Mac versus PC

While taping a web show with Jerry Liao last week, Jerry asked me what advice to give viewers who intend to buy laptops. I said my advise is simple: buy a Mac!

I keep telling this to everyone who asks me now, because eventually these are the same people who will approach me for advice once they start getting malware and viruses. So I tell them to just get a Mac instead. At least less and less people have been approaching me for tech support :)

One of our guests (Pao Manzano of HWMagazine) shot a question at me. He said if Macs are really that great, why is Windows still number one in market share? I should have given him a simple answer. Instead, I rambled on about the mechanics of first-mover advantage, pricing, and how people are naturally resistant to change, etc etc.

I should've said, "What is right is not necessarily what is popular."

Here are some readings that I recommend for those who want to understand the Apple phenomenon.

• Non-Apple's mistake: this guy actually digs why Apple makes great products. The funny thing is, he's an Apple hater but he admits Apple products are great and everyone else is being duped to accept substandard PC software. Read it in full.
• The Big Bite of the Apple: maybe we need to see it from the big picture, as GigaOm does. Apple's market capitalization (a measure of company value) is now closer to Microsoft and way above Google, Dell, and Palm (which is up for sale after PalmPre failed to compete successfully against the iPhone). Read it in full.

I devised a simple test called the Cafe Test to check the rising popularity of Macs. Go to a cafe and if you see at least one Mac, then that's a good sign. Why? Because two years ago, Macs were deemed pricey and unattainable by the rest of us. They have steadily grown cheaper and more accessible since then and, despite that, they retain their status as a product whose design respects the ordinary user. 

I asked Pao why he decided to stick to PCs. He said that unlike others who want something pretty, he wanted something that simply worked. Too bad, I thought. Pao never used Macs long enough to know that they do indeed just work -- right out of the box, you could start being productive with a Mac. Which is something I could not say for PC/Windows (and I used them for 20+ years!). Using a Mac, I was released from the annoyances of being asked pointless questions on whether to overwrite this older DLL or let it stay, the drudgery of daily scanning for malware that caused Internet Explorer to pop an endless amount of unwanted ads, the headaches of installing and deleting software, migrating my data and software when I changed laptops, etc etc. Life with PC was paranoia. Life with Macs is liberating.

Although PCs and Windows are still dominant in the PC market, it does not necessarily prove that they are the better products. PC/Win users will never really understand this until they try it for themselves, suspending early judgment while they adjust to the different paradigm of the Mac OS interface. 

The success of Apple speaks for itself -- in the fields of music (iPod), telecom (iPhone cornered a significant market share in its first year) and now slates (iPad). In comparison, the rest of them really just follow Apple's lead.

Ctrl in Windows is Cmd in Mac

There are two most common questions by Mac switchers:

• How to right-click (there is only one clicker bar on the old Macbooks and the new aluminum Macbooks don't even have them) on a Mac.
• How to do copy-paste or cut-and-paste on a Mac (or Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X, Ctrl-V or Ins in Windows).

The first question is answered in this blog post on how to right-click.

The second question's answer is simply to substitute Ctrl with the "command" key on the Mac. There are two of these, one on either side of the spacebar. So if on Windows you do Ctrl-C to copy, just do a Command-C or Cmd-C. Here's a quick summary:

• Copy: Ctrl-C = Cmd-C
• Paste: Ctrl-V = Cmd-V
• Cut: Ctrl-X = Cmd-X

How to Right Click and Ctrl-C in a Mac

Switching from Windows to Mac has its jarring moments. Among the first things that will jolt you are the lack of a second mouse button on the Macbook touchpad and the Apple mice; and the fact that Ctrl-C does not copy anything in a Mac. (You probably found this blog entry looking for a way to do a right-click, right?)

So let me give the emergency relief to you and write other useful tips after.

