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Switchin' ain't easy

So, I've had my Mac Pro for a while, and am finally starting to get used to it. For a while, though, it was super frustrating to work on; one of the hardest things about switching computing platforms is the minor inconsistencies. For example, in Windows Explorer, hitting 'return' will open a selected folder, and 'F2' will rename it. In the OS X Finder, 'Command-O' opens a folder, and 'return' will rename it. Mouse behavior is quite different as well, with OS X using a very non-intuitive mouse acceleration algorithm. I had just gotten used to 'Home' and 'End' moving my text-editor's cursor to the beginning and end of a line, but OS X's default behavior moves the cursor to the beginning/end of the document.

Fortunately for me, it's relatively easy to edit key mappings in OS X, which means that the functionality I'm used to has mostly returned. For the mouse issue, I had to install a Microsoft mouse driver, which conflicted with the mouse control panel option for a while.

On a somewhat related note, have I mentioned that the Mighty Mouse is horrible? It doesn't fit my hand at all, has a worthless "scroll wheel" nubbin, and flaky left/right-click support. Sadly, back when I was working at my old job, I had thought about buying one, even going so far as to make some low bids on eBay. I think this piece o' junk is going up there for some other sod. I do like the Mac keyboard, though (not the new, shallow version). The keys, while not clicky, have an appropriate amount of tactile feedback. The keyboard itself is much narrower than my Model M IBM keyboard, though, which took a bit of time to get used to as well.

All in all, I'm pretty happy about my purchase... a little bit bitter about getting the shaft in terms of RAM and HD space (1 GB/250 GB in a machine of this class? Ridiculous! Plus no Bluetooth or WiFi=superlame), but prices for that stuff will keep going down. I'm glad to be using a more versatile machine, albeit one that's a massive investment.

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