How to Turn Your PC into a Mac 492
An anonymous reader writes "CNet is running a Mac fanboy's idea of a nightmare feature entitled 'Mock OS X: Five ways to make your PC more like a Mac'. While the idea of turning my PC into a Mac-like machine does get my juices flowing, I'm not sure the user experience would be exactly the same but I'm going to spend this afternoon trying it out anyway. "To borrow a metaphor from Spartacus, some people like oysters and some people like snails. Except what if there was a way to make your snail do some of the cool things oysters can do, like make pearls? And what if you could make your PC do some of the cool stuff that Macs do so well?"" Seems to me that this would be a lot easier if step one was install linux...
DIY? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:DIY? (Score:5, Insightful)
Less is more. War is peace. 2+2=5.
Whatever.
I'm currently typing this on a Mac, but seriously, gaming has always been way better on the PC than on the Mac, and while OSX comes with better entry-level multimedia-creation tools, on the professional front, I can't think of a single OSX application that doesn't have a comparable Windows-based competitor. It's not like anybody serious about movie or music making would use iMovie or GarageBand, anyway.
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If you mean Windows, say "Windows".
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I said PC because I meant PC. I didn't specifically mention Linux, but when talking about games, I said "PC". To me, that includes Linux, because you can run a lot of Windows games on Linux using Wine. I only referred to Windows when talking about professional multimedia creation tools, because that is an area where Linux is seriously lacking.
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I run both on both Windows and OSX, and I've never had a problem.
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You don't know what you're talking about. I am a professional, and among the other professionals that I associate with, Pro Tools is the clear industry standard among a certain group, namely, those who do more recording than they do composing. Among composers, Logic, Cubase, and Sonar have about equal distribution, with a few others like Digital Performer thrown in. I do like Log
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Well, within the music industry, recording of bands at record studios tends to be done on Pro Tools, partly because it's rock solid, and partly because it's what everybody else uses. If you're recording the Axl Rose / Slash reunion album, and you only get one take before they kill each other, you don't want there to be a glitch that ruins the take. Also, in a record studio, you often have
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I'm not an Apple user; I run XP and Mandriva dual-boot and don't even have an iPod, but that summary was a troll. And the word "fanboy" is flamebait whether you're commenting on Apple, Microsoft, Linux, Be, Sun, or any ot
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Re:600 US$ Mac (Score:4, Insightful)
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Why not save up a bit more. You could get a nice iMac.....and with VMWare...well, then you'd have the best of all worlds. You could run OSX apps, you could run windows stuff virtually, and you have a pretty easy run with open source software on OSX too.
This way with a little more $ upfront, you have all the OS'es you want to run, all the apps you will need for awhile, and a system that actually wil
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WTF (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple 'wow' factor (Score:2, Insightful)
The thing that I like about most Apple 'wow' factors is they're non-intrusive. Flipping between screens I don't want a 1 second visualization. I do it constantly and it'd get annoying and in my way. When I switch users. I don't mind that extra second because I do it once and it's nice to show that I'm actually switching users.
A better idea... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Anyway, Yeah: If you want to use MacOS, at $129, it not much more than the cheaper OEM windows, and it's certainly better than the non-OEM, or higher-end OEM Windows. Add in the effort to run it on non-mac hardware, and some time+effort, and you have yourself MacOS.
Re:A better idea... (Score:5, Funny)
Drugs, gambling, and prostitution are are illegal in mine, but that never stopped me from smoking pot, making bets, or getting laid. [slashdot.org] In fact, my favorite hooker lost a bet and now owes me a joint and a blowjob.
If my politicians weren't for sale to the highest bidder I'd have a bit of respect for the law. If the government wants my respect they're going to have to be a bit more respectable. If the USA ever stops being a plutocracy I'll obey the law.
-mcgrew
Snails and oysters... not a moral choice (Score:4, Informative)
Antoninus: Yes.
C: Snails?
A: No.
C: Do you consider the eating of oysters to be moral and the eating of snails to be immoral?
A: No, master.
C: Of course not. Its all a matter of taste, isnt it?
A: Yes, master.
C: And taste is not the same as appetite and therefore not a question of morals, is it?
A: It could be argured so, master.
C: Um, thatll do. My robe, Antoninus. Ah, my taste includes both oysters and snails.
Or how sexual preferences can become a topic in a Mac / PC comparison...
Re:Snails and oysters... not a moral choice (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Snails and oysters... not a moral choice (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Snails and oysters... not a moral choice (Score:4, Funny)
At first they won't react and understand the obvious implications, but don't worry, this will kick off a thinking process ...