• To do a right-click: Press and hold down the ctrl key and then click the mouse or touchpad button.
• Alternately, you may also right-click using the multi-touch trackpad. First, position the pointer over the link or button you wish to right-click. Press the trackpad with your index finger. While holding the first finger down, tap another finger on the the track pad (try your middle finger). This will generate a right-click. BUT you need to activate this feature. Open System Preferences > Trackpad. In Trackpad Gestures, check the box for "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click."
  
• The equivalent of a Ctrl-C in a Mac is Command-C (or Cmd-C for short). The command key, by the way, is that key with the Apple icon and the strange square with four outward loops (⌘).
  
• Bear in mind that most "Ctrl" shortcuts on Windows can be substituted with the "Cmd" key. Example, Ctrl-V in Windows (shortcut for paste) is Cmd-V in Mac.
  

Switching to a Mac requires some patience at the start. After all, some things you do in Windows are done differently in a Mac. And although at first you may get frustrated with this "cultural change", you'll realize that tasks in Mac are actually simpler than in Windows. Plus Mac does not let you do some Windows commands simply to protect you from hurting yourself :). (More on this in future posts).

---

Coming up next:

Top 5 things you need to do after you've switched from Windows to Mac.

Inject a little humor in your life: watch Mac ads

When I bought my Macbook, a friend quipped that it was the start of my life as a Mac junkie -- a life that included endless boasting about owning a Mac, surfing about things Mac, and buying gadgets and peripherals that perpetuate the Mac lifestyle.

Was he right!

Anyway, as I settled into the Mac lifestyle, I discovered the Mac ads in the Apple website. They poke fun at PC and Windows users, which naturally irks the aforesaid people and elicits a knowing chuckle and elbowing among Mac users. Watch the videos here to see why.

Mac is easier to upgrade than Windows

My recent upgrade to a 250 gb hard disk showed another great difference between Mac and Windows. Once again, the Mac beat Windows in the ease of transferring data to the new home.

In my more than 23 years of using Windows, each upgrade (whether getting a new computer or just upgrading the disk) was a dreadful, tiresome affair. To give one example, I had to do lots of workarounds just to find my browser bookmarks and transfer them to the new computer or disk. It's the same problem with most of the other applications in Windows (notably how to backup Outlook email and move them to the new system or disk).

So I was naturally paranoid and had to read up a lot on how to do it with Mac. I found out that all I had to do was login with administrator privileges and copy the directories under the /User folder.

Then move these folders back into the new system. Simple and painless! All my bookmarks, email and other settings were preserved when I logged back in!

FAQ: Upgrading the Macbook Hard Disk

I recently upgraded my Macbook hard disk from the 80 gb disk that came with it to a 250 gb hard disk. I am posting my experience here in the form of an FAQ, partly because many people have been asking me about it.

1. What are the specs of the upgrade?

The new hard disk is a Samsung 250 gb disk. Speed is 5400 rpm. When you scouting for a hard disk upgrade, don't go lower than 5400 rpm. RPM is rotations per minute -- an indication of how fast a disk spins (the faster the spin, the quicker you access the data stored in the disks).

The old hard disk that came with the Macbook was an 80 gb 5400 rpm.

2. Where did you buy the new disk?

At Digital Hub, Greenhills Theater Mall. It cost me Php 8,500. The Digital Hub staff were nice and helpful. I could have bought one from tipicpc.com at Php 8,000, but Digital Hub's Mac geek (named Emerson) installed the unit in my Macbook.

Emerson also installed my Mac OS X from scratch (this meant going back to 10.4.6 -- I had to bring my Mac OS X installation discs; I also had to upgrade to 10.4.11 afterwards). But he backed up all my user settings and preferences and then restored them.

However, Emerson did not reinstall the applications that I added outside of the default OS X install. I had to do this myself when I returned home. It turned out to be easy. Most of the Applications were still in my old hard disk, so I simply bought an enclosure (for SATA and not IDE; Php 550 at V-Mall in Greenhills), connected it to the Macbook and dragged the applications back to the new hard disk.

I did reinstall iWork '08 though from the installation disk, just to be sure. I have tested some of the apps I simply dragged from the old disk to the new one. One of these was Firefox -- and it's so far been working fine without redownloading the original DMG file and then reinstalling it from scratch. All my Firefox preferences, bookmarks, etc were intact.

