Mac Pro
New digs and a new rig.
I recently swapped offices with Heather Zempel, our discipleship pastor, since we are adding another media guru to the staff. Jeremy Sexton and I will work in the larger office in 205, NCC’s original office space prior to the construction of Ebenezers next door.
I also swapped operating systems in a move that should save the media department time and money in the long haul. It was best that we standardize, and so I’m saying goodbye to Windows at work and saying hello to OSX.
My new rig is a quad-core 2.0 Ghz Mac Pro with 2 GB RAM with a sweet 23" Apple Cinema Display. I’ll likely run Coda for web development to begin with. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just go back to Dreamweaver. I’ve had several recommendations of how to approach web development on OSX, but I want to go with the most integrated solution if possible. It seems like Coda may be the answer.
So this PC guy is still a PC guy. But, in the end, I think I’m going to love this new Mac territory. The biggest problems I’ve encountered so far are:
- The delete key doesn’t work when it should.
- There are two delete keys. (I don’t get it.)
- The right-click wasn’t right-click by default.
- The mighty mouse was mighty terrible, so I threw it away. It made the same “ker-thunk” in the real can as a file deleted in OSX does in the digital one. How poignant.
- There is a funny noise when I turn it on and off. (I think it could be intentional, but it’s so crappy, it’s hard to tell if someone really meant to do that.)
- Installing apps is weird, but I’m adjusting.
- I can’t find the Start menu.
- There is this color wheel that shows up and won’t go away when I try to install Photoshop or transfer files. It could be potentially damaging to productivity if this behavior is normal. I’ll try again on “normal Tuesday"—maybe that will help.
The things that are really cool about the Macintosh right out of the box:
- It’s handsome.
- It’s fast (except when installing Photoshop or transferring files.)
- I like the way applications are installed to the disk. Feels much more compartmentalized and rigid than Windows.
- Alt-Tab works the same.
Alright.
View More Images of the Office Space on Flickr
[tags]mac, pro, apple, OSX, new, n00b, office, work, productivity, computing[/tags]
Congratulations to Sean Sperte for the (nearly) precise guess as to the contents of the FedEx package:
...that’s gotta be a Mac Pro (and display) “Designed by Apple in California.”
And to Joshua Nemecek for the next-best guess:
I think you’re getting a PC for Dummies.
You guys each win a Mac Pro
picture in digital form sent by me via email. Congratulations!
Stephen
2007-05-15 0638hrs
Despite being a PC guy myself, I hafta say, the above picture of the Mac Pro is quite sexy…
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Andrew Mitry
2007-05-15 0757hrs
Congrats! Coda does look interesting, I am interested to hear how it works out.
Dolan
2007-05-15 0839hrs
Checked out the pix. If getting a Mac Pro can make the office area look that neat and tidy then I may have to get one - NOT!
Sean S
2007-05-15 1822hrs
Hey man, all kidding aside, I’m happy you’ve taken the plunge and are brave enough to do so head first with the Mac Pro. Congratulations!
Yes, there are some things you’ll have to get used to—the overall “feel” is the biggest. It’s still a computer, it just thinks differently™. As for the rainbow-ball-of-fun, just think of it as the replacement for the Bluescreen of Death ... only you can just wait it out, instead of pulling the power.
Yes, Coda is probably your best bet if you’re jumping from Dreamweaver. Just be sure to remember it’s still a 1.0 product, and cannot be expected to handle your workflow with precision ... yet.
As for app installs, I’m glad you dig the Mac Way. Some Switchers don’t. My guess is that those are the same people who like tollways and white-painted walls. Weirdos.
By the way, in what world (and on what platform) did you think Photoshop installs quickly? ;)
Glenn Wolsey
2007-05-15 1834hrs
Congratulations on making the switch, especially straight to the Mac Pro.
Rob
2007-05-15 2346hrs
DUDE… WELCOME. Do you feel more hip already? haha…
It takes a bit of getting used to but I’m positive you’ll be a lover in no time.
Shawn Blanc
2007-05-16 0033hrs
Nice. I have a savings account by the same name. Congrats on switching. It’ll be neat to see what you say about your Mac in a few months.
After you learn how to delete files, the next logical step is to learn Quicksilver.