Then, a couple of months later, your father might probe "... hmm just let's discuss about your computing plans. Do you ever plan to buy a computer? Just don't buy the first computer that you might find on the shelf... yadadi yadada... if you plan to buy a PC or <hushy voice> a Mac?<hushy voice> carefully think about whether that box is worthwhile..."
And then you can just blurt out, "yes, indeed, I prefer Macs, but never dared to admit so..."
Way #6 (Score:2, Insightful)
This would be a good thing for Apple (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder if they could make it work differently today -- if they stipulate that the manufacturers couldn't make any hardware over $500 or so. Just to catch the low-end market for marketshare but not having the support headaches and losses that cheap manufacturers often bring.
Even in the PC market there are higher-end manufacturers (Lenovo/IBM laptops) so why not apple? With the price ceiling in the contract, I can't imagine the other manufacturers will put out a pretty package that will compete with Apple directly but one for budget conscious consumers that Apple could never have hoped to catch anyway.
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What about the other way around? (Score:5, Interesting)
My mother despises MacOS and can't "figure anything out." Now while I don't care for MacOS myself I tried to explain some things over the phone to her so that she would at least be able to use it for the time being until my well-meaning father can figure out what to do to fix things for her. She pretty much was being unreasonable about the whole thing and said over and over, "I'm 57 years old, I don't want to learn something else."
My question for all of you is how, when I'm there at Christmas, do I make MacOS X more like Windows so that she's more comfortable with using the OS?
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Now you've paid for a pretty computer but you'll now have to do a lot of unnecessary work to modify or replace the OS. I'd suggest installing Windows XP and be done with it.
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Start by adding a cronjob that crashes the machine every 2.5 hours.
Second thing to do is to install some spyware.
Finally, you want to buy her a more-than-one-button mouse.
Good luck!
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Re:What about the other way around? (Score:5, Insightful)
Install BootCamp with Windows XP.
However, if you're looking to keep her on MacOS because of the security or something else, then you'll need to figure out what specifically she's missing from Windows. Often, with casual users, it's just interface stuff that throws them for a loop, and that can be pretty easy to solve. Does she miss contextual menus (i.e., right-clicking in Windows?)? Get her a two-button mouse or show her the multi-touch trackpad capabilities (like two-fingered click = right-click). Does she miss the Start menu? Set up a folder in the dock with her favorite stuff.
Of course it may be that she just doesn't like using computers, and is using the MacOS/Windows thing as an excuse to avoid them...
Re:What about the other way around? (Score:5, Funny)
on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving addedItems
repeat with anItem in addedItems
tell application "Finder"
display dialog "Are you sure you want to proceed?" buttons ["Allow", "Deny"] default button (random number (1)) + 1
end tell
end repeat
end adding folder items to
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Applescript is great... it is also amazingly weird.
Yet another mystery of life.
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B.
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Print this out on a color printer and tape it to her screen:
Windows Emulator for MAC OSX [weblogs.com]
Re:What about the other way around? (Score:5, Interesting)
I had to put up with tons of phone calls to support windows, clean of viruses, etc. my mother and father's windows computers. One of my main tasks when I came home to visit was "Look at the computer for a while", which means try and make it run like new.
I bought them a Mac about 2 years ago. At first, I got the same response. Endless whining about not wanting to learn something new. I simply told them that I was their computer "advisor and repairman", this was a lower maintenance, lower risk machine and if they chose to go back to windows they'd be on their own from here on out. Stick with mac and I'll be their free tech support bitch again.
Took a month or so, but now they'd never use windows again. In 2.5 years, I've received 4 phone calls. Two of them were a broke cable modem. The cable company kept telling her "it was a mac thing", but a surge had killed the modem. After insisting they replace the modem, everything worked. One of the calls was to ask me how to get from Hotmail to Gmail + Apple Mail.app. The third was to ask how to connect the internet, which used to be quite the support call with windows. Yes, I can do it quickly but trying to get a 55 year old woman who learned computers relatively recently to "Go to start, Right click Network Icon, blah blah" proved quite the trial often involving a couple of reboots and head scratching on why the hell it wouldn't come up. With her new Mac my only support advise was "Plug in the wire that looks like a huge phone plug on the end into the only place it'll go on the back of the computer".
My only point being, she comes to you for advice because she knows no better. If she's going to be stubborn, then return in kind. Just tell her you'll never help with computer issues again if she doesn't put minimal effort into learning her new one (I mean really, 99% of the effort is learning two new icons: Safari & Mail). Little does she know you won't really be doing any tech support whether she stays with mac or not. ;)
Re:What about the other way around? (Score:4, Interesting)
I successfully converted my mom to use a Mac Mini this summer. One time she mistakenly hid the dock. She panicked and called me, but she didn't know what it's called. All she said was "the icons disappeared."