3. Was iTunes intact?

Yes! Including my downloaded and paid Audible audio books. I tested the audio books and they just asked me for the password again. I think this happened because Audible noticed different settings. So this probably ate up one of the 5 computer slots that you are allowed for an Audible audio book.

4. How long did the procedure take?

My estimate was about 2 hours and Emerson actually also confirmed this. But to be sure, he requested that I return after 3 hours. Data and I had a snack and then watched a movie (I Am Legend) to use up the 3 hours. When we returned, the Macbook was ready with the new disk! Emerson let me investigate the settings and they all looked all right. He asked me to check my Address book, Mail, and Calendar -- everything was preserved properly. My Applications folder though was empty and Emerson asked me to take care of that myself, which I did.

5. How did you update the OS?

There are a couple of ways to skin this cat. The easiest is to click the Apple icon (upper left of the screen) and then Software Update. I chose the longer path -- logged in to apple.com/downloads and found Combo Update 10.4.11. After downloading that file, I ran it.

Then it also prompted me to update various software like iTunes, iWork, etc and I simply clicked and let the updates install. This took a bit of time, since 10.4.6 to 10.4.11 is a long gap. Tip: I prioritized my updates, based on my most-used apps. So I unchecked most of the updates and left only those for iTunes and Quicktime. Then I will slowly update each software as I need them.

5. What other insights did you learn from this?

Again, Apple shines in the ease-of-use department. To preserve my documents and settings (and those of other users as well), all we needed to do was attach an external drive and then copy the folders in Macintosh HD > Users.

When the OS had been installed in the new HD, Emerson then simply copied the folders back into the new disk.

In Windows, this would have been a nightmare! Just imagine trying to hunt down your email folder and then backing it up. Also just imagine trying to find the preferences for MS Office, Firefox or Internet Explorer in Windows, including bookmarks, etc. The task was always daunting!

6. Which do you recommend? Upgrading the internal hard disk? Or getting an external hard disk?

This depends on your need. Data and I have lots of valuable files (Data edits videos in her Macbook and she needs external backups while I have publication files, proposals and other stuff). For this, an external drive is handy as a backup in case my laptop disk gets corrupted. I also move installation files and less-frequently used pictures, movies, music etc into this external drive. That way, I keep only my frequently used files in my laptop, which is a way to optimize disk space and speed up the response time of the Macbook.

However, if you have money, prefer getting the Firewire drives instead of USB. Firewire is considerably faster than USB.

Upgrading to a larger disk capacity is recommended if all you need is a monstrous amount of space. If you like ripping your CDs and putting them in iTunes to connect to your iPod, then a larger internal disk is recommended. Attaching to an external drive to connect to your archived music can get tedious, especially if your external drive is not really portable and requires its own power adapter. So it's really up to you to find out your own needs.

7. How is the hard disk doing so far?

No problems with the Samsung 250 gb so far. I noticed some increase in speed in the Macbook. For instance, Gmail in Firefox now loads and responds faster. There's also a slight increase in speed in the loading of applications. (However, Data's Macbook is still faster, since it's Core-2 while mine is the old Core Duo only).

As for the old Toshiba disk which is now an external drive, when I first connected it to the Macbook, it took a long time before it was recognized by the system. This speeded up after the first connection was made. I plan to preserve the original contents of this old disk, as a form of full backup. I will wait for a couple of months and if I encounter no problem, I will delete the contents and make it my portable external drive.

UPDATE: After reinstalling Xcode (it was previously installed in my old HD but lost in the new one), I realized that I could have easily moved the Xcode Tools into the new hard disk by simply copying /Developer. Too late for that. I had to reinstall from the Mac DVD.

UPDATE 2: Found out that I had to reindex my drive. Spotlight was not finding documents that I knew were still in the drive. Visit this link to learn how: http://macswitched.blogspot.com/2008/01/forcing-spotlight-to-reindex-my-drive.html

Why a Macbook is cheaper than PCs

Here's another meme about Macs vs PCs that I think no longer holds true. People keep thinking (and I used to subscribe to it) that a Macbook is more expensive than a non-Apple computer.

