A New Mac User: The First 24 Hours

I’ve been a Windows user all of my computing life. Never once have I laid hands on a Mac. A few weeks ago, I received a Mac Mini from my friend Lenny. I tried to hook it up the night I got it, but it wouldn’t work. At the time, I was getting things ready to move, so I didn’t worry much about it.

Fast forward to last night. I finished setting up my new office, and decided to get the Mac up and running. I got out my new KVM switch, and hooked it up to the pc, then to the Mini. Turn on the Mini… and nothing happens. I can hear the fan running, but that’s it. It doesn’t turn on. It doesn’t “beeeeep”…. nothing. So, off I go to our private Ventrilo server, to ask Chris, Lenny and the others what I can do. After much diagnosing, Lenny thought that perhaps the RAM had come loose a bit during the shipping. I open up the Mac, pop out the RAM and re-seat it. Plug it all back in and turn it on… and BOOM! I have a working Mac Mini! I was SO stoked. I told everyone “I’ll be back… I gotta go play with it!”

After switching over via the KVM, I sat there for a moment, trying to get my bearings. I am considered to be a computer “Expert” in my field, and a “Power User”. However, I felt like a complete n00b for the first few minutes. I couldn’t figure out where to change the date and time. I couldn’t figure out how and where to change my home page on Firefox (which had been installed for me already by Lenny). I couldn’t find… ANYTHING.

It’s not that OS X isn’t great. It’s that it’s different. It’s going to take me some time to learn where things are, how they work… and even what they’re named. From the little I have done so far, I am really enjoying my Mac. What am I having the most fun with so far? Well, let’s take a look:

• iCal I am LOVING this application. As hectic as my family and work life are at times, I can already tell iCal will make it MUCH easier for me to organize and keep track of things.
• Finder. Holy YEAH, baby! I can organize my items into categories of my choosing. The Icon Preview is excellent, as well. I can look and see at a glance exactly what any given file is.
• PhotoBooth looks pretty cool already. I haven’t really used it much yet, though. I have thousands of pictures on my computers, and add more on literally a daily basis. With two gorgeous daughters and a beautiful 8 month old granddaughter… you get the idea. Being able to easily add a different background to a picture is fun, and makes for more interesting photos to send out to family and friends.
• Spaces By far… my favorite feature thus far. At any given time, I have a kazillion things open, all being flipped between and worked on. For instance, right now on my PC I have this blog open, the Picks newsletter for Chris, three other browser tabs, my calendar, my Email… and yeah. By having Spaces in OS X, I can organize what I’m doing, and get to it much easier. This thing is going to save me a ton of time, I can already tell.

I’m also enjoying many of the other features, as well. I just haven’t had time yet to get too deep into them. You can bet your bottom dollar that I will… very soon.

Everyone keeps asking me “What are you going to use it FOR?” Well heck. I don’t know. Why do I have to assign something specific to it? Why can’t I just enjoy having two separate systems, and the easy ability to switch between them when I want to? Once I’m used to it, I may just decide to dedicate my Mac use to something specific. For now, I have a nice little learning curve to drive through.

Anyone want to pass along your favorite Mac OS X tips and hints to a complete n00b? I’d sure appreciate them.