Differences between Windows and OS X

May 15

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This entry is part 9 of 10 in the series Switching From Windows To Macintosh.

If you are actually switching to a Macintosh and OS X from a Windows computer, there are some differences between the two OS's that might make you wish you hadn't made the switch. However, if you are patient and stick with the Macintosh, overcoming these differences are pretty easy and most are for the better.

Before I begin, I feel that I must point out that I am not the first to ever write about these differences and will probably not be the last. In fact, the idea to write about the differences came to me from a fellow "switcher" who has been writing about his experiences in his own personal blog.

I have been following David Alison's progress for quite some time now and his insights on switching to the Macintosh have been quite interesting. His history with Windows sounds similar to mine. He just started the switch later than I did. I would definitely suggest checking out his site for more info on switching to a Macintosh.

The differences:

Applications

Typically, applications in Windows and other OS's are a collection of files including the actual executable file, images, data, libraries (DLL's in Windows), localization files, etc... Even before OS X, OS 9 and earlier Mac OS's had these collections. Usually stored in a single folder on the hard drive, or spread throughout the hard drive to aid in sharing resources.

With OS X, Apple took an idea used by NeXTSTEP (an OS from NeXT computers) and put all the files that make up an application into a folder. Doesn't sound all that different does it? Well, in this case, the folder has an extension of ".app" and looks and acts like the application. So instead of opening a folder when double-clicked, double clicking this .app folder actually launches the application that is stored in this folder.

By putting all the resources into a folder that looks like an application, moving the application to a new location on your hard drive, installing or uninstalling the application is just a simple file operation. No need for bulky install applications and you are free to move the application around as you see fit. Don't try this in Windows, you will royally screw up the application and have to re-install it.

DMG files

DMG files are basically the floppy disks of the Macintosh world. In fact, they act just like a mini-hard drive. Their icon is a document icon with the image of a hard drive printed on the paper and when you double-click or open a DMG file, the icon typically looks like a disk drive of some kind.

Actually, a DMG file is nothing more than an advanced ZIP file. They contain files and applications that are compressed just like a ZIP file, and you can copy files off of DMG files by opening the DMG and dragging the files off the DMG to your hard drive.

DMG files are mostly used to distribute applications to the Macintosh. When you find a shareware program that you would like to try out, you will either be downloading a DMG file, or a ZIP file that contains a DMG file. (I've never quite understood why this is until I read that some web servers don't handle the DMG type correctly, so putting the DMG in a ZIP file makes it easier for visitors to download the file.)

Installing Applications

Installing applications on a Mac can be quite confusing if you are new to OS X and have used nothing but Windows before. If so, you are used to running a "setup" program to install an application to your computer. It was quite rare to find applications that would run after expanding a recently downloaded ZIP file, though not unheard of.

With OS X, there are two common ways to install applications. The first is the familiar installation application way. The other common way is to simply copy the application to either your Applications folder or a separate folder you have created for putting applications that only your login account can run.

A disk image that contains an installer will look similar to this:

The install program is an icon that represents a cardboard box like you would see when moving or receiving a package from Amazon.com. Simply double-clicking on this icon will start the install process.

Applications sometimes use installer programs because they need to put files into folders other than in the application's folder and sometimes even modify the OS is a small way. The installation program will usually let you know that this is happening and often requires a reboot after completion.

If the application doesn't need to do anything fancy, they will look more like this:

In this case, you simply copy the application file to your Applications folder.

99% of the time, the DMG file will have a background image that instructs the user what to do to install the application. In the above screen shots you can see this by the instructions in text at the bottom of the windows and in the case of Picturesque, they also include a graphic arrow and an "alias" to the Applications folder on your computer to making copying the file to the Applications folder a simple matter of dragging the application icon to that alias.

There are some exceptions. These are usually Plug-ins, Preference Panes, Fonts, Dashboard widgets and some others. These DMG's might have instructions as a background image to the DMG window, or more likely, they will contain instructions on how to install them in a README file:

Most cases like this, if you double-click the file you are trying to install, the file will be placed in the correct location. The Witch Preference Pane in the screen shot above can be installed by double-clicking the Witch.prefPane file. It's usually a good idea to open the README file or QuickLook the file if you are using Leopard (10.5.x) and follow the instructions provided.

Uninstalling Applications

If you can install applications, then you should be able to uninstall them to. With OS X, this is typically a very easy task. Just drag the application to the trash can. That's it. Done. No fancy application designed to remove files that if you are not careful will corrupt your OS (I'm referring to Windows DLL files here).

As with installing applications, there are exceptions to uninstalling them too. With Preference Panes, you have to hold down the Control key and click on the Preference Pane icon you wish to uninstall. In the Dashboard, you need to click the circle with the plus sign inside, then click "Manage Widgets..." to open a widget that allows you to remove unwanted widgets.

There are even cases where you will need to run an uninstaller. Those cases are ones that install files into the OS itself. Parallels, a program that lets you run Windows applications in OS X is a good example of an application that needs an uninstaller. These cases are the rarest but they do exist.