When I try to convince hardcore PC fans (which I used to be) to switch, they always say, "Mas mura pa rin ang PC (PC is still cheaper)."

Since I switched, I've realized that a Macbook is a self-contained package where most of the applications you need are already there -- and working the way you want them to work too!

Mac OS comes bundled with good productivity tools: easy to use and robust Calendar, Mail, audio-visual tools and even Sticky Notes. Windows will have a disabled or hobbled versions of these and you have to buy MS Office to get Outlook for better calendaring and email.

If you get a PC or laptop cheaper than a Macbook, chances are you get a lousy monitor, or a heavier laptop, shortchanged monitor, or a slower computer (especially if you'll be using Windoze!). This is not to mention all the headaches and time-consuming quirks that Windows is heir to -- frequent crashes, difficult installation, configuration. Even the process of uninstalling Windows applications can present a headache.

Here is another take on why Macs end up cheaper than PCs, by a columnist from Salon. His main argument goes something like, when you decide to upgrade your computer, you will surely have to resell it. The Mac resale value is higher so if you resell it, you recover more money to buy a better Mac.

On the other hand, a PC loses value more quickly and if you resell it, you'll have a lower recovery rate. Nice argument.

Read the full Salon article.

An argument for Leopard, from a Windows fan :)

This review is by Chris Pirillo, formerly from Tech TV. He raves about Leopard as opposed to Windows Vista. (Pre-order Leopard here)

Btw, most of the features he raves about are already in Tiger, actually. But this gets me excited about upgrading to Leopard -- a feeling I never had when I was a Windows user! (I dreaded every new Windows upgrade, actually, knowing it would only strain my computer more).

On Time Machine

Time Machine is backup the way data backup and restoration should be - to a home network, with the right equipment attached. It’s beyond comparison. You shouldn’t need to hire a geek or network admin to get it to work, it’s not buried, and you don’t need to install any third-party software (arguments which throw out any kind of “Windows can do the same thing” argument). In this case, it’s not the actual feature - it’s the finish that’s ultimately important.

On Spotlight

Spotlight indexes and searches, with a fair amount of elegance and invisibility, across open machines connected on the network. Windows Desktop Search, last I tried, makes local searching (alone) a pain in the ass. Moreover, I find Spotlight to be a better implementation of Vista’s Start menu - but that may be a personal preference.

On a little Dictionary addition

To my surprise, the Dictionary now has a direct gateway to Wikipedia. While I don’t find Wikipedia to be the ultimate source for information, I do value its community-driven structure. With true identity tied into page edits, it could quickly become the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Contrast this to… well, I guess Windows Vista doesn’t have a built-in equivalent to crowdsourced information. I just thought that was an amazing “little touch” that would come in handy at some point (especially after seeing that if Spotlight doesn’t have results for a keyword search, it’ll spit back a dictionary definition if available for the term)

Character Palette Problems

Here's a Mac annoyance. Two annoyances, in fact. I solved 1.5 of these annoyances, and this is the topic for this blog.

Annoyance 1. In Windows, there's a Character applet that allows you to view the keystrokes needed to produce special characters like Dingbats or Webdings. In Mac, I have not yet found the equivalent. Mac has Font Book, which is far superior to what Windows has, but it took a bit of exploring to get what I needed.

Annoyance 2. Playing with Font Book brought out the Character Palette display. After attempting to do something on it, the app froze on my screen, blocking the view. A restart failed to cure the problem and worst, Character Palette would appear and disappear whenever I clicked the Spotlight icon (blue circle on the upper right corner). Whenever I tried clicking on the erring app, it disappeared! Then when I clicked Spotlight again, it would show up briefly and then hide again!

Trying to "kill" the process was not useful either, because the app changed its process number every time it appeared. Activity Monitor also could not freeze the slippery app to give me time to Force Quit it. Here's how I solved it, finally.

