Many have a hard time transition to OS X, as they first have to unlearn habits learned on Windows, and then relearn them on OS X, such as keyboard shortcuts, folder options, etc. This is why not many users choose to transition to OS X. This is also part of the reason why OS X’s market share is low and slow in growing. While Windows might appear less refined than macOS to some, I've been really impressed after switching by how rapidly Microsoft is releasing major updates for the platform and the refinement the company has been adding almost constantly—the OS sorely need it, but the company is shipping quickly.
TL;DR Going from Windows to Mac is very easy for a nodejs developer
who uses a distributed workflow already (github, web apps).
The second transition was from Mac OS to OS X (which was more recently renamed macOS again). The original Mac OS essentially lasted from the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984, up through Mac. Similar to the Windows Settings app, System Preferences allows you to oversee every aspect of your Mac, from security, to hardware, to design. There are even some features that can make OS X more comfortable to Windows users. Make your Mac your own!
Before actually making the switch, I asked a friend of mineJeff Whelpley to write a blog postabout his recent experience making similar transition.Which he did.Thanks to Jeff, I had much easier time figuring outsome steps.
Background
I am a senior software engineer at uTest, working mainly on front-end (think JavaScript),back-end (Python) and everything in between. Before this job I worked a lot in image processing andcomputer vision field (think C++, OpenCV and OpenGL). I use Windows both at home and at work,which is very typical for image processing jobs. Windows has a very wide variety of input and outputdevices supported, plus a lot of libraries written for these tasks.
My Windows machine is a sweet, sweet Samsung Series 9 ultra portable laptop. Light, fast,excellent battery life. Beautiful 1600x900 screen resolution, great build quality.It does have issues with trackpad, but to me these were minor.Overall, this laptop is like a cool puppy; it turns heads and strikes conversations.
I am transitioning to MacBook Pro, since everyone at uTest, including the developers is using Macs,and the IT department really wants to minimize the number of configurations. While I could doeverything on my personal laptop, I would still prefer to use the company's hardware. Plus usingMac does makes it very easy to setup multiple Python environments.
Things that made the transition easier
- My development tools are cross platform (nodejs mostly).
- Using Console2 with bash shell inside (from Github tools) on Windows.
- Storing my .files from my home directoryin a public repo that I could pull to the new Mac.
- I updated settings again so they work nicely with Mac, use branch mac.
- Using iPhone and iPad personally. The user interfaces among the Apple products are similar,which makes it easy to find things.
- Using web applications, like pivotaltracker, Google drive, gmail instead of platform specific local apps.
Baby steps
Install, login, domain, linking my user profile to Google services at work - all done by the ITdepartment.
App called Finder is like Windows Explorer on steroids.
- Enabled single tap = click on the trackpad (Settings icon / Trackpad)
- Changed the background to something different from the night sky (Settings / Desktop & Screen Saver)
- Installed Chrome and logged in (google.com/chrome, download for Mac, click on the downloads icon)
- I had to guess that dragging Chrome icon into the Applications folder in the popup dialog isApple's way of installing Chrome.
- Extensions, bookmarks, websites are synced by Chrome.
I removed most of the items from the Dock row at the bottom, because my contacts, email, etcare all inside the Google web profile. Tap on each icon with two fingures at the same time, select
Options | Remove from Dock
. I even removed Safari from the Dock.Nice touch: applications that are currently running have light dots underneath them in the Dock.
Hidden files
A lot of system files are not displayed inside the Finder by default. To display them:
Restart Finder by clicking on the Apple icon in the top left corner | Force Quit | Finder and relaunch.Hidden files should now be visible, check your home folder.
Hint: you can quickly show your home folder by pressing
Shift + Command + h
inside Finder.Common applications
- We use Skype at uTest to communicate, the install was very simple.
- Installed git tools from github. The install included a wizard, where I logged in, created SSH keyand installed command line tools. If only I could see how to open the terminal.
- Sublime Text 3 is super fast text editor, its installation was very straightforward.
