Installing Applications the Mac Way

This reminds of the recent Apple commercials on TV the past few months.

Being a Linux, Windows and former OS/2 user it took me a few weeks to figure out that the Mac way of installing applications is simply to drag-n-drop. Whoa, how original and inventive. This was not very intuitive to me at first since I had never installed anything in this manner on Linux, Windows or OS/2.

Now, the Mac way of installing applications makes the other platforms appear to be very non-intuitive and just plain dumb. Drag-n-drop has been with us for decades since the original Macintosh in the early 1980s and here it is 20-yrs later and the Mac still is the only OS that appears to 'get it'. This is another one of those things that Mac users just understand and can not quite relate to how Windows users have so many issues with installing applications.

I must say that after having struggled numerous times installing applications on Linux, Windows and OS/2 in the past, it makes the productivity killing task of installing anything appear to be a waste of time on the other platforms. Windows Vista does not even have this capability so I guess we'll have to wait another 5-years until Microsoft may copy this capability from the Mac which has had it now for almost two decades.

Boy am I glad that I took the plunge last month and became a Mac user. There are so many more features of Mac OS X that I have yet to discover and as soon as I do will post it here for future reference.

The 2007 Switch

Happy New Year 2007! It is a new year and I have created this new blog which is dedicated to my experiences in becoming a Mac OS X user in late 2006. Additionally, I will be using this as a place to discuss Mac specific features, issues, howtos, tips, info, etc... that I will be discovering in 2007 and beyond. I started blogging about my Mac switch at p\/'s Thoughts on Software Engineering in My Initial Mac and OpenOffice.org 2.1 on the Mac OS X.

I finally got fed up with Windows after seeing all the 'new innovative' features of Vista and bought myself a MacBook on 11/30/2006. After spending the last few weeks working with Mac OS X, and getting to spend some quality time using it while on my well deserved holiday break, I can happily say that I am now a full fledged converted Mac user. I will still continue using Linux and Windows for work but at home, my new personal computer and operating system of choice is now the Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

I found some funny videos on YouTube describing how 'innovative' Vista is and how it 'did not copy the Mac'. Watch it for yourself here. It is quite entertaining.

If you are considering getting a Mac or are fed up with Microsoft Windows and do not want to deal with the technical requirements of a Linux desktop, then I highly advise you to get a Mac. It is where the innovation in GUIs is occurring and has the rock solid Unix/Linux foundation you need for today's computing requirements. Apple got smart in 2006 and have made some really inexpensive and competively priced products available in its MacBook and minMac lines. I got my MacBook for $999 and it has a DVD-RW, 2 Ghz Intel Core Duo processor, 60 GB HD, 512MB RAM. Best of all it is running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger which I really like since I've been using it for the past 3-4 weeks.

I hope you get some useful Mac OS X related information from my new blog. I know I will and good luck with your personal computing endeavors in 2007 and beyond.