Mac Decoder Ring for Windows Users
There are lots of myths about Mac's that come from previous versions. I've used Macs and Windows for years. From the very first floppy only Mac all the way to the Mac Book Pro. I do think that Apple is making it way harder though by not have a Windows transition guide because just about everything that you do or want is available but the terms are different, so here's a list from the most annoying to the most useful :-)
h3 File System
The file system on the Mac is nearly identical, but the conventions are different. When I first started with the Mac, I was completely confused. Here is the decoder ring
Start Menu. The list of applications on the bottom is equivalent to the first thing you see on the Start Menu in Windows. This is often called the most recently used applications.
All Programs. Macs are much simpler in their applications. Most of the time, the application is the same as the short cut. That is Macs don't have DLLs, so instead of the Start Menu/All Programs, you just browse to the equivalent of c:\Program Files which is in Macintosh talk is done by clicking on Macintosh HD and then clicking on Applications.
Also the file name conventions are different, Mac OS X uses the Unix convention of forward "/" rather than Windows backwards "\". Here are the equivalents on a standard one drive system:
| C:\ | / |
| C:\program files | /Applications |
| My Documents | ~ your user name |
Macintosh HD. This is just the c:\ drive also know as Hard Disk by default.
h3 File System
The file system on the Mac is nearly identical, but the conventions are different. When I first started with the Mac, I was completely confused. Here is the decoder ring
Start Menu. The list of applications on the bottom is equivalent to the first thing you see on the Start Menu in Windows. This is often called the most recently used applications.
All Programs. Macs are much simpler in their applications. Most of the time, the application is the same as the short cut. That is Macs don't have DLLs, so instead of the Start Menu/All Programs, you just browse to the equivalent of c:\Program Files which is in Macintosh talk is done by clicking on Macintosh HD and then clicking on Applications.
Also the file name conventions are different, Mac OS X uses the Unix convention of forward "/" rather than Windows backwards "\". Here are the equivalents on a standard one drive system:
| C:\ | / |
| C:\program files | /Applications |
| My Documents | ~ your user name |
Macintosh HD. This is just the c:\ drive also know as Hard Disk by default.
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