From Windows to Mac OS X: A newbie with a Mac

Ya ha pasado bastante tiempo desde que me llegó el portátil que tanto ansiaba: un MacBook de 13’3” con Mac OS X como sistema operativo, y en contra de lo que pensé en un principio, la experiencia no fue todo lo traumática que cabría esperar.

Saying that one operating system is better than another is a matter of taste, since there will always be supporters of one or another system. One thing that must be recognized is that I found Mac OS

No viruses, no spyware, no anything…

La ventaja de haber comprado un MacBook es que ya trae el Sistema Operativo (En adelante SO) con todo lo necesario para empezar a trabajar con él, y no hace falta instalar drivers, ni antivirus, ni antispywares, ni correctores de registro ni nada, lo que simplifica en gran medida su uso.

This does not mean that it is a safer OS in terms of architecture, but rather that it is a minority OS that hackers do not usually focus on, who prefer to carry out attacks that are as damaging as possible, and since almost everyone uses Windows, they program viruses for that OS.

The Mac OS X graphical interface

[![Mac OS

“Click on the image to see it larger”

The first thing you see when you enter Mac OS X is its graphical interface. Unlike the Windows interface, it presents us with the taskbar at the top of the screen, which is where the icons of the running programs are, as well as the information on the Bluetooth connection, Wifi (Airport), battery charge and clock.

“I have to clean the mailbox…”

At the bottom is the famous Mac OS X ‘Dock’, a bar where there are shortcuts to the applications we want. After having tested several of these bars for Windows XP and Windows Vista, I have to say that they do not even come close to the Mac OS X ‘Dock’, for several reasons.

• The first is that aesthetically it is much better than any of the ones available for Windows, since it shows the icons in 3 dimensions, with transparencies and reflections, giving them a more ‘fine’ and careful style.
• The second reason is that it is more functional, since we can drag the file we want to open over any icon and it will open with that program. Furthermore, in order not to overload the bar with elements, we have stacks, which allow us to see the content of a bar element (for example, a folder) by simply clicking on it.

Something that attracts attention (a lot) are the animations of the windows and their 3D effects. For example, when we minimize a window, it slides like a genie into its place on the bottom bar, and the same thing happens when we restore it.

It must be admitted that these effects are not as impressive as those of Compiz Fusion in Ubuntu, but let’s be honest, does anyone spend their time turning the cube after a week with Ubuntu? Well, I consider that the effects it brings are fair and necessary.