If you are a neat freak like myself, dragging an application to the trash isn't quite good enough for uninstalling an application. If you have run the application you are uninstalling, it will have left some small text files laying around in different folders on your hard drive. They are quite small and don't affect the performance of the OS at all, but I like to get rid of them if I am truly uninstalling an application.

AppZapper

CleanApp

AppCleaner

There are a bunch of really cheap or even free tools that help with this task. AppZapper ($12.95), CleanApp ($10) or the free program AppCleaner (free). Each of those programs help you uninstall applications or remove Preference Panes as well as other files that you may not need to help you recover space on a Hard Drive. I personally use CleanApp, I found it to have more features than AppZapper and it's a little cheaper. I have not looked at AppCleaner, I wasn't aware of a free Application Uninstaller like AppCleaner until after I had purchased CleanApp. However, I don't mind paying the $10 for a program.

Copying and Moving files

There is a pretty big difference here that can possibly bite you big if you are unaware of the difference. It's a little hard to describe in text, but I'll try my best.

Say you have a folder on your hard drive called "Vacation" with the files:

Pictures

Vacation

pic1.jpg
pic2.jpg
pic3.jpg
pic4.jpg

You have a CD you got from your family that contains a folder with the same name "Vacation" and the files:

CD Disc

Vacation

pic5.jpg
pic6.jpg
pic7.jpg
pic8.jpg

In Windows, if you drag the "Vacation" folder on the CD to the folder containing the folder "Vacation" on your hard drive, Windows will "merge" the two folders together and the result on your hard drive will contain the files:

Pictures

Vacation

pic1.jpg
pic2.jpg
pic3.jpg
pic4.jpg
pic5.jpg
pic6.jpg
pic7.jpg
pic8.jpg

On the Mac, the same operation will "replace" the contents of the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive with the contents of the "Vacation" folder on the CD yielding a completely different result:

Pictures

Vacation

pic5.jpg
pic6.jpg
pic7.jpg
pic8.jpg

The first 4 pictures will be destroyed. This is because OS X and older Mac OS versions took a different approach to what it meant to copy a folder from one location to another.

If you look at updating an application in OS X this will make more sense. Say you have a new version of TextEdit. Copying the TextEdit application from a DMG file to your Applications folder appears to just be copying a single file from the DMG file to the Applications folder. In fact, OS X is copying a bunch of files stored in a folder called TextEdit.app. If it were to "merge" the files like Windows does, then its possible that there would be extra files in the updated version on your hard drive that were to the older version. There could also be folders that were not needed in the new version that would stick around.

Since OS X "replaces" the contents of folders completely, all the files from the older version of TextEdit will be destroyed before the newer files are copied over. When the copy is finished, you have an exact copy of the new version of TextEdit just like the DMG.

In order to copy the pictures from the CD to the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive without losing older pictures, you will want to open the "Vacation" folder on the CD and drag the image files into the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive. You don't have to open the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive to do this, if you hold the files being dragged over the "Vacation" folder on your hard drive for a short time, the folder will "spring" open for you and you can let go then. Or you can just let go of the files with the cursor over the folder "Vacation" and the files will be copied into the folder just like Windows would do.

Just remember to be very careful when copying files from one location to another and you will never have to suffer the loss of files.

Changing the size of Windows

This is a difference that will probably frustrate you for quite some time after switching to Macintosh.

In Windows, you can change the size of most windows by moving the mouse cursor to any edge of the window until the cursor changes its shape to arrows pointing in opposite directions. You can then click and drag to adjust the size of the window.

On the Mac in OS X, if the window can be resized, there is only one way to do it. The lower right corner of the window will have a graphic that looks like a gripping texture. Moving the cursor to that corner of the window will allow you to change the size of the window.

Fortunately, there are some shareware programs that make it a little easier to move and change the size of windows on the Mac. One such program is Zooom/2. This program lets you move a window no matter where your mouse is by holding down some user configurable keys. You can also change the size of the window in the same way.

Keyboard and shortcut keys

You will probably stumble quite a bit on this change. There are differences with the keyboard itself:

Windows Keyboard

Macintosh Keyboard

The biggest difference between Windows and Mac keyboards are the "Windows" and "Alt" keys on the Windows keyboard and the "Option/Alt" and "Command" keys on the Mac keyboard. These are the two keys on either side of the space bar.

With Mac's, Cut, Copy and Paste are Command-X, Command-C and Command-V respectively. You will find yourself trying to use Control-X, Control-C and Control-V to work with the clipboard. However, I personally found that my brain was able to rewire itself fairly quickly so that I use my thumb on the command key instead of my pinky finder on the control key. Once I got used to that, keyboard shortcuts in menus became second nature.

