As I explained two weeks ago, I’m running a PC and a Mac side by side as part of a long-term commitment to developing more expertise in Apple’s platform and, along the way, helping my readers bridge the Mac-PC gap more smoothly.
So far, it’s been a mostly delightful, if occasionally challenging experience. Although I’ve owned a Mac for several years, I’ve probably used this one more in the past two weeks than I have in the past six months combined. In this post, I’ll share three of the lessons I’ve learned from switching between platforms, including insights about old habits, new hardware, and the joys of cross-platform software and services.
The software that has made this setup possible for me is an open-source package called Synergy, which allows two or more computers (running Windows, OS X, or Linux) to share a single keyboard and mouse. I finally broke down and spent some quality RTFM time with the program’s documentation, a process that gave me a series of small headaches but solved a few bigger ones.
The Synergy software has an unfortunate interaction with Internet Explorer. When Synergy is running, it causes the New Tab button in Internet Explorer to stop working in some circumstances and can even temporarily freeze IE. I first encountered these symptoms a week or so ago and I assumed it was a bug in Internet Explorer 9, but the problems persisted even after I uninstalled the IE9 beta and went back to IE8 on Windows 7.
After much troubleshooting, including resetting IE to its default configuration and uninstalling every add-on, I finally concluded that the Synergy software was to blame. This Stack Overflow thread confirmed that I’m not the only person experiencing this issue, and it also offered what appears so far to be an effective workaround—running Synergy as a standard user rather than as a system service.
I’ve made a conscious effort to spend roughly half my time in each OS over the past two weeks, a task made easier now that Office 2011 for Mac is finally released and available through TechNet.
Overall, I find more similarities than differences between PCs and Macs these days. Both Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard are mature, highly usable operating systems with an ample selection of quality third-party software and hardware to choose from. Aside from a few PC-only features like Blu-ray playback and built-in support for TV tuner hardware, I haven’t found any task that I can’t accomplish on either platform. The difference is the degree of difficulty, which varies depending on your experience and personal preferences.
I suspect a lot of my readers can relate to what I’m trying to do here. If you use Windows at the office and a Mac at home, you know what I’m talking about. If you have a desktop PC running Windows 7 and a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air running OS X, you’ve probably run into some of the same issues I have.
On the next three pages, I call out the three biggest lessons I’ve learned along the way.
Page 2: The keyboard is the biggest pain point. Nagging inconsistencies in basic keyboard operation have been, without question, my greatest source of frustration as I’ve switched between PCs and Macs. It’s a little like learning a new language.
Page 3: Cross-platform tools and services are a blessing. It helps immensely to have some tools that look and act the same in both places. Here are some of the tools I’ve found indispensable so far.
Page 4: Hardware matters. There’s no question that a Mac is easier to maintain than an equivalent PC. But a lot of that simplicity comes as a direct result of a lack of choices. Here’s how I’m resolving those trade-offs.
By Ed Bott
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