Comments on: Daily Switching Between Vista and Mac Causing Brain Confusion

By: Ashley

Ashley — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:06:02 +0000

Another "issue" just came to mind. On my Mac I am so used to using two fingers to tap on the touch pad when I want to right click. I find myself doing the same on my Windows PC, forgetting that there is an actual right-click button.

StationStops wrote:

In my situation, I use 3 different operating systems daily, but I don’t like it and would never do it if my job didn’t require it - it’s just unnecessarily annoying.

Agreed!

By: StationStops

StationStops — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:56:41 +0000

I am a commercial Linux developer, love to play computer games and have always used windows at home, and now have 2 Macs for iPhone development.

In my situation, I use 3 different operating systems daily, but I don’t like it and would never do it if my job didn’t require it – it’s just unnecessarily annoying.

If I had my choice, I would just run Windows. The selection of hardware and software is just enormous, and the hardware is far cheaper than Apple. MacOS is a fine OS but is too restrictive – you can’t run it on any hardware you want, you can’t run it virtualized, its too restrictive and expensive.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:12:21 +0000

Generally speaking I don't have too many problems switching between Windows and Mac on a daily basis. I'm not quite sure why, but it seems as though my fingers adjust rather quickly to the differences.

blaszta wrote:

Different vendor (or even model) has different Fn key layout. So it’s just not a matter of switching OS. Once I have a Toshiba laptop which keyboard has no right shift and the Win key on the top right area (WTF?).

That's interesting that it didn't have a right shift key, but after you said that I realized that I never use the right shift key anyways. My fingers always gravitate to the left one.

Omar Upegui wrote:

Have you thought of using your mouse to Copy/Paste instead of using the keyboards? If you do that, you don’t have to worry about where the keys are to get from A to B.

I'm a keyboard shortcut kind of person myself, but I do use the mouse from time-to-time to do my copying and pasting.

Richard wrote:

The worst issue is the lack of a single key that is a true delete key on my MacBook Pro.

Amen to that... having to press function+delete can be a pain.

Paul wrote:

simple change the keyboard shortcut on the Mac if you must!

True... but sometimes I still like to look at the keys to see what I'm pressing. So that would probably make things just as confusing with me.

By: Change

Change — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:50:21 +0000

Yeah I’d recommend the same as Paul: change shortcuts wherever you can to make them consistent between the two platforms

I personally had the most trouble with not having Expose on Windows. At work I used a Mac, at home I had Windows and I found myself going to the corners very often, unconsciously, and then finding out nothing was happening

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:21:43 +0000

simple change the keyboard shortcut on the Mac if you must! Pretty trivial. I switched never looked back and had no problems. In Fact quite a few less problems not having to deal with Windows!

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:38:54 +0000

I support lots of clients with all different types of keyboards, pointing devices and operating systems. I personally use Vista, Mac OS X 10.5 and Windows XP every day on my own equipment. Am I screwed up when it comes to remembering which system does what with what device? You bet. The worst issue is the lack of a single key that is a true delete key on my MacBook Pro. I redefined the second Enter key to be a true delete key but my brain still wants to send my fingers elsewhere when I need to delete something.

By: Patrickben

Patrickben — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:31:55 +0000

I have always used Macs at home and almost always had to use PCs at work. When I’m at work I always feel like I’m in computer exile. Sure, partly it’s just that things are different than how I like them, but it’s also that Windows has so many features that are either counterintuitive, difficult, inconvenient, ugly, or some combination of all of those.
If I could, I’d uninstall Windows and replace it with Linux…but at work it’s just not my computer.

By: ORiN

ORiN — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:05:11 +0000

I have a Macbook and a PC desktop. Yes, I usually have the issues when I stop using my Macbook for quite a while. It will take me around 10 minutes to tune my brain to ‘Mac’ mode. After long periods of my Macbook, I will start having problems when I switch over to my desktop. I supposed humans are just creatures of habits.

By: Barney

Barney — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:36:59 +0000

I use a Mac and a PC with the same monitor and keyboard at work and switch between them with a KVM. I got really confused at first because I too use keyboard short cuts frequently. In the last month I have trained myself when I use the keysrtokes to change computers to then look at the bottom left corner and top left corners to see if I see a Start button or an Apple. This has helped alot but I still occasionally find myself using the wrong shortcuts.

By: Emilio

Emilio — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:26:22 +0000

Yeah, same problem for me for about two months…but after that finally mi mind got accustomized to the switch.
No hint for you, just have faith! You will succeed…i only have a difficult with ctrl and command keys for copy and paste…