It takes about 2 weeks to get (m)acclimated. Just get used to pushing that little Apple button all the time. Safari is crap though, stick with Firefox.

Freaky, we're living in a parallel universe. After making a major professional change last week it became glaringly obvious that I needed a Mac if I wanted to survive. So, yesterday, I visited the Mac store and after a few minutes of "playing" I got incredibly frustrated by my Windows expectations. One of those was the ability to maximize a window as you noted. However, I assumed I was just too new and surely, there must be a way that I would discover after my Mac-Initiation. After all, there's some special club you get a membership to after purchase... like joining the Masons. Suddenly, you're a cool kid.

Congrats on the purchase and good luck stumbling through it! I'll be going through Windows-rehab at the same time.

I bought mine last Tuesday - willingly. Vista drove me into the arms of Apple. As for your questions, I totally agree with Mike use Firefox not Safari. You can autohide the Dock by clicking Apple icon -> Dock -> Turn Hiding On however you'll find it really handy on your nice high res screen it shows you apps you frequently launch, can be customized, and also indicates apps that are currently running with a little blue dot below the icon.

Congrats! I bought a Macbook Pro myself too this weekend. I'm also very excited how I'll experience it. Keep us posted!

okay, now maybe the search community can have some respect for you. ;-)

I can't believe you did it, Danny. Many of my friends were going over as well but after about 8 months of hating the dumb thing, I sold it and got a Vaio.

More details of "Why I Hated my Mac" at http://www.thejunglemap.com/post/204.

I hope it goes better for you, but I see no value in owning one, personally.

If you love Outlook as much as I do (which I think you do), you'll hate entourage.

Corey

Well, Corey, if the Vaio I had bought hadn't died and gone into repair .... seriously, no more Sony for me.

I do live in Outlook. I'm trusting that VMWare will keep that going until I play with Mac Office. What I've seen of Entourage made me go ugh.

Interesting. I love my Vaio, but I do notice one of the keys sticking. What did you need to repair on yours? Was it the keyboard?

Corey

Wow. I feel like the last holdout now. Even my wife uses a Mac.

Danny, was this the Sony that gave you so much trouble trying to stream webcam video with Yahoo Live! on the Valentine's Day SearchCast?

Don't do it Matt! Don't do it. Be strong.

Well, the Sony liked to turn itself on even when it was shutdown, just because maybe it was bored. And if I hibernated, it liked to crash. Then crash like three more times when i tried to reboot. Then it liked to pretend that the battery wasn't charging properly so decided it needed to hibernate so I could change it -- which caused it to of course crash and crash and crash.

Matt, that was what I was using, but it was Yahoo problem more than the Sony problem. Of course now that I have the Mac, video won't be a problem. As everyone knows, video "just works" with a Mac. And the streets are paved with gold, and everyone knows your name.

heh heh. This should be interesting.

I was acting the same way the first month I owned a Mac. I was really hoping all the hype was true. I look forward to your cutting remarks on Daily Searchcast about the problems and frustrations you encounter on the new Mac.

By the way, Webmaster Radio will not work with Zune! It's driving me nuts. I've been missing the Daily Searchcast for a few months now.

I don't think it works for anyone with Zune, as I tried it on a brand new computer and Zune just does not like their file format.

I try to reach someone at WMR just about every week. No one has been able to help me or return my phone calls.

awww!

Welcome to the world of Apple - you'll love it - some tips.

Parallels is much better than VM Ware-

Command is your friend (Command + T) for tabs on Safari or Firefox or anything mactabulous.

You'll love your mac, remove the tool bar below via your System Preferences. (Go through the SP to learn a lot about your mac - it's your best friend.)

I love my mac, I got a mac book pro a couple months ago. Now I can run all those Open GL/ Linux programs I wrote in college!

But, I did just install windows XP on it. Still need to code some aspx, and haven't figured out mono yet.

Danny, please follow-up in 30 days with another post. I guarantee you'll love your Mac by then.

BTW, have you discovered the two-finger scrolling on the touchpad? Do PCs have that?

Dude, you totally need to listen to me on the Born Again Mac User in two weeks, I had the exact same experience. Give it at least two weeks and you will wonder how you had any issues at all.

Yes, you can maximize to fill the whole screen. But it is done just by grabbing the bottom right corner of the window and dragging.

