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I've only used PCs, but I decided to bite the bullet and buy a Mac. I haven't even cracked it open yet, but I was wondering the best way to really learn all the necessary things about it that I will need. The Mac store offers a $100 one-on-one training program, which I think is ridiculous. Alternatively, I suppose I could find several tutorials online. For those of you that have Macs (and are not especially tech-savvy), would either of these be recommended, or would you suggest just messing around with it? When I first bought my Motorola Atrix smartphone, I just messed around with it and was able to figure out a lot, but when I actually started using the tutorial that came with, I realized that was missing so much. Are Macs the same way?

The reason I'm even asking this is because I want to determine whether or not i should spend my last days of freedom reading Apple's extensive "how-to" manual. Thanks.

Macs are easy as fuck to use, those training programs and shit are just cash cows.

I thought the point of Macs was that they're soooooooo intuitive and your blind Amish grandmother would be emailing in 10 minutes.

(I have never found them intuitive at all. I spend a lot of time staring at the oh-so-elegantly blank screen wondering where the fuck they've hidden all the functionality.)

dr123 wrote:Macs are easy as fuck to use, those training programs and shit are just cash cows.

+1

The trackpad gestures and whatnot will take some time to get used to, but once you're taking advantage of them you'll never want to go back to a PC. Just google things you want to find out, you don't need to pay for that training. Macrumors.com has a pretty good forum too.

Oh, and open the Mac App Store and download Caffeine and BetterSnapTool.

rinkrat19 wrote:I thought the point of Macs was that they're soooooooo intuitive and your blind Amish grandmother would be emailing in 10 minutes.

(I have never found them intuitive at all. I spend a lot of time staring at the oh-so-elegantly blank screen wondering where the fuck they've hidden all the functionality.)

it does take a while to get used to... but i recommend just playing with it for a couple days... once you do you will find you never ever want to go back.

But it might not hurt to watch/read some of the free online tutorials... just in case you are missing something. I had to teach my wife how to right click about 6 months after she bought it because she had never figured it out.

rinkrat19 wrote:I thought the point of Macs was that they're soooooooo intuitive and your blind Amish grandmother would be emailing in 10 minutes.

(I have never found them intuitive at all. I spend a lot of time staring at the oh-so-elegantly blank screen wondering where the fuck they've hidden all the functionality.)

What kind of functionality are you talking about? Macs and OS X Lion are ridiculously intuitive once you get the hang of how they work.

What is this thing with Mac whores and this "not wanting to go back" crap? I've had a Mac. It was fine. Give me Windows 7 please.

kalvano wrote:What is this thing with Mac whores and this "not wanting to go back" crap? I've had a Mac. It was fine. Give me Windows 7 please.

Whores do it for money. Sluts do it for self esteem.

Personally I am a Mac floozy- I do it for fun!

firemed wrote:

kalvano wrote:What is this thing with Mac whores and this "not wanting to go back" crap? I've had a Mac. It was fine. Give me Windows 7 please.

Whores do it for money. Sluts do it for self esteem.

Personally I am a Mac floozy- I do it for fun!

All I know is there was excessive money paid for nothing more than a retarded OS gussied up with shiny bits.

kalvano wrote:

firemed wrote:

kalvano wrote:What is this thing with Mac whores and this "not wanting to go back" crap? I've had a Mac. It was fine. Give me Windows 7 please.

Whores do it for money. Sluts do it for self esteem.

Personally I am a Mac floozy- I do it for fun!

All I know is there was excessive money paid for nothing more than a retarded OS gussied up with shiny bits.

Cool, let's turn this into a Mac vs. PC thread.

I have used Mac for the past 4 years, PC for the 4 years before that (heavy computer user for 8+ years). Both are fine. Macs are better built (design wise). PCs are more business oriented. Word, excel, and all other Microsoft apps work WAYYYY better on PCs.

Here is what I hate about my ASUS: 1) Screen sucks! I can't stand glossy screens, and this one is cheap to boot; 2) finger print magnet; and 3) keyboard layout is shifted left due to random/common? column on the right.

Next machine I will buy will be a Lenovo with a matte screen and killer keyboard.

