Mac at Work Week 3: Going well, except for...

I've now had three solid weeks using a Mac at work, and after two decades or so on Microsoft platforms,  I'm pleasantly surprised by how smooth things are going overall.  But seemingly "little" frustrations still loom, even as I enjoy some of the ways that OS X are superior to Windows XP ( I haven't yet migrated to Vista) for my needs.

I'm happy to report that one of my biggest fears -- missing favorite software/inability to find adequate replacements -- has mostly failed to materialize.

Specifically, I was particularly worried that I wouldn't find a good word processor/limited script-writing application to replace NoteTab Pro. While test-driving Linux at work two years ago, I never found a satisfactory substitute despite trying out more than half a dozen app. My first week on the Mac, though, I discovered that colleague-recommended TextWrangler combined with OS-wide AppleScripting can handle almost all of what I need to do.

I'm still looking around to replace Snagit, the elegant screen-capture program for Windows only, but do see a couple of possibilities that I haven't had a chance to try. One app I do miss is my Windows version of Excel; I've got Excel for the Mac, and it's just not as slick and enjoyable to use as my XP version.

My biggest problem, though, is that I've got a couple of decades of finger memory to unlearn. I'm quite used to reaching for my control key to do control-c for copy, control-right-arrow for end of line and so on; I'm also used to"home" on my number keypad to get back to a spot in a document, and clicking at the top right of a window instead of the top left to minimize, maximize and close windows.

If you've never had to make this kind of switch, perhaps this sounds trivial to you; but trust me, it's not. How long do you think it would take you to adjust if, say, the gas and brake pedal were switched on your car? As it turns out, automakers were able to figure out how to standardize the location of such key things, for the most part, at least within the U.S. Why couldn't the computer industry take pity on its users and do the same?

Retraining deeply ingrained keyboard movements is taking a lot longer than I expected -- and is a lot more aggravating than I anticipated. I know it doesn't help that I'm going home to a Windows machine each night, getting reinforcement for my old habits. I'm hoping that at some point, I'll be more effortlessly "bilingual."

I also find that I go to my top menu bar and have the wrong application's menu up there -- a problem one of our IT guys told me is very common for new Mac users.

Another complaint: The F function keys do entirely different things on a Macintosh laptop keyboard than on a Macintosh external keyboard. Why? Just after learning how F9 manages my desktop windows when used on the keyboard plugged into my laptop, I tried the same thing on my laptop sans external keyboard; nothing happened. Had I forgotten the details and used the wrong key? No, the keys do different things depending on the keyboard. For a mostly intuitive operating system, this is rather unexpected behavior.

If different functions are required on the laptop, add them in with some sort of keyboard combinations. Don't change the basic, standard behavior of my keyboard!

But most other issues have been fairly minor so far, such as the lack of a "show desktop" function. "Hiding" all open windows on my Mac doesn't do what the Windows "show desktop" icon does, because after I hide all my Mac windows, if I pull one back up, they all pop back. I like minimizing them all with one click and then bringing back just one without the rest.  I finally found an AppleScript that will do what I need, although a bit slower than I'd like.

Except for the learning-curve time investment and finger-memory retraining issues, though, so far other issues have been fairly minor. And I do like my new operating system overall, from my app-storing dock to the ease of installing and uninstalling software -- if anything could make me give up Windows altogether, the prospect of never seeing another Windows "uninstall" wizard would be high on the list.

Also, I'm finding Apple's integration of software and operating system -- apparently available to all software authors, not just the OS manufacturer -- to be fairly slick.  Since I like customizing my system (as I suspect most Computerworld.com readers do),  I appreciate a "little thing" like setting keyboard shortcuts for any application or the whole OS environment from one place: system preferences > keyboard and mouse > keyboard shortcuts. For some of my software, those shortcuts even show up in the app's menu, so I don't have to go back to system preferences if I forget which key combinations I programmed to do what.

I've also already gotten a taste as to why so many developers prefer coding on a Mac.  I think even most Microsoft devotees would admit that Windows' terminal/command-line environment is disappointing. But I didn't realize just how bad it was until I started using a Mac and could compare. Now I've got one-click and menu access to a terminal with easy cut & paste -- one that's integrated to my desktop's visual environment yet has all the powerful *nix commands I'd want. And here I thought my lone choice was between a ready-for-primetime Windows visual desktop or a powerful Linux system with a bit too steep of a learning curve for me to deal with on the job.

Another plus: Perl, PHP and Ruby -- my "big 3" of scripting languages -- are all included in my OS install; in fact. I've got Rails installed as well, although it's a fairly old version. (Happily, my Mac operating system is after OS 10.4, which shipped with a version of Ruby that needed to be fixed.)  While serious developers may want to do their own installs, the built-ins work just fine for my limited coding work.

All in all, I've been pleasantly surprised by Mac OS X Leopard and available software applications, but remain frustrated that a) I'm not a power user yet and b) some of my work goes more slowly than it used to as I get used to what keys I need to hit to get my work done.

Conclusion so far: I'm not sorry I switched.