“My boss just said we’re moving to Macs. I don’t know if he was serious, but it might really happen — he’s a bona-fide, born-again Mac zealot, after decades of using real computers (he even had his own, successful Windows-centric newsletter).
I joked that I’ll switch to a Mac after they pry the PC from my cold, stiff fingers. In reality, I’ll just go along with the program and lose about 30% in productivity.
I hate Macs.”
Nothing in this post by David Ramel that is new, but always fun to read. 
I’m not sure whether it had something to do with the fact that I said a number of things that could be interpreted as negative toward Apple and iLife in todays episode of the EduKast (in Dutch) or that it was just bad luck, but after recording the last piece of audio Garageband decided that it wanted to crash.
I’ve been told that Macs are very stable, but today that wasn’t the case. And because I’ve hadn’t had these kind of problems using Adobe Audition yet (not even when the disc was full) I hadn’t though of saving while recording todays episode of the EduKast podcast.
Result: everything gone, 45 minutes of work lost.
I started over and re-recorded the episode, but it underlines the comment that I make in the podcast: “there is much less difference between a Mac and a PC then people would like you to believe”.
One thing I probably will never understand is why people can get so exited about the whole Mac v.s. PC thing. Just use whatever you like, if you want try to learn to use both (like I did), but don’t try to convince the rest of the World that the system you’re using is better because…
But if you’re the kind of person that wants to read why one person thinks the Mac is the best while his colleague thinks you should throw it out of the window, be my guest.
Setting up a printer for a Macbook can be easy. Just connect it using USB and you can use one of the available drivers go start using it. I’ve got a HP PSC 2175 multifunctional at home and as expected from HP, they have drivers and support applications on their website.
Shared Printer
But, the easy setup only applies when you connect it directly to the Macbook, trouble starts if you’re foolish enough to share the printer from a Windows XP computer and want to connect to it from your Macbook!
I’ve got the multifunctional running in my study which is way up in the attic while I like to use the Wifi down in the living room. Of course even on a Windows XP laptop I can’t do scans from down there, but printing is not much of a problem.
I just created a printer share (called printer home to keep it apart from the printers that I connect to at work) on the Windows XP PC that the multifunctional is connected to and connect to that share from the laptop. The drivers that come with my laptop don’t care if the multifunctional is connected to the USB port or over the network.
No Spaces!
Not so on OS X. The first and biggest problem, and the reason why this post is tagged frustrations is the fact that at first the printer share on the XP PC wasn’t displayed on the Macbook. I couldn’t understand why, I followed all the steps I thought were needed: goto Applications then to the Utilities folder. There I started up the Printer Setup Utility. Then I clicked on the Add Printer button, selected IP printer and clicked on the More Printers… button. In the Printer Browser popup I selected Windows Printing and then the PC that the printer was connected to and which had the printer share setup.
Don’t ask me why but a some point I had another look at the printer share and decided to change the name to PrinterHome without a space in the share name!
And that made the difference. The share now showed up on the Macbook. Duh!
Extra driver
But just being able to see the share wasn’t enough. The drivers on the Macbook that could handle printing to the USB port, can’t handle printing over the network. The detailed setup page that I’d been using for the first part of the setup also pointed that out and directed me to the hpijs page.
There I had to download 3 different dmg files that I then had to install to get a huge list of HP printers that I could choose from when connecting over the network to setup my printer.
So in the end, after way to much time, it worked.
OK, I’ve had enough. Working with a Macbook is nothing like working with a laptop with Windows XP. Nothing works the way that I got used to over the years.
Who said this was such an easy operating system to learn to use?
Like take for example the way that I can close a window. In Windows XP that button is located on the right hand side of the window. In OS X on the left hand side. Small detail, but just wait until you have to learn to do it differently.
Another thing: in Windows XP if I close a window, I also close the application. Not so in OS X. There it just closes the window while the application keeps on running. Now don’t tell me that makes more sense because it doesn’t to me.
A small arrow below the application is the indicator of the fact that it is still running. I need to close it by using its menu or using a right mouse click.
Those menus are also something that takes a lot of getting used to. In Windows XP a menu is located at the top of window. In OS X they are all located at the top of the screen.
And of course, the right mouse click. The most important key to use in Windows XP doesn’t work. (update: yes, I later found out how to enable it and how to use the Ctrl key, but just go ahead and try to find that info in the help file)
Other things that you just need to “know”. On Windows you use Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V voor copy and paste. Even though the Macbook has a Ctrl – key, the combination is different. It is Command + C and Command + V.
And I really miss the “show desktop” option that Windows XP has.
All in all, a really bad start of our relationship.