Thanks, bye.

kalvano wrote:What is this thing with Mac whores and this "not wanting to go back" crap? I've had a Mac. It was fine. Give me Windows 7 please.

For me, a big thing are the trackpad gestures. Two finger scrolling, three finger swiping between full screen apps, mission control, exposé. Once you get used to navigating like that, going back to Windows seems so archaic. You can't do any of that with a PC. Not to mention the bullshit antivirus programs you have to buy, scans to run, incessant pop-ups asking me if I'm sure that I want to do something. Macs cut all that out. IMO, anyone who thinks Macs are "trendy" or whatever don't know what they can really do.

Paraflam wrote:

kalvano wrote:What is this thing with Mac whores and this "not wanting to go back" crap? I've had a Mac. It was fine. Give me Windows 7 please.

For me, a big thing are the trackpad gestures. Two finger scrolling, three finger swiping between full screen apps, mission control, exposé. Once you get used to navigating like that, going back to Windows seems so archaic. You can't do any of that with a PC. Not to mention the bullshit antivirus programs you have to buy, scans to run, incessant pop-ups asking me if I'm sure that I want to do something. Macs cut all that out. IMO, anyone who thinks Macs are "trendy" or whatever don't know what they can really do.

PCR (pretty credited response)

kalvano wrote:

All I know is there was excessive money paid for nothing more than a retarded OS gussied up with shiny bits.

It might be retarded but it works hard and does what I need it to do. Also, it is pretty.

Fact is that I like that it has never once crapped out on me due to software issues.

Also, I love the lack of spyware/viruses/etc.

Paraflam wrote:

kalvano wrote:What is this thing with Mac whores and this "not wanting to go back" crap? I've had a Mac. It was fine. Give me Windows 7 please.

For me, a big thing are the trackpad gestures. Two finger scrolling, three finger swiping between full screen apps, mission control, exposé. Once you get used to navigating like that, going back to Windows seems so archaic. You can't do any of that with a PC. Not to mention the bullshit antivirus programs you have to buy, scans to run, incessant pop-ups asking me if I'm sure that I want to do something. Macs cut all that out. IMO, anyone who thinks Macs are "trendy" or whatever don't know what they can really do.

1) My Lenovo has a ton of trackpad-based control gestures. It's standard on almost all laptops now.

2) I bought downloaded Avast for free. No viruses. Ever.

3) It takes longer to set up a Wi-Fi network on a Mac than it does to turn off pop-ups on a PC.


There is no reason other than personal preference for one or the other.

As for the OP, you should be able to figure it out fine by playing with it. Just don't be surprised if you find yourself wondering what the hell the big deal is and why you paid so much for the damn thing.

You're kidding. Just turn the thing on. Super easy.

Paraflam wrote:

kalvano wrote:What is this thing with Mac whores and this "not wanting to go back" crap? I've had a Mac. It was fine. Give me Windows 7 please.

For me, a big thing are the trackpad gestures. Two finger scrolling, three finger swiping between full screen apps, mission control, exposé. Once you get used to navigating like that, going back to Windows seems so archaic. You can't do any of that with a PC. Not to mention the bullshit antivirus programs you have to buy, scans to run, incessant pop-ups asking me if I'm sure that I want to do something. Macs cut all that out. IMO, anyone who thinks Macs are "trendy" or whatever don't know what they can really do.

In ten years of owning laptops, I've never used my trackpad (unless my mouse dies and I'm completely out of batteries). There isn't a laptop alive that has a trackpad that I DON'T hit with the heel of my hand as I type and make the cursor jump randomly around the screen. I turn the trackpads off and use an optical mouse on the flat surface to the right of the trackpad.

Paraflam wrote:

rinkrat19 wrote:I thought the point of Macs was that they're soooooooo intuitive and your blind Amish grandmother would be emailing in 10 minutes.

(I have never found them intuitive at all. I spend a lot of time staring at the oh-so-elegantly blank screen wondering where the fuck they've hidden all the functionality.)

What kind of functionality are you talking about? Macs and OS X Lion are ridiculously intuitive once you get the hang of how they work.

Apparently the bolded is beyond me. Where is the file explorer? Where is the control panel? Where is the goddamn list of installed programs? Nothing is obvious. Everything is sooooo streamlined that there are no labels anywhere and you have to just...know.

