Posts from ben in thread „In need of a new Apple computer!“

Addenda serafina:

Most of the keyboard shortcuts you want can be reimplemented in Parallels, except for accented characters.

For those, a quick workaround:

• ⌘-Space to invoke Spotlight;
• type the character(s) you want;
• ⌘-A followed by ⌘-X to cut it to the Clipboard;
• Back to the Windows program and press ⌘-V to paste it in.

This also works for OSX macOS standard text services (say, make all-caps), in applications that don't provide them.

Say, I'm typing in Google Chrome or the WhatsApp desktop app and have text I want in all caps.

Cut/Copy the text, ⌘-Space to invoke Spotlight, paste, select/right-click, Transformations > Make Upper Case, back to the app and paste.

As well, I greatly prefer using Option keys for accents rather than long press. Example:

• Option-e followed by any vowel for acute accent (e.g. é)
• Option-` followed by any vowel for grave accent (à)
• Option-u followed by any vowel for umlaut (ü)
• Option-n followed by any letter for tilde (ñ)
• Option-Space for nonbreaking space

Here's the complete list.

Once you get used to it, I believe you'll find it to be faster and more natural.

Some other Option-characters other than accents which are great:

• Option-Tab for a tab character, especially in apps in which Tab tabs over to the next element
• Option-3 for £
• Option-Shift-2 for €
• Option-P for π

Really, take a few minutes and run through the whole keyboard while holding down Option, and also Option-Shift. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Quote from serafina

Yes, that's the program. It is a virtual machine.

Its main competitor is VRM, which I used for the first year after I acquired my Macbook. However, it had some glitches and tried Parallels, which works okay.

You can read more about these two VR here.

Personally, I adore the coherence mode. It is a virtualization mode that shows each Windows software as running independently, with its icon in the task bar at the bottom of the screen (instead of the icon of Parallels that open on a Windows window where the software is running).

The only downsides I find are:

• In Parallels there are many key shortcuts which I accidentally hit from time to time and I am no longer able to select accented letter by keeping the key pressed like in MacOS
• The two OSs do not share softwares. I use a translation software where I can get Word preview... but I need a copy of Word for the Windows machine for it to work, as it won't use the copy of Word for Mac installed on the Mac machine.

Aside from that, I am pretty happy with it.

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I hate Coherence. I am used enough to the Windows desktop to want to use it on its own terms. I want a fullscreen desktop to which I can flip at will.

And it's absolutely great - make the Windows window full-screen, and you can Ctrl-toggle back and forth. Cut and paste works across the "machines" and that's all the integration .

One problem is that once Parallels is running in its own space, you can't use Ctrl-arrows to run quickly through text. This is solved by adding a bunch of keyboard shortcuts which let me use the Mac shortcut - Option-arrows - in Windows. Like so:

Quote from Splinter

How could I forget to mention that Windows is the perfect platform for gaming?

Yes. Say what you will about the Mac vs. Windows in just about every other context, but Windows always has the games.

I know how I could neglect to mention it - I never did much gaming.

Everyone keeps referring back to a debate, it appears impossible to mention the words "Mac" and "Windows" without getting a little more ready for a fistfight than the minute before. But there's not much of a debate here!

Everyone here seems to agree that the days when Windows was a truly shitty operating system are over, at least post-Vista. As well, that having gone through the Vista debacle, Windows 8 was inexplicably stupid. And that Macs are by no means packets of pure goodness, they are opinionated products made by an opinionated company and not all users share the same opinions.

Me, having already made the switch (but retaining Parallels Desktop), I'm not in a hurry to return. The Mac delights in some ways and infuriates in others. As I said, if I had the depth of familiarity on that Mac that even approaches what I'd built up on Windows, I can confidently say I'd expect not to want go back to Windows for a long while. As of today, I'm not nearly as equipped to take advantage of Mac's strengths (e.g. the scripting/automation capabilities) as I might have been, though Stack Overflow et al are pretty good at solving many problems. So the question of which OS to use comes down in large degree to personal preference and a couple of other variables. Say, the integration with my other computers and my iPhone (AirDrop, Continuity, etc): I thought these were going to be gimmicks, ends up I use it all the time. Is it a game changer? Hardly. Does it grow on you, to the point I'd miss it if it was gone? Definitely.

