My younger sister got a macbook pro because she is studying graphic design and animation, i had to sort all kinds of stuff for her (like copying stuff to her mac from a windows network, set up wifi, backups, and other stuff..

I felt like how my grandmother feels when she tries to use a PC.. absolutely clueless.. no shortcuts, programs don’t quit by default, but minimize to dock, all the known shortcuts don’t work.. and i was frustrated, simple tasks that would take 30 minutes on any normal OS (and 40 minutes on a shell).. took over 3 hours, not including the actual copying… no help, no manuals nothing.

The fact that their gadgets and massive consumer products like the ipod and iphone are accesible and very intuitive to use, doesn’t say anything about OSX or it’s ease of access or migration to from other OS’s. it just extermely nice graphics, and very polished looks and hardware design.

i will never spend my money on that stuff… i can make linux look like osx, and behave like i want it to, even windows can take a mac skin.. other than it’s looks.. it’s not worth a cent in my opinion

As Apple advertises Macs to be easy to use out of the box without virtually any learning curve, I find the level of introductory transition material very disappointing. The help section about transitioning from Windows, for example, is abysmal. It’s not built as a tutorial and does not explain that the “command” button should be used instead of Ctrl or Alt or how to use the trackpad to scroll. Heck, I could more easily find a tutorial on how to play the piano on the MacBook than on how to use a Mac.

Of course they don’t, they’re not Windows!

Macs do take a little time to get used to. I don’t think you can operate it at the store as well as you can at home. But any computer does.

Yes, the cmd key is very accessible since most of the functions are on it. That’s why it’s near the space bar rather than between Fn and Alt like PCs’ ctrl is. You have to actively search for the Ctrl button in PC laptops in order to copy & paste.

No 2 buttons on the keypad? GOOD. That way your thumb won’t break trying to right-click.

The laptop’s mouse is optimized for portability. You have a decent sized trackpad, your fingers don’t break etc, you don’t have a million mouse options on 2cm squared like Windows laptops do.
And if portability is not an issue, almost any USB mouse can connect to your Mac.

Re installation, that icon is only something that makes the process more comfortable.
To install an app, drag a *.app file into your applications folder.
To uninstall, delete it from your applications folder.
If you downloaded a dmg / zip / pkg, double click and you’ll either get the .app file, or an installation screen.

The icon you mentioned is just a convenient shortcut to the applications menu that Firefox put in their installation.

You can arrange your applications in folders – just drag them to the desired sub folder.

Many problems in Macs are solved by dragging whatever you think about to wherever you think it should be.
(for example, if you want to send a photo to a friend over IM, you can drag the photo preview in iPhoto / Photobooth into the chat window and viola)

The Applications folder isn’t like Win’s Start > Programs (which holds shortcuts), it’s like c:\Program Files (which holds the actual files). Each app appears as a single file, so you don’t have to worry about corrupting the Program Files folder.

You can also browse applications using the Spotlight box on the top-right hand corner of the window or the screen.

The minimize/maximize buttons show their -/+ icons on hover. The red close button is red, and has a dot in it if your document isn’t saved yet.

Alt-F4 – again, you’re forcing Windows’ lack of sense into Macs. What does F4 mean? nothing. What does alt mean? Alternative, which has nothing to do with closing a window.
So Macs use Cmd+W, W stands for Window. It makes more sense.

The F keys are FUNCTION keys, they’re “meta” keys you can modify. If you want keyboard shortcuts, use normal keyboard keys. Like W.
Or like whatever you want, since you can assign a shortcut to any menu item on any program.

You might also notice that F1 doesn’t bring the Help menu. Same reason – Cmd + ? does. Because you have a question, so the intuitive button to press would be the question mark.

Preview is not an image conversion program. Preview previews files. That’s why it’s called Preview.
You can usually choose whether you want to show or hide the extension, there’s a checkbox for it.

btw, one of my wierdest experiences came about two years ago, when I tried to figure out how to access my mail on a Mac *In German*.