Powerpoint opened and then the file opened within Powerpoint.

4. The menus in Entourage and Word (haven’t tried the others) cannot be customised.

5. The Address Book and Tasks list both are in a list format only. There is not an address card view, grouping by alphabetically or by category (except to view only a category).

In summary, I gave away a lot of problems with my windows machine, but I gained a few others when I got the Mac. I am not a microsoft fan and would like to see Macs used in corporate settings but a few things need to be ironed out, the PDAs probably being the first. I hope this list provides a basis for new development and in the meantime, lets people make an informed choice.

Robyn

[Lt Major Burns]

2: Windows is the only OS in the world that can write to NTFS. this isn't the Mac's fault - Microsoft will not licence NTFS out. readabilty is all we have. FAT32 drives are totally crossplatform however. format into FAT32 and you'll be fine. not the mac's fault, i'm afraid.

3: the feature is a long time coming, to be honest, but will be a major feature of Leopard, called Time Machine, to be released around may/june time.

4,5 and 6: This is again, a windows problem. Microsoft have not made it easy for Window Mobile to be synced on anything other than a Windows machine. many have seen this as (yet another) problem with Microsoft's portable OS.

7: this is something in DVD EULA. you must find your region and stick to it. Apple at least gives you 5 choices before deciding.

1: again, this isn't mac falling short, but windows insistence on using proprietary systems again.

2: see above

3: see above

4: this is a mac thing. customisation leads to inconsistency.


Mostly, your problems seem to be with windows, and things the mac can't help. Windows use of proprietary systems means that other developers have to work backwards trying work it out, and it;s not easy.

[Sunnz]

NTFS - Checkout MacFUSE from http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/ it supports allows NTFS under the Mac. Of course this is reverse-engineered since MS does NOT release NTFS's specifications, so it don't expect it to be perfect.

DVD - libdcss or something like that has been developed to read DVDs without the need of region code... and I think they come with MPlayer or VLC, so you might like to check them out.

[Satcomer]

Well I won't go through and answer every question. However I do have some very serious suggestions and web sites for reference.

1. Check out the company MediaFour for Windows access to a OS X machine/drive format.

2. DVD region format is long standing thing not controlled by Apple or Microsoft, blame the MPAA for that. Breaking that (for OS X) is easily searchable via Google , MacUpdate and VersionTracker for programs like this web site. Be warned, this is playing with fire though and could hose a drive, so do your own research before trying. Then there is always the free VLC that will play most regions in place of the built in DVD player.

3. As a fellow IT person that is also a home using Mac user I feel you need to be aware of using OS X in a Windows Domain of the web site MacWindows. All they do is work on using OS X machines in Windows environments, with user reports. This is filled with users in the same position as you.

4. For PDAs syncing and OS X keep the applications called The Missing Sync. It won't settle every sync problem, but it will get a lot of problem devices.

5. for TNEf Enough & Applescript problem might be solved by making a Automator workflow instead.

I hope these web sites will work out for you, especially the MacWindows site. Lastly there is also some other sites that Mac hacking sites that you might be interested in. They are MacOSHints (a very good OS X command line hacking, tweaking site that is updated daily) and Accelerate Your Macintosh (for Mac hardware hacking, especially their drive database lasso).

[Flying Meat]

I also work in IT, but my path to IT was through publishing -- at the time, nearly all Macs, for good reason -- in a large department of a very big company. We pretty much had to be our own IT department unless it was a network problem.

Thanks for the unbiased information, robyn1.
Some users may very well find these things show stoppers, but I think Vista will turn that around.

I hope the links provided will help you resolve and/or understand the outstanding issues regarding the switch.

[robyn1]

Hi All,
another couple of things I've found:
- MacFuse will enable my Mac to read & write to NTFS drives, but it conflicts with Parallels. Ie now I can read/write to the NTFS drive with the Mac, but Parallels won't see the drive at all.

- when you get your Mac repaired for physical damage, any subsequent problems to the Mac are checked against the warranty policy "in general, any repairs for physical damage invalidate the warranty." I was informed of this by Apple Help Desk. This is even when your machine only worked on by authorised service outlets.

[robyn1]

Hi All,
Just upgraded to the current 3188 build of Parallels and MacFuse and they are both working fine, in harmony, like they were made for each other. And I can even read the NTFS drive from Parallels AND Mac.

Despite the egg on my face, I actually like being this wrong.

Cheers!

[powermac]

You were not necessarily wrong, just did not know these options were available, and now you do.