The art of the pre-switch

Many people talk about moving to the Mac as “the switch”, but did anyone tell you that there are a few things that you can do beforehand for free that will make your transition that much more seamless? Well I have compiled a few of them into this handy blog entry.
1) Firefox
Chances are you will want to use this browser instead of Safari after you make the switch anyway. So why not take the opportunity to learn it now if you have not already? It’s free and certainly more secure than Internet Explorer. Not to mention it is easy to export your bookmarks for transfer to your new Mac.
2) Email
If you use web-based email you can just skip this step as you can just use any web browser. The Mail application functions much like Outlook express and sorts you mail quite similarly. I had no trouble learning to adapt to Mail.
3)iTunes
Download and convert all your music to iTunes format so all you have to do is copy over your iTunes folder to your new Mac and you are done!
4) Look around
Many of your current favorite applications have OSX equivalents! Skype, AOL instant messenger,Yahoo messenger, OpenOffice, Azureus and Google Earth all have OSX versions. Not to mention that your mac comes with many alternatives to the software you use built right in.
5) Learn about Bootcamp and VMware Fusion
Now with leopard you can have your cake and eat it too. The next version of OSX called “Leopard” has built in support so you can dual boot Windows XP or Vista on your new Mac. This allows you to simply restart your machine and start right up into Windows if you find something you just can’t do on a Mac. In addition you can also purchase a product called VMware Fusion ($59.99 US at time of publication) and run Windows in a window within OSX. (Imagine picture in picture) Did you get a blue screen of death? No problem, simply close the window and return to OSX.

I hope these tips helps you as much as it did me when I switched. If you have any questions leave me a comment and I will do my best to help you out. For more information on making the switch take a look at Apple’s website. Apple - How to move to Mac.
-Spencer Nick a.k.a TachyonXero

[tags]OSX, Windows, Switch,pre-switch,[/tags]