I did some googling, and found a couple of solutions. What worked for me was to restart in Safe Mode, by pressing the Shift key as the Macbook booted. In restart, I clicked the Spotlight icon to reproduce the problem. The elusive Character Palette showed up, but this time, it stayed! So I clicked Cmd-Q to quit it and it worked.

---

Readings:
Twenty steps to help diagnose and fix system problems

Another myth on Macs, busted

Another oft-repeated myth about the Mac goes something like this: "I was considering buying a Macbook, but I got me a PC-based laptop instead. For the same price as a Macbook that runs on Core Duo, I got a machine that has better specs: Core-2, more memory, more etc etc."

Sad to say, I used to say that line too when I was still Windows-based. But the weird thing is, even if you get a machine that is more powerful than the basic specs of a MacBook, the money you saved is nothing compared to the headaches you'll get. After all, if you've been living in a Windows world, how can you make a good judgment of another operating system?

I venture to say that the gain in productivity you get from the bundled Mac software is already enough to offset any of the savings you get if you choose Windows.


For instance, one Windows-based assumption I always carried with me was that when you buy a machine, your next step was to buy the applications that would make it useful. This was because Windows by default had no meaningful applications. WordPad is not enough. You had to buy MS Office. Windows MovieMaker only came later -- and had very limited features. Etc etc.

In Mac, I was surprised that it came with useful applications like iPhoto, GarageBand, iMovie and iDVD. You don't get these for free with Windows.

Plus there's the headache of security loopholes. I had been a very cautious Windows user, running Firewalls and Antivirus software regularly and not opening any suspicious email attachments. Still, my computer regularly contracted spyware and viruses!

The time alone it took me to regularly run spy and virus detectors may have already cost me a lot of productive effort.

GarageBand to the rescue!

My wife is producing a new show on a revived TV station (Channel 5 on SkyCable and Channel 33 on UHF) and at the last minute, they found out that they still did not have music. What to do?

It occurred to us that the MacBook has a tool for making music, called GarageBand, which we discovered a couple of days after I got the Mac. GarageBand allows you to create music by mixing original compositions with pre-recorded material (loops and samples).


Luckily, GarageBand had special effects and nice, complete songs perfect for setting up the mood of the show. We checked the license and smiled at what we found. It's okay to use the built-in music and effects from GarageBand for video productions. What GarageBand forbids is to put the effects and music on CDs and redistribute them as such.

So we used GarageBand for the show's music. When we the show aired, the quality was good!

In Windows, I had opportunity to use Cakewalk and Reason for creating music -- but these had to be bought, while GarageBand came free with the MacBook! Plus: GarageBand has an editing mode that lets you load a video or movie upon which you can then put the GarageBand music!

Goodbye, Restart.

In today's customer-driven market, we are told that we should spoil customers. As a customer, I have always thought that Windows XP did pretty well in wowing me. Today I just shake my head for being so ignorant!

In Windows, we had no choice but to live with that annoying time-consuming [insert first bar of Beethoven's 5th here] -- Restart Sequence. The Restart Sequence is Microsoft's way of telling Windows, "Look, we just changed something and to make you realize it, we have to clean up the slate and start everything all over again."

To put it in proper perspective, Restart is like, well, like forcing Madame Auring to be reborn every time she got a facelift. All Windows users have had to live with Restart. I can think of these situations that need it:

1. BSOD happens (blue screen of death, the geek code for a crash)
   
   
2. You made changes to the configuration (Control Panel settings)
   
   
3. You installed a new program
   
   
4. [Insert your own BSOD trigger]

In fact before XP, pretty much every little tweak you did in Windows needed the dreaded Restart -- changing as little as one digit in your IP address, adding a font, changing modem settings, sneezing in front of your monitor sometimes triggered a restart (okay I exaggerate, but you know how it was!)

At about this time, a little OS called Linux already existed and the same activities listed above never required a Restart! Windows tried hard to cover up this inconvenience until Linux users started boasting about total cost of ownership. All those Restarts where costing companies!

