Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition

chapter 1: how the mac is different 13

chapter

1

W

hen you get right down to it, the job description of every operating system

is pretty much the same. Whether it’s Mac OS X, Windows XP, or Billy

Bob’s System-Software Special, any OS must serve as the ambassador be-

tween the computer and you, its human operator. It must somehow represent your

files and programs on the screen so that you can open them; offer some method of

organizing your files; present onscreen controls that affect your speaker volume,

mouse speed, and so on; and communicate with your external gadgets, like disks,

printers, and digital cameras.

In other words, Mac OS X offers roughly the same features as recent versions of

Windows. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that these features are called different things and parked in different

spots. As you could have predicted, this rearrangement of features can mean a good

deal of confusion for you, the Macintosh foreigner. For the first few days or weeks,

you may instinctively reach for certain familiar features that simply aren’t where you

expect to find them, the way your tongue keeps sticking itself into the socket of the

newly extracted tooth.

To minimize the frustration, therefore, read this chapter first. It makes plain the

most important and dramatic differences between the Windows method and the

Macintosh way.

Power On, Dude

As a critic might say, Apple is ...