Justin
2007-05-16 0923hrs
very cool! have fun, I believe the more you use your new mac, the more you will swear by it:) (and sometimes at it)! Any way, I agree with Shawn Quicksilver is a must! And just in case you have not seen this site yet, opensourcemac.org it has some goodies on it.
Enjoy!
Justin
p.s. a totally useless “mac trick”: hold the “shift” key and then click the middle botton to minimize a window.
Zack Rippy
2007-05-17 0748hrs
David,
Congrats on the new purchase. :) I hope you enjoy it!
A few “beginner” tips courtesy of tuaw/digg:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/05/16/mac-101-things-not-to-do-on-your-mac/
L
2007-05-18 0226hrs
Hit F9.
I’ve never seen a PC user who didn’t think that was fun.
(Sometimes I’d accidentally hold shift, or some other key, while deleting a file and a little robot monster would come and zap my file with a laser gun. Oh, I kid you not.)
Macs are nice. Props to you for being willing to make the switch.
David
2007-05-19 2109hrs
Stephen: Thanks. :)
Andrew & Sean: There are many great things about Coda, but I find myself drawn back to Dreamweaver for a number of reasons. Most of the reasons have to do with small workflow “dependencies” I’ve come to need in Dw (like auto-completing tags). I still like Coda a lot, though. And I will definitely keep an eye on the project to see how the intricacies develop over time.
Dolan: I never thought I’d drink the Kool-Aid.
Sean: Turns out it wasn’t the PS install that was hanging up the machine, it was a file transfer over the network that went awry and took down the PS installer with it (somehow...)
Glenn: Thanks. I appreciate you stopping by.
Rob: The first five days, I hated this thing. Very NOT intuitive for this Windows super user. :| I’m getting the hang of it now and I like it better. And I believe now that it is superior to Windows in the majority of areas. Two things are certain: It is pretty and it is fun. But it still lacks in certain areas and there are still times when I scratch my head at it—like when I wonder why in the world someone would make a useful key like DELETE and make it not useful at all by giving it no real function in the major areas of the OS. And then why name another key which should be called BACKSPACE after that useless DELETE key to make twins of them. I’m devising a way to lay a sticker or something over the only DELETE key that works decently to give its identity back.
Shawn: Ha! Good luck with the savings. Luckily, my work had it in the budget for me. I’ll check out Quicksilver. I heard about it long ago before I was even on a Mac and I’ve had several recommendations since, so there must be something to it.
Justin: More swearing at it than by it so far. It’s beginning to turn around though. :) Thanks for the link and the tip. I’m memorizing all the keyboard and mouse shortcuts. I’m really a keyboard guy, and I think the Mac is a little more mouse-centric (it’s a heritage thing, so I understand.) That’s been one frustrating thing—I hate having to drag crap to the trash can. I feel like that’s all I do all day without a good delete key. But I’m hunting for ways to add shortcuts (or just find the native ones I don’t know about) to help restore my sanity and productivity.
Zack: Thanks much. Great article and I’ve already committed a few. :) Oops.
L: Yeah, I love that. It’s Exposé, right? I use a little button on my mouse to get there, since it’s easiest to hover over the window to switch to and click. This is one example where the mouse could actually replace one of my most commonly used keyboard shortcuts, Alt+Tab (now Cmd+Tab). I usually have a lot of things going at once and, while I love that OSX has the same shortcut as Windows for this, I hate the OSX lets the mouse interfere with the app selection. Often, I’m Cmd+Tabbing for another window and it goes all wonky when my mouse happens to roll by. Ugh. Very frustrated by that one! I do like the idea of it, but I think it’s poorly executed from a usability standpoint. It’s just way to easy for the mouse to interfere. Maybe it would have been better to only allow a switch from the mouse on a click, rather than a hover+release as well as not allowing a hover to modify the selection (unless a click occurred.) Anyway, Apple doesn’t pay me for ideas. :) Exposé is probably my option. By the way, I also like F11 for getting things out of the way momentarily. I use that quite a bit. Windows on OSX are messy. I definitely prefer integrated apps, rather than randomly strewn windows. My design apps are worst for this. I got a little app called Think to help me focus on the one app I’m working in, but it’s still hard to adjust to the chaos.