When we have no alternatives to a very difficult situation, we learn to live with what we have and forget that there could be a better way. I am ashamed to admit that I lived with this inconvenience.

But I'm happy because now that I use Mac, I have *never* had to restart just because I installed a new app, changed some setting, or on rare occasions, when an application went haywire and had to be Force Quitted (Windows theoretically could force-quit an erring application, but doing this almost always forced you to Restart, anyway. In Mac, I have so far never encountered this).

The only time I've had to restart was twice: both because downloaded a firmware update.
Now I just shake my head when I think of all the minutes I lost from waiting for Windows to Restart.

Service Packs and Updates

In Windows, updating was a nightmare and Microsoft made sure they emphasized the danger. For instance, when I updated to Windows XP SP2, I got copious warning messages that amounted to saying, "Look, you've got a shitty OS so now you need to patch it with this here patch. But we're not really sure how this patch might affect your existing set up so be sure to back up whatever needs backing up." It took ages for XP to upgrade itself to service pack 2 and if I remember correctly, I had to reboot three times just to get Windows back in shape.


In another instance, when Windows auto-updater asked me install new security patches, Microsoft refused to send me those patches unless I loaded this "little thing" called Genuine Windows Advantage (GWA) software. The software checked whether my Windows was licensed -- which took 2 more centuries to run. And after it was absolutely sure that I wasn't stealing money from Bill's gazillions, it finally installed the small security patch, which took 30 minutes. Then my machine started getting noticeably slower and I found out later that the little GWA was spying on my machine and sending back info to Microsoft. Auto-updater also kept bugging me to connect to the Microsoft website.

In contrast, I have been receiving regular updates on my MacBook through the internet. I have upgraded to the latest OSX, including security patches and updates to my bundled applications.

Today I automatically received a firmware update for my MacBook. It had about three sentences that said I needed to reboot and that the notebook might make some noises-- but don't worry, just let it run. I let it run, expecting a longish wait. The restart was quick and painless.

Maybe I'm being unfair. After all, my old machine wasn't Core Duo. Still, I didn't get lots of warning messages. Nor did Apple ask me to prove that my Mac OSX was fake.

Mac OSX - Windows OS translation

One important transition to make when switching is to keep a side by side comparison of Windows and Mac OSX commands and applications. Here's a general comparison. I'll be adding to this list as I go along making discoveries:

1. Control versus Command (Apple). In Windows, most of the Ctrl key combinations are substituted by Apple-. Example, Ctrl-C in Windows (Copy) is Apple-C in Mac OSX. Ctrl-V in Windows (Paste) is Apple-V in Mac OSX. The MacBook also has a Ctrl button but it works mostly for navigation (so far, that's my observation).
   


2. Ctrl-Alt-Del vs. Apple-Option-Esc. To kill misbehaving tasks in Mac, just press Apple-Option-Esc. This brings out the Force Quit window which will easily kill the erring application. In Windows, bringing out the kill window either brings down my whole system or makes me wait forever (sometimes both, and not in that order). So far, Mac has recovered gracefully from force quits.
   
   
3. Alt-Tab vs Expose. In Mac OSX, Alt-Tab (switch between applications) is Apple-Tab. But Mac has a neat feature called Expose, which is difficult to appreciate by Windows users. In Windows, your only choice to find an open application is to either Alt-Tab or hover your mouse over the task bar tabs. In Mac OSX, just activate Expose by pressing F9. This zooms out all open windows and creates miniature windows that you can choose from. It's the equivalent of getting a bird's eye view of all your active screens. Presenting them visually makes it easier for you to choose what you are looking for. In Windows, the closest equivalent is to press Windows-M, which hides all windows. Then you have to Alt-Tab each of them to choose. Or hover the mouse over each minimized instance -- which is like working on a text-based world since your only clue to window contents is the title, which can sometimes contain a very long string of text.

And for my fellow switchers, here's a handy list of Windows-Mac command translations: Switch 101