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Down & Brown
since 1998

Switched - Part One

And now I'm a Mac whore. Fully switched, surrounded by more Apple logos (and Apple remotes - what's with that, does every Apple device need a remote now?) than you can poke a stick at. It's great; it's been nearly ten years since I used Mac OS in anger and in a familiar / slightly weird way, it's good to be home.

Sure things have changed. It's not like I remember. Hardly at all really. But it kinda feels better.

What I'm loving

Terminal : under the hood, there's this really strange and powerful beastie that will do your bidding for you.

Good Mac software : Mail, TextMate, Calendar, Adium, iTunes, iWork, Delicious Library, Toast; there's just a whole bunch of really nice, well made apps which just work

MacPorts : The developers hardware store -- you want it, just grab it off the shelf. Sorted.

Parallels + BootCamp : This really is the best way to run Windows. Lock that fucker up in a box, don't let it out unless it's, really, really necessary. Parallels makes using windows the most surreal experience; seeing ugly windows over the top of your shiny Mac desktop in coherence mode is the strangest thing. But, it's so convenient.

What I'm struggling with

Windows windows everywhere : it's a little hard to explain, but I do get quite lost trying to locate the last window I was working on. Command-Tab is useful, minimizing stuff to the dock is weird -- I can minimize something, but if that application is still active, there doesn't seem to be a command key to maximize it.

Bad Mac software : as with most operating systems there is a load of junk out there.

Unix : I don't have a heap of experience in this environment, so I've got to sharpen my chops. I'm enjoying the challenge, but hoping that I don't screw anything up.

Just sublime

And there's the hardware, and this is where it gets a little creepy; it's freakin' beautiful. I kinda want to touch it in inappropriate ways. Do you think Jobs would care?