Filed under: Switchers, Cult of Mac, Apple
Switching causes Argh
Apple would have you believe that switching from Windows to OS X is like changing socks. It isn't rocket science, but there are bound to be stumbling blocks, though since I have been using both Windows and OS X on a daily basis for years I tend to forget this little fact.Robyn Peterson writes about his five 'argh' moments as he switches from Windows XP to OS X. Most of them are slight annoyances, but I do agree with him about OS X's lackluster support for auto-mounting network resources without using a work around (unless I am missing a setting somewhere).
[via Paul Thurrott]
(The picture accompanying this post is from here, in case you were wondering).
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sabon said 3:12PM on 7-11-2006
Right. And there were no issues going to Win 9x to ME or 9x to 2000 or 9x to XP or 2000 to XP or ... don't get me started on MS Office versions. There is ALWAYS issues going from one OS to another. But there are also issues going from one MS OS to another too. But then supporting computers running MS OSs for 22 years I wouldn't know what I'm talking about.
Reply
eduardo rolon said 3:27PM on 7-11-2006
For the automount issue you can create an Alias after mounting the drive for the first time. After that you can just double click the alias and it will mount.
Reply
Gonzalo said 3:27PM on 7-11-2006
You can auto-mount a network drive by dragging it to the Sturtup Items in the Users control panel under System Preferences.
Reply
mroach said 3:33PM on 7-11-2006
Is this for real? How did he manage to screw up WEP on Wifi? I've never had a problem with WPA or WEP on my MacBook. I've sure have had plenty on my Windows machines though, including random disconnects and it forgetting my keys. Most of of his "Arghs" are whiny complaints and his fault. I imagine he has about 500 "Argh" moments every day on Windows if he has that many about OS X and for such petty things.
Reply
Tush said 3:36PM on 7-11-2006
I've helped a few people use macs that obviously had never used them before, and most people groan at simple differences... which I find hilarious. Like cmd-delete isntead of delete, or the trash bin being in a different place.
Reply
Dave said 3:51PM on 7-11-2006
Save the login info to the network resource in keychain and drag the volume to the startup items area under your user account and you have automounted network shares.
Reply
eric Pruett said 3:55PM on 7-11-2006
While I'm saddened that his switching experience wasn't as joyful as mine, I did use OSX some at work before I purchased a laptop for myself. His article does expose several interesting tidbits though:
People do things the way they have in the past whether or not it's the 'right' or easiest way:
When talking about getting an automator script to run on startup, he says "After somewhere around 20 to 30 restarts over the past week..." Why did he restart? He could have simply logged out and back in if he really wanted to test it 30 times. He probably thought since he was changing system settings he 'had' to restart, when in actuality the only times I've had to restart are after installing a major update to osx.
Earlier when installing firefox, he says "Easy as pie, except I was surprised that OS X "mounts" the install file, a .dmg file technically, as a drive. So, first you mount Firefox, then you install it. It's odd, but still no challenge there."
I have to admit that when I switched I got hung up on how to remove software. I was stuck in my windows mind thinking that "This software must have installed other stuff somewhere in my system folder (windows registry) that autostarts and is eating up resources. How do I get rid of it completely?" It took me a while to realize that if the application was installed just by copying to the applications folder, then the ENTIRE program is held in the .app package folder, and that only preference files, user data, and occasionally other sample data (like garage band loops) are stored elsewhere, but none of these are programs or eat up resources with the exception of diskspace.
I feel his pain, but I think most of the pain is inflicted while attempting to do things in a 'windows' way instead of the way apple intends. After a coupple of months, he'll learn those ways and change his tune... hopefully :)
Reply
DrWho said 3:55PM on 7-11-2006
None of those automount tips will work for remounting the networked drives when waking up from sleeping, only when logging in.
Reply
Shawn Blanc said 4:04PM on 7-11-2006
It does seem like most people's 'argh' moments are just simple inconveniences due to differences in the OS. Most people probably do complain about teh cmd-delete and the lack of a right mouse button. But once the find out they don't have to restart every day if not more than that then that frown goes upside down.
But I"m really here to comment on that ad; that is hilarious! Independence Day used to be my favorite movie back when it came out.
Reply
Lobato said 4:08PM on 7-11-2006
The alias works. And you can even create an alias to a remote folder on a networked drive. So when you click it, it wll mount the drive and open the folder in finder.
Reply
systemsboy said 5:01PM on 7-11-2006
I kind of agree that the Mac's Network view is not everything it could be, but then neither is Windows'. While it's true that Windows shares are always accessible once you've authenticated, the downside is that there is no way to UN-mount or RE-mount a Windows share (like, say, if you want to connect as a different user) without rebooting (that I know of anyway). Which may explain why the author kept rebooting his system. As a cross-platform lab/network admin, I still prefer the OS X way of handling shares to Windows'. Though it could be better, it's really not too bad.
-systemsboy
Reply
Steven said 5:14PM on 7-11-2006
I use Windows at work and a MBP at home.
Systemsboy: try the 'net use' command...no reboots needed
Reply
Rainer said 6:10PM on 7-11-2006
Ah... AirPort. My own "switcher-diary" reads "... After typing my WLAN-password a hundred times (ok, more like ten) I figured that the wizard is only for simple setups; it seems that 'hide network' and 'use WPA-PSK' is a little too high-tech for this wizard...".
But it is probably my fault, somehow (thnx #4) ;)
Reply
michel said 7:09PM on 7-11-2006
do not try to recreate Windows with os X or Linux
if you want Windows, than.. Windows is VERY Fine to be Windows.
Reply
Sheir said 1:00AM on 7-12-2006
I recently switched to a Mac from Windows. I guess the only problem I had was figuring out how to install stuff. After that it was easy and I like it a lot more than Windows.
Reply
Andy Lee said 1:21AM on 7-12-2006
Heck, I'm a diehard Mac user and I *still* get "argh" moments from OS X.
Reply
Allan White said 2:16AM on 7-12-2006
My hate: watching OS X lock up when a mounted share has been disconnected. This happens to me all the time when I have a laptop mounted on my G5 (or vice versa), and I disconnect it without checking. Why the lockup? SBB for like, several minutes. Ridiculous.
Reply
henrrrik said 4:15AM on 7-12-2006
Yeah, network shares isn't handled very well in OS X. I was disappointed that they didn't sort it out for 10.4. A bit surprising since Steve and the Apple OS X engineers must be using mounted shares themselves.
Reply
chris said 5:52AM on 7-12-2006
What's with this Kool-Aid thing? Why does it have get mentioned on every second switcher article?
It's really getting on my nerves.
Reply
Caesartheday said 2:12PM on 7-12-2006
4 Arghs in a week. Not bad.
456,235,345.5 Arghs in 10 years of using Windows. Sensless!
And that's why I'm an Apple Kool-Aid drinking, into the hype buying, apple sticker on my work IBM Thinkpad tauting, iEverything loving switcher.
Reply