I ssh'd into her computer and ran OSXvnc server (now Vine server) tunneled over ssh. I noticed the problem and fixed it for her on the phone while she watched what I was doing. The most difficult part was to figure out what her IP address was in the first place.
She didn't have to learn any new icons. Both Skype and Firefox icons look the same. She uses Yahoo! Mail and Gmail, so she didn't have to learn anything new.
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Also, what exactly doesn't she like about it? Most older folks I know of who have switched to a Mac tend to have a tough time for the first week or two, and then generally fall into the swing of things. The biggest hump is realizing that MacOS and Windows are not 1:1 equivalents -- there are some Windows-y things that you wouldn't want to do in MacOS, and others that you wouldn't want to do in Windows...
But for th
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from a boomer here (Score:2, Informative)
She sounds like she just wants to run some applications and *not* an OS. Which is what most people do. Just show her how to run the probably few applications she needs, after that there isn't any need to "figure out" anything. You see this all the time really, business or personal, people learn a few applications and that's it, the rest of the machine never gets used (like bloated linux DVD distros, who the
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That's silly (Score:3, Informative)
The best way to make your Windows more "like a Mac" is to install Linux for its stability and freedom from shitware. That said, if I ever buy another whole computer (which I haven't done since 1987, I just upgrade parts as needed) It will be a Mac.
I'm amused by the car commercial where they're touting its bluetooth, "powered by Microsoft". No way in hell I'd buy one, just because it's "(under)powered by Microsoft." ! I've been using Microsoft's OSes and programs for a quarter of a century, and they used to be the best quality out there. The quality has been declining for all that time, IMO right now Microsoft's OSes and programs are by far the very worst either on or off the market.
-mcgrew
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People choose Macs for stability and freedom from viruses and other shitware (the reasons we wipe Windows and install Linux) and because some high end graphics programs either aren't ported to Windows or are ported badly./
Of course many of us run Windows free of viruses, malware, and shitware, and with high end graphics program that are ported to Windows, and ported well. We edit video, create books, posters, illustrations, animations, etc. We also realize it's no longer the early 90s.
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Really? I think you meant people switch to Macs for the illusion of stability and freedom from viruses. I've had XP running for 5 years with only AVG and it's firewall, and I've had no problem. The more people switch to Macs, the more they will be targetted by malware authors and that illusion of security will fade. To summarize: the problem with security, while helped by an insecure OS, is almost always due to oblivious users.
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Look man, Windows security _was_ horrible.... nonexistent. Mac OS X and Linux are not in some security Dark Age just because they haven't had widespread attacks. If/when malware and viruses come to these platforms, they are plenty prepared. There wont be a repeat on the same scale as some older Windows attacks. Vista will have an easier time th
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Don't get me wrong, I love the IDEA of Linux and Mac OS. But, the times I've tried it, the actual PRACTICE was a nightmare. It only made me aware, for the first time, of just how many of my favorite applications are Windows-only.
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That said, if I ever buy another whole computer (which I haven't done since 1987, I just upgrade parts as needed) It will be a Mac.
Be careful. I bought a Mac laptop because I couldn't stand the thought of living in a Vista world and I actually have to do things with my computer so Linux isn't an option. Now the Mac is starting to take over my entire computing life. I have put my work-provided computer in my filing cabinet because that MacBook plays better with the Windows domain than Windows, hits the wi-fi when I'm elsewhere on campus every time, and comes home and goes right to work here as well. It's astonishing how good it is
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I didn't RTFA (I must not be new here) but people don't choose Macs because of any of the Apple's features. People choose Macs for stability and freedom from viruses and other shitware (the reasons we wipe Windows and install Linux) and because some high end graphics programs either aren't ported to Windows or are ported badly.
While its true macs are comparatively far more stable and free from viruses when compared to windows, assuming they are 100% free of this stuff is being naive. Not to defend windows or attack the mac or anything, but the point is that macs aren't perfect, but they are good. Unfortunately their price tags keep most people away, why pay double for a mac when you can get a regular PC? Course with more linux pcs for sale which undercut even windows machines by 200 bucks, such as that walmart everex machi
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Really?? I guess I must have been imagining it, then, when I chose to use Macs due to their superior UI, their Unix core, their high quality bundled applications, their superior hardware, etc., etc.
Duh.