At least it only took them until like 2002 to put a 2nd button on the mouse.

NickJefferies1098 wrote:I've only used PCs, but I decided to bite the bullet and buy a Mac. I haven't even cracked it open yet, but I was wondering the best way to really learn all the necessary things about it that I will need. The Mac store offers a $100 one-on-one training program, which I think is ridiculous. Alternatively, I suppose I could find several tutorials online. For those of you that have Macs (and are not especially tech-savvy), would either of these be recommended, or would you suggest just messing around with it? When I first bought my Motorola Atrix smartphone, I just messed around with it and was able to figure out a lot, but when I actually started using the tutorial that came with, I realized that was missing so much. Are Macs the same way?

The reason I'm even asking this is because I want to determine whether or not i should spend my last days of freedom reading Apple's extensive "how-to" manual. Thanks.

Don't waste that $100. Youtube is your friend-tons of free tutorials and walkthroughs. Just do some Googling. Also, it's not rocket science. The hardest thing is probably just going to be getting used to new keyboard shortcuts.

rinkrat19 wrote:I thought the point of Macs was that they're soooooooo intuitive and your blind Amish grandmother would be emailing in 10 minutes.

(I have never found them intuitive at all. I spend a lot of time staring at the oh-so-elegantly blank screen wondering where the fuck they've hidden all the functionality.)

They hide functionality for the computerly retarded users. Intuitive is just a marketing term for idiots.

Paraflam wrote:

dr123 wrote:Macs are easy as fuck to use, those training programs and shit are just cash cows.

+1

The trackpad gestures and whatnot will take some time to get used to, but once you're taking advantage of them you'll never want to go back to a PC. Just google things you want to find out, you don't need to pay for that training. Macrumors.com has a pretty good forum too.

Oh, and open the Mac App Store and download Caffeine and BetterSnapTool.

+1000 on the BetterSnapTool. Way, way worth it. I also recommend an application launcher like Alfred or QSB. I can't live without it.

kalvano wrote: 3) It takes longer to set up a Wi-Fi network on a Mac than it does to turn off pop-ups on a PC.

Umm wut. Let's compare apples to apples (no pun intended):
--ImageRemoved--

rinkrat19 wrote:Apparently the bolded is beyond me. Where is the file explorer? Where is the control panel? Where is the goddamn list of installed programs? Nothing is obvious. Everything is sooooo streamlined that there are no labels anywhere and you have to just...know.

File explorer = Finder
Control Panel = System Preferences
List of installed programs = "Programs" folder (or use Launchpad):
--ImageRemoved--
It's not hard to figure out. Yes, it's different and takes some getting used to if you've used a PC your whole life. Once you've fully "made the switch" though, I can't think of a reason you'd want to go back.

Naked Dude wrote: +1000 on the BetterSnapTool. Way, way worth it. I also recommend an application launcher like Alfred or QSB. I can't live without it.

Never understood what you would use Alfred for. How is it different than hitting Command+Spacebar and using spotlight? Then again, I don't really open apps that aren't on my dock very often and I don't use spotlight that much.

Paraflam wrote:

Naked Dude wrote: +1000 on the BetterSnapTool. Way, way worth it. I also recommend an application launcher like Alfred or QSB. I can't live without it.

Never understood what you would use Alfred for. How is it different than hitting Command+Spacebar and using spotlight? Then again, I don't really open apps that aren't on my dock very often and I don't use spotlight that much.

Smart (learns from your preferences), Web search, and easier to control scope of the search, and system commands-it's an application launcher+. I'm not sure if Spotlight is better in Lion, haven't used it. I was a huge QSB user until Lion, it was buggy so I jumped to Alfred. It can take some getting used to but once you learn it you'll never look back.

Or just spend $100 on windows and install with boot camp.

The default Mac OS is easy to use, but its MS Office programs really blow. This is one reason I installed windows on my mac.

3|ink wrote:Or just spend $100 on windows and install with boot camp.

The default Mac OS is easy to use, but its MS Office programs really blow. This is one reason I installed windows on my mac.

What don't you like about Office for Mac? I have 2011, and I haven't run into any problems besides not being able to use integrated data analysis in Excel, but I just used statplus and it was fine.