It all comes down to what experience sucks less. For me, today, even with the above caveats, the Mac sucks less. Tomorrow? Who knows.

Quote from EJLarson

Everyone loves to hate the Registry. Could have been done better, but I'm sure you're aware that it does much much less than it did a few years ago, e.g., with XP? Most settings are now saved with the apps, just like OSX. Our favorite whipping boy is now just a ghost of its former loathsome self.

Ben, you're obviously on the OSX side of things. Have you used Win 10 enough to have formed a comparative opinion?

I actually haven't played much with Windows 10. I made the jump to Mac when it became clear that my next computer was going to be Windows 8, and that much of the knowledge I'd built up since DOS 5/Windows 3.0 was going to be irrelevant. From what I'm hearing, it sounds like if I'd have been looking at Win10 rather than 8, I many not have switched.

Equally true, though, is that had I been exposed to the Mac a little earlier in life, when I did have time to poke around with things, it would have been awesome. The potential it has with its scripting capabilities for a middle-to-high proficiency user (defined as: not limited to using the GUI, not afraid of Terminal, willing to learn how to script when needed, but not a full-time programmer), are way beyond what Windows offers (or offered: if Win10 brought something new to the party in this regard, please enlighten me).

Sadly, to get up to speed with this (say, AppleScript/Automator/Perl scripting), and make my workflow way smoother, I need time which at present I don't have. If I'd had a Mac to play with in, say, 2006, it'd be a different story.

P.S. If the Registry has been neutered, that is great. That many gripes less.

Quote from EJLarson

That's another thing about the world of Apple. One day they'll decide to upgrade a product and make all previous versions, hardware and software, obsolete. The customer is then required to buy a completely new system or be put in your position: "Sorry, that's Yesterday. We only work with Today." It's part of what it takes to be Apple, and as long as everyone's a volunteer and understands what comes with the territory, I certainly have no complaints.

FWIW, I'm use on a daily basis 2 Macs which I bought over 5 years ago, no problems whatsoever.

Quote from EJLarson

I'm still using a couple of obsolete software products on my Win 10 PCs that I originally purchased fifteen or more years ago and have never found good, newer, replacements for. You just tell Windows 10 to analyze the old program and if it decides that it should run in a legacy shell (say, from Windows XP) it wraps it accordingly and you've still got the functionality you had in the year 1995. In terms of continuity for older programs there's no competition: Windows wins.

Correct. You can argue that that is holding back Windows, because it has this massive amount of legacy baggage it still has to support.

And indeed, as MS gets more serious about a modern system they are getting more aggressive about dropping support for old stuff.

And there certainly do exist virtual machines for the Mac that emulate previous versions of OSX or even Windows. But they are sold separately - it is absolutely the case that Apple does not consider supporting 15 year-old software a high priority.

Quote from Splinter

The two that I repaired recently needed to be upgraded to High Sierra and one wouldn't upgrade because the versions of iPhoto and iMovie installed were incompatible and needed to be uninstalled, but with no hint as to why, bearing in mind that those are in fact Apple programs in the first place.

Never, ever heard of such a thing. Can you clarify precisely what was incompatible with what?

Quote from Splinter

My biggest problem with Apple products is the complete lack of 'road signs' to indicate why something won't happen as expected.

This is far less true if you're familiar with OSX's Unix underpinnings. It's usually a much more coherent system than poking semi-blindly around the Registry - once you're up to speed. There are simply less spaces for problems to lurk. But you'd need to know your way around.

If you've only ever driven in the US, you need some time to acquaint yourself with European signs. They're different. And that's even more true 'under the hood'.

Quote from Splinter

if you have the misfortune to need to reinstall OSX, always have another Mac handy in order to prepare the boot media as I've never had any luck with Transmac for Windows. And let's not even talk about the incompatible file systems.

Yes, just as a Mac will be of limited use if you need to reinstall Windows.

Then again, a Mac allows you to connect to wifi and download the entire OS - you don't need a second computer at all.

And yes, Apple cares less about compatibility (at least as far as boot media is concerned) today than in 1997. For obvious reasons.

Then again, the last time I had trouble moving files between a Windows machine and a Mac was a very long time ago.