I have got a lot of convert resources at http://www.idrankthekoolaid.com

Dude... How can you complain about something that is so secure, built on unix, comes with an apache web server, PHP, Perl, Python and more all built in.

It's made for web development.

I do have a windows machine that I use to see what MSIE 6 and 7 have butchered my html.

@Matt McGee: I'd also like to hear how things are going after 30 days.

My soon-wife got a Macbook Pro for Christmas. After initial frustrations with it, I love it, too. What I like the most is the startup time. With my Windows machines, I can go take a nap before it's ready to go.
I admit the lack of maximizing is annoying at first and you also have to get used to the command button instead of control, oh and fn+backspace to get delete, but after a week or so you do it without thinking.

Congrats on the Mac Danny,

I got my macbook a few months back after hearing many stories of grandness from a certain Evilgreenmonkey an having used one at work for a while.

I completely agree about the Maximise thing - but after a while you forget about how insane it is not to have it. Good Move with the VMware - I use that at work for Outlook 2003 to connect to our companies exchange server - Some habits Die hard and outlook is one of them (at work anyway)

Mambo is a great web playground check it out.

correction - MAMP not Mambo... ( not enough coffee)

Lost another one to the dark side. I'll give it about a month before we see the "I bought an iPhone" post.

My wife has the Mac. I have an aging Dell and have been very tempted to make the switch back to Mac. I agree with the postings regarding Entourage, it pales in comparison to Outlook. Imagine Office 2008 Mac is not much better.??

I'll probably get an iPhone before the Mac, but hearing the 3G rumors makes me want to keep waiting...

Perhaps this will help with the maximize issue:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080218191436544

I've been periodically reading your post for quite some time, but when I saw the subject, "I bought a mac" I just had to read it.

I used to be against mac for a long time, but now I decided that I would either run linux or buy a mac before I would EVER upgrade to Windows Vista. So it was interesting to read everybody's comments.

I may be a future mac man too! From what I hear people who try mac don't go back.

Danny - Give Mail and iCal a shot before using Entourage - the ease of use will convert you over.

The problem most windows users have, when migrating to Mac, is that there isn't much to do or think about other than clicking a button on your mouse. It's so simple and is the sole reason that Mac allows the user to be more productive.

If you receive invitations to meetings via your Outlook or Google Calendar, iCal handles them. Also Mail has some great plug ins to help with the outlook dependencies. I have the 3 panel layout on Mail with the plugin called Wide Mail - it's free or you can donate. Most plug ins for Macs are contributed.

I would hesitate on purchasing any additional software as well - give it a week or two, you will find there is less need for them. The one thing you will not miss - is the multitude of pop ups on windows - which is near non-existent on a mac.

Oh and Airport is a dream - you're online before any non-mac user.

Traitor!

Seriously, I've considered it after fighting with Windows Vista for the last three months. XP was heaven compared to this resource-hog-that-crashes-at-a-heartbeat-not-ready-for release...well, you get the picture.

Now that you've gone over to the dark side, I suppose you'll be getting an iPhone, too?

;-)

Hi Danny,

I hope you enjoy your new Mac. I've been a confirmed Mac-a-holic for about 20 years and find them more user friendly I currently have 3 macs and only use Win XP to check sites I've designed to see if they are displayed correctly.

PS. To enlarge a screen full size grab the lower right corner of any page on the Mac and drag to desired size. I tried to figure out the same process on Win XP and finally gave up.

Hey Danny

I also bought a MacBook after years of PC ownership.
My verdict after 6 months: meh.

Turns out a Mac is no better than a PC. I find it clumsy in terms of operation compared to a Windows machine.

I guess it all comes down to what you're used to. Familiarity is what it's all about.

BTW: Congrats on your return to sunny California! There really is no place like home...

Peter

Danny-
Congrats on your Mac!!! I was so happy to hear this, yet shocked at the same time. I love, love, love your rants on the Daily Search Cast, but alas, was always saddened when you ranted on Apple. I hope you learn to love your Mac. I know your pain- I had to purchase a HP laptop with Vista this year to check my web sites on a PC in IE. Always best to know both platforms yes? Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Cathlyn**

Danny you will get used to it and love it.

I started out on a mac back in 93 and when I moved to the US (from near where you lived in England) It took me awhile to get used to Windows as was but I somehow stuck with it.

I went back to mac (sounds like Amy Winehouse) in 2001 I have not regretted it for a moment - it's just so much easier and with a .mac account everything is a snap for email.

Best Wishes

David