- To run it from command line I created a symbolic link in the /usr/local/bin folder pointingat the installed application
sudo ln -s /Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/local/bin/subl
.From now on, inside the Terminal I can just typesubl
to open Sublime.
- To run it from command line I created a symbolic link in the /usr/local/bin folder pointingat the installed application
- I blog using a combination of Dropbox + calepin.co, the Dropbox installationis very simple, including a short tour showing where the folder and the quick access button is.
- I keep my blog entries in the Dropbox / Apps / Calepin folder.
- I also have a git repo in this folder, remoted to private bitbucket repo, just as a precaution.
update after blogging for an year I moved blog to github gh-pages atglebbahmutov.com. See 1 year of blogging.
Keyboard shortcuts
I do miss the dedicated Home / End / Page Up / Page Down buttons Windows laptops have.
- Fn + Down arrow = Page Down
- Fn + Up arrow = Pade Up
I had to guess the meaning of the weird key symbols, because only the Command key actuallyhas an icon, the rest - just guess.
I am ok using Command key instead of Control key, but it took some time to figure out how tonavigate quickly inside the text documents.
How To Get Mac Os On Windows
- Command + (left | right) arrow moves to the (start | end) of the line.
- Option + (left | right) arrow moves to the (start | end) of the word.
- Text selections can be made by holding Shift key.
- To quickly switch the previous application use Command + Tab
I have yet to figure out how to move the selected text up or down a line using shortcuts.
Application / tab shortcuts
- Command + tab switches between the running applications
- Control + tab switches between the tabs inside an application (Chrome)
Mac Os X On Windows 10
Window position shortcuts
Almost every application can be viewed in fullscreen mode (Control + Command + F).
![Windows Windows](https://media.toucharger.com/download/315x188/ecran-de-veille-screensaver/abe380d2-winter-wonders-screensaver.jpg)
I used quick application window position and resize shortcuts a lot (Fn + left | right).After doing some internet searching, I settled on SizeUpas a window manager. Now I can use
Control + Option + Command + (left|right)
to move and resizean application window to take left|right half of the screen. Usb clone tool mac. I am not 100% happy with thisapproach yet, because the positioning shortcuts have no effect when the application is infullscreen mode. SizeUp can change the application to occupy the entire client desktop area, usingControl + Option + Command + M
, which is excellent shortcut.Mac App store
I do agree with Jeff that every Windows developer should try installing an application fromMac app store. Once they stop sobbing, ask them how many steps it took. One. Just beautiful,and very similar to the iOS app store.
I installed Alfred, and I do like using it to search for things, which goes back a couple of yearswhen I used Google desktop search on Windows (I believe it has been discontinued). There is alsoan awesome collection of Alfred extensionsadding nodejs, development and github shortcuts to the search.
Terminal setup and first git call.
Initially the Terminal application is not part of the Dock. To add it, first find it, for exampleusing Spotlight. After starting it once, it will be displayed in the Dock.The default terminal window is small with white background / black font. Not optimal, but works.Other color schemes can be selected, if you want to, and they will be used for new terminalwindows.
Having standard copy / cut / paste commands is super sweet.
Mac Os X Vs Windows
To initialize my terminal settings (bash prompt, aliases, git shortcuts) to what I am used toon Windows:
The bash settings worked almost perfectly, except for some minor unary operator syntax errors.Git aliases worked right away, but I had to change the text editor to Sublime.
Ignoring stupid Icon files
Often Finder places Icon file in each folder, which is hard to tell git to ignore from command line.I could not get the .gitignore solution to work properly, see open question.
Developer tools
Install Brew
brew provides super easy command line package manager. Seems lots of toolscan be installed through brew without need for compiling, for example to install wget:
That's it.
The installation requires single ruby command execution, plus installing Apple's command line tools.brew comes with a diagnostic command
brew doctor
that you should run first to makesure all environment settings (like PATH) are set properly. Run it and fix all (if any) issuesuntil you get the message Your system is ready to brew.
Things I have not figured out yet
Any help in figuring out how to do these steps is welcome
- Should I look into boxen?
- How to ignore Icon files, still a problem, even after tryingthis solution