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I call bullshit on that. In 1981, when MSDOS first came out there were plenty of advanced UNIX systems with multi-user capability, multitasking, memory protection, device abstraction etc. In 1984 the Mac was released which had a user friendly graphical UI and multimedia abilities while windows wouldn't be common for another 8 years. Now wi
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There is some truth to that. TFA featured Windows equivalents of the Dock, Exposé, Dashboard, Spaces, and -- for lack of a better term -- window & desktop skins. None of those will convince Average User to pick any OS over another.
UI Enhancements (Score:2, Informative)
Pardon my ignorance but (Score:2)
-mcgrew
Where's Hackintosh? (Score:2)
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Fiberglass lotus body (Score:5, Funny)
Up In Smoke (Score:2)
-mcgrew
"one issue divides the world more than any other" (Score:2)
Re:"one issue divides the world more than any othe (Score:2)
Not really. The true technological ground breakers in any industry often don't have near the market share of the lower end brands. BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes. Of course, we could look at Apple Inc. as an OEM rather then an OS vendor and in that case they're the 3rd largest in the world.
misses the point (Score:5, Insightful)
Simply skinning XP with an' aqua' style skin and adding a dock does not make it anything like OS X. Any more than putting a Ferrari shell on top of a ford doesn't make it a Ferrari.
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What makes Mac OS X special is not the glitz and glamour on the surface, it's what's underneath. The Cocoa framework for Objective C is head and shoulders above the MFC/Win32 programming approach. it's built on BSD and Mach and is now officially a Unix certified OS.
Wow, after all this time, I never realized that my Aunt Jemima preferred Macs because of their elegant architecture and Unix underpinnings! I shall now defer to her superior taste in matters of operating systems AND choice of maple syrup!
Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow, Windows can do it for $$$s (Score:2)
gDesklets (for the old school method) or others to put in a docker, Slight Mac top-bar look with Gnome defaults, loads of various OS X cloned themes for Metacity ("Tish" comes to mind, but there are pinstripe, graphite and all other styles), Compiz to give you the 'wow' of desktop cubes (which you can crank up to 32x32 if you want) and fancy hidable widget layers etc. You can even move the buttons to the other side of the title bar quite easily.
And then after a month or so you de
Wait, that's no mere Apple fanboyism! (Score:2, Informative)
I also like how they avoid mentioning that you could just crack uxtheme.dll yourself, which is what FlyAKiteOS does, and theme to your heart's conten
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Yeah that sounds easy. Out of interest, are you serious?
Good Christ, that's painful (Score:3, Funny)
I've used most of these programs... (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe I'm Jaded (Score:2)
OK, I'm a Mac user. Honestly, I tried to make my old Linux laptop more Mac-like even though it was not a very powerful laptop. It worked... and it worked quite well for my needs, but honestly it was problematic. After I finally replaced it with a Macbook Pro I discovered that m
Been there, done that (Score:2)
This has all been possible for a PC for at least a couple of years now. Windows isn't the be-all-end-all of the PC world, even as much as M
Missing the point (Score:2)
Yes, the UI of the Mac is very shiny compared to Windows. But all these applications do is layer crap on top of the Windows UI. They don't actually address what makes OS X so exciting to me, a recent switcher (coming up on 1 month).
It's the architecture of the OS and the services it, and the applications it comes with, provides. It's Spotlight. It's the integration of my apps and data. It's Delicious Library starting up for the first time, checking my address book, and automatically
I know it's gonna sound weird (Score:2)
I know it's gonna sound weird but the only feature I envy to the Mac OS X interface is desktop icons starting from the right side of the desktop instead of the left, well this and seeing drives mounted on the desktop.
For some reason it makes the whole difference to me, yet of all the customisation utilities I've tried, some would allow you to "save" the icon placement on the desktop, but none would allow you to have them automatically places to the right..
Printer friendly??? (Score:2)
Can I run my MacOS Apps (Score:2, Insightful)
Windows, Linux (Score:2)
And "install Linux"? Please. At work we run Linux desktops, Red Hat w/ Gnome. How much research would it take to find out why I can't copy and paste image data as well as text? How many decades has Mac and Windows been having clipboards that handled both seamlessly? (Ever since The Unix Haters Handbook [microsoft.com] pointed out how the clipboard does a fair chunk of what I'd oth
One of our favourite features of OS X is the dock" (Score:3, Insightful)
"Looking" like is not "more like" (Score:4, Insightful)
Linux can run IE, that doesn't make it "more like windows."
an MS fanboy's misunderstanding of Mac OS X (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, Expose is nice, and the dock is better than the stupid taskbar (hey, what isn't?). But that isn't the point.
