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Apple sold $5.7 billion in Macs and iPods during the holiday quarter
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Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983
T h e R o a d L e s s T r a v e l e d
As Apple grows larger than Dell in market value, interest in OS X Macs soars; here are some tips for ex-Windows users
Jan. 25, 2006
Newspaper abruptly cancels this Macintosh column
By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2006, The Post-Standard
I've heard from scores of former Windows users who switched to Macintosh OS X computers in the last few weeks. It's clear that Apple is turning the personal computer market into a competitive race between the largely untrustworthy Windows system from Microsoft and the safer OS X system from Apple.
Apple sold $5.7 billion in Macs and iPods during the holiday quarter and moved ahead of the longtime leader in the PC industry, Dell, in total market value. Apple's market valuation is now $72 billion, while Dell's is $71 billion. That means Apple is No. 1 in the personal computer market in terms of market capitalization.
If you're a new OS X user who switched from Windows, you might have many of the same questions I've been asked by e-mail since the holidays. This week I'll answer as many as I can.
Do I still need antivirus software? No. There are no OS X viruses, so stop worrying. If you do install AV software, it will block Windows viruses that are unwittingly sent to you via e-mail from hijacked Windows PCs. But your Mac is unaffected by Windows viruses, so you don't need to block them anyway.
Don't I need protection against spyware? No. All spyware is actually Windows spyware. There are rumors that software companies will start making anti-spyware programs for OS X Macs, and no doubt they will do such a thing if they can make money doing it. But there is no spyware for OS X, and that means you don't need such "protection."
Where can I find the kind of software I was used to running under Windows? You know, freeware stuff and that kind of thing. The best OS X software site is Version Tracker at www.versiontracker.com/macosx. Other sites are www.macupdate.com and www.apple.com/downloads/macosx. There are hundreds of other Mac OS X file sites; of those, the best might be osx.hyperjeff.net. (There's no "WWW" in front of it.)
I love my new Mac and like to read what others think. Are there any sites like that? Yes -- a lot of them. Start with Mac Daily News at www.macdailynews.com for news and developments relating to OS X Macs. Other good sites: Accelerate Your Mac at www.xlr8yourmac.com, MacSlash at macslash.org (no "WWW"), MacRumors at www.macrumors.com and one of the most useful Mac-related sites, MacOSXhints at www.macosxhints.com. For general searches, there's a Google search site just for Macs. It's at www.google.com/mac.
Help! I can never find windows that are underneath other windows. Why did Apple design OS X this way? Apple built Expose into OS X so you can "explode" all windows so that all of them are easy to find. Just press F9 to spread them all out on the screen and click on the one you want. (If f9 doesn't work on your new OS X Mac, someone in your family changed the key assignment. Find out what it's been assigned to by opening System Preferences and choosing "Dashboard & Expose.")
Now that I am using iPhoto, I realize how badly Windows needs something like iPhoto included with the computer. Way to go Apple! But I'm having a hard time getting pictures into iPhoto from the CDs I've been saving pictures on. What's the secret? It's easy. Run iPhoto. Then put the CD into the drive, and when the disk icon appears on the desktop double click on it and locate the pictures. Select them all (press Cmd-A) and click on any selected picture without letting go of the mouse. Pause a little and then drag the pictures into iPhoto's window.
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