Some other differences are that the Home and End keys don't work quite the same way between Windows and OS X. The Function keys, F1-F12, on Macintosh keyboards default to modifying attributes of your computer instead of typing an Fkey value. You can type an Fkey instead of modifying an attribute by holding down the "fn" key or modifying the Keyboard preferences to default to using Fkeys as standard function keys.

No backspace key

On Macintosh keyboards, the key where the Backspace key normally is on Windows keyboards is "delete". There is also a "delete" key in the cluster of keys above the arrow keys. Although the name of the key is "delete", the key functions as the backspace key does on Windows keyboards. Typing the "delete" key will remove the character to the left of the text caret and move the caret one character to the left.

The delete key over the arrow keys works the same as the delete key in Windows.

No Start menu or Windows task bar

Thankfully, there is no Start menu on OS X. I say this because if you have ever installed hundreds of programs in Windows, you could have several columns of items in the "All Programs" menu. Vista made an attempt at fixing this with the search box in the Start menu (or what's it called now? The Windows menu?). However, OS X Tiger (released back in 2005) had Spotlight which is what a lot of people think Windows Vista got it's inspiration from.

OS X uses something called the Dock which holds icons of applications that are currently running as well as applications that can be launched by clicking on the icon. On the right side of the Dock you can put folders so that you can see a list of the files inside that folder. Minimized application windows appear on the right side too and finally the trash can.

Only one menu bar

I have seen a lot of complaints about the fact that Apple only has one Menu bar at the top of the desktop window. However, try telling someone to look at the Edit menu of a program that hasn't used a computer before and you might see where a Windows user could get confused over "which" Edit menu to look at. Where on the Mac, no matter what, there is only one location for the edit menu. Of course they would need to have the application they want to work in the Edit menu as the active application, which is true for Windows too.

So, it's probably one of those 6 of one, half a dozen of the other type of things.

I suppose you could say that the Apple menu bar item (the item in the menu bar that looks like the Apple logo) is the equivalent of the Start Menu in Windows. The Apple menu is where you find items like System Update, System Preferences, Shutdown, Restart, and Logout as well as a few other items. Very similar to the Windows Start Menu.

In Windows, there is a section of the Taskbar called the System Tray that contains little programs that display status info and such. With the Mac, there is a type of program called Menu Extra's that allow you to put status info in the Menu Bar on the right side. This is where the magnifying glass sits for Spotlight and the time display is located.

The close button on a window doesn't always close an application

Another difference you will find yourself annoyed with until you get used to it is the Close, Minimize and Maximize buttons in OS X windows. They are on the opposite side of the window for OS X and they function a little differently than the equivalent buttons in Windows.

The yellow minimize button works pretty much the same as minimize in Windows. The maximize will toggle the window size between as big as it can, to the size it was before being pressed once.

A big difference is the close button. Yes, it will close the application window as one would expect, but under OS X, there is a good chance that the application will stay open after closing the window. There are some applications that will close when you close out the window like the Dictionary application. However, a program like System Preferences or Safari, when you close out will not close out the application.

I actually like this behavior because I can leave Mail running without having to have it's window open or minimized on the dock.

There is another little button in the windows title bar on the right side of the title bar. Clicking this button will toggle the toolbar display in most cases. In the Finder, it will also turn off the sidebar as well as the toolbar.

Terminating programs that hang or become non-responsive

One nice thing about running an OS on top of Unix is that when a program hangs up or becomes non-responsive, you can kill the application without fail. Windows may allow you to kill a hung application. I have had some problems killing hung apps in Windows.

By typing Command-Option-Esc, you will get a Force Quit Applications window to appear. Select an application that is red (which means it's non-responsive or hung) or just select an application on the list and press the Force Quit button. This will do a Unix "kill" command and cause the application to go away. If you select the Finder application, the button will change to "Relaunch" since the Finder should always be running.

You could also run an application called "Activity Monitor" to see a list of every process running in OS X including stuff that isn't visible in the Force Quit Applications window. You can then select a process and either tell it to Quit or Force Quit. Be careful there though, it could be as dangerous to kill processes running there as it is to kill a process listed in the Task Manager Processes tab.

Using the Tab key doesn't always take you to every control

By default, when dialog boxes are open in OS X, you can only tab to different text edit boxes. If you want to be able to select a checkbox or radio button with the keyboard, you need to open System Preferences, select the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane, and select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab. Near the bottom of the window is something called: "Full keyboard access:". You will want to change the selected radio button from "Text boxes and lists only" to "All controls". You will then be able to tab to any control in a dialog box.

With Safari, it's a little more complicated. Both the Keyboard preferences and an option is Safari preferences will allow you to access several levels of tabbing access. From just text fields, to buttons and text fields, to buttons, text fields and links.

In conclusion

There are more differences than the ones mentioned above, but most are pretty minor and only Windows power users might be the only folks that notice them.

Again, thanks to David Alison for posting basically the same topic before I thought of it. It's a very important topic for folks that are either considering switching to a Mac or already have.

In the next installment, I'll go over a few applications that I personally feel every Macintosh owner should have.