The really good things about OS X, that you can't emulate with a couple shareware tools, or choosing an OS X like skin/theme. What sold me on OS X is that things just work. It really is that simple. Plug in some USB device, it just works. No annoying "looky, hardware!" wizard. You need something, anything (text, picture, diagram) from one app in another - drag & drop. Just works. On windos, it sometimes does, sometimes doesn't and the rest of the time gives you something you didn't expect (like the URL of the picture, or weirdly formatted text).
The list goes on pretty much endless, and it all boils down to the computer doing what you want and expect it to do, instead of being a fairly accurate simulation of a wild beast that needs taming before you can use it, and where you should still never let your guard down.
And that is the point, the nice GUI and useful additions are just icing on the cake.
Tried mac for a while now back with windows. (Score:5, Interesting)
I hadn't used a mac in many years. I used to be an Amiga guy. So I really wanted to be alternative pc guy again. I really wanted to be convinced to switch to mac. I wasn't. Maybe my brain has just turned to mush from the years of being mainstream pc-clone guy.
What I liked about mac: the hardware is simply a work of modern art. Its a fabulously engineered machine. If I could afford it, I might buy one just for that reason and run windows on it. Unfortunately I cannot. Macos is, obviously, at its core, a superior OS. Sure its based on UNIX which was invented what, a whole decade before windows? So for what it does, it does extremely well. I love the near instant ON stand by mode, even though it runs the battery down it can last days. Dashboard is kinda cool, but I rarely used it, same thing for expose. Installing apps is great, usually just copying a folder into applications. Nice. Parallels is genious, especially coherance mode. Why can't the windows and linux versions do that?
Fortunately for the mac, parallels is the only thing that made the mac bearable. Strangely, windows seemed to run better in parallels that it did directly on a pc (starting up faster, etc). Maybe that is just a testament to the apple hardware. But I simply couldn't do without some windows software I have grown used to, not to mention just having a much wider selection of things when I go looking for new software. I hate the finder, its worse than windows built in file manager, which also sucks, so I use directory opus (so I am making my pc more Amiga-like). This is huge for me.
What I like about windows: the task bar. Sorry but I just cannot get used to the all-iconic mac ways. The dock or whatever its called is just confusing to me. I hate it. I like the textual windows task bar. I like the window previews in vista. I like the start menu even though it requires constant management to keep it from becoming cluttered by every program installing stuff on it. I like the menus on the windows not at the top of the screen (I've always hated that on the mac). windows runs on cheap hardware.
Summary:
Mac pros: what it does do, it does better. Parallels. Easy application install. Standby that works. Smooth but otherwise useless bling. Beautiful hardware. More secure.
Mac cons: expen$ive, feels like a toy with limited options to protect me from myself, limited software selection
Windows pros: task bar, cheap, more software, doesn't limit your options, directory opus file manager
Windows cons: grossly inefficient design, buggy, ugly, standby is worthless, insecure, too long between major updates.
* note: vista is largely excluded for me. It's total F*cking crap and I am about to revert to xp. I admire the concept behind the new composited desktop (an Idea I thought of years ago, and apparently isn't that hard to implement since linux and mac both have it). In theory, readyboost is neat idea. Doesn't seem to help though. If I had the choice between only Vista and Macos, I might choose macos, but only because I can run XP in parallels on the mac.
yeah. you *can* put a lipstick on a pig. (Score:4, Funny)
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Try AusLogics Disk Defrag [auslogics.com]
Some Slashdotter pointed it out to me a few weeks ago, and I'm grateful - it's the best defragger I've found for NTFS, and it's free.
It's a good thing for Slashdot that we can add some value in the comments, 'cause there's bugger-all in dumb fluff like TFA.
ntfsprogs (Score:2)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs
Not entirely user-friendly, but pretty safe.
Re:#6 - duct tape the right mouse button (Score:5, Informative)
Every Mac desktop now comes standard with a Mighty Mouse. It has two regular mouse buttons, plus the ability to squeeze the sides of the mouse for a 3rd button. It also has a mini trackball on top that allows the user to scroll in two directions and click it for a 4th button. Every button on the Mighty Mouse is fully configurable within Mac OS X.
In addition, even before multi-button mice were standard issue, it's not as if they were ever really needed in Mac OS. Right-clicking is just not all that common. Mac OS is just not designed around the right-click the way Windows is.
Even further... if you didn't want a Mighty Mouse, or if you have a Mac that didn't come with one, any standard USB mouse will work on a Mac, so you can have as many buttons and wheels as you want.
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And how is my mother supposed to learn this? Right-click is non-destructive (unlike several meta-click combinations on the Mac) and it takes seconds to discover.
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Re:honestly - where's the OSX86? (Score:5, Funny)