Big Mac

I've been using a Mac regularly for a few months now at work, and for the most part, it's been a pleasure.  Many things that would be hassles on Windows are simple, and "just work".  Mounting network drives, in particular, was really surprisingly easy.  I've also really appreciated the way that mousing over a window makes scrolling active in that window, without having to actually click the window - such a small thing that I didn't even realise I was missing out on with Windows until I discovered it!

I've also really enjoyed the added processing grunt that using a Mac gives you.  Admittedly, comparing my several-years-old mid-range laptop with a desktop computer isn't really fair, but the first time that I realised that I had twelve separate applications (including Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Chrome with TONS of tabs) running with no noticable slowdown was a really nice surprise!

That said, I'm not a complete convert.  The first, and most obvious, argument against Macs, from my point of view, is gaming.  Admittedly, I'm finding myself becoming more of a console gamer again now, but it does seem to be a fact that there is a vastly curtailed market for games on the Mac.  As I grow up and start using computer primarily for Serious Business, though, this may become less of a problem for me.  There's also, of course, the tinkerers argument - not that I've tried poking around too much in the guts of my work Mac for fear of making it go kablooey, but my experience with my Mum's and sister's various Apple paraphernalia has led me to think that Apple is far more shut-down and tinker-proof than other technologies.

But now we come to the main reason for this post.  There are a number of minor problems that I've had with the Mac set-up that are really irking me - especially when they're flies in such an otherwise beautifully polished ointment of interface perfection (WOW that metaphor was laboured).  It may be that there are solutions that I just haven't found it; it may be that I'm still thinking in "Windows mode" (as with my initial frustration with not being able to full-screen apps, or the "reversal" of """ and "@", which I've now come to realise is more logical - "'" should go with """!*).  Regardless, I'd enjoy the input of some Mac-y people on these issues - have you run into them, and how did you deal with them?

• The first thing that I noticed was the lack of a shortcut that I use at least five times a day in Windows - Windows + E opens a new "Windows Explorer" window (which, for utter Mac heads, is Microsoft's version of Finder).  I know Ctrl + N opens a new Finder window when Finder is the active program, but even if there were a shortcut to make Finder active (which I don't know of), that would still be two shortcuts to achieve a common task that Windows does in one.
• Literally my most used shortcut, in either setup, is Alt + Tab (or Cmd + Tab on Mac).  For those that don't know, this is the most time-saving shortcut since discovering that Tab moves focus between different inputs.  As long as you're holding down the modifier key (Alt or Cmd), after the first press of Tab a selector will cycle through icons of your active windows.  When you release the modifier key, you will switch to that program.  A quick tap of this shortcut will instantly switch you back to your last active program, and more considered use can switch you to anything you have open without needing to touch the mouse.
  I was really pleased to discover that this was present in Mac as well - and, indeed, it's more fully featured, with extra capability such as pressing q to close the highlighted program.  However, one "feature" of the Mac version really irritates me, and that's the fact that mousing over a program icon switches the focus of the switcher to that program, so that when Cmd is released, that's the program that is switched to.  Often, I'll already have a mental image of the program that I'm switching to, and will begin moving the mouse to my destination before I've even started switching programs - on Mac, that can interfere with the switch order.  I'm not arguing that users shouldn't be able to use the mouse in switching - clicking the desired icon is an obvious interface action - but I feel it should be limited to clicks, not mouseovers.  Mac users, do I need a paradigm shift, or is this a common frustration - and if so, how do I fix it?
• My next most common shortcut is Alt + Tab's little brother, Ctrl+Tab, used to switch between tabs.  On Windows, this is almost universally present wherever it's sensible - in Mac, there appears to be a 50/50 split between it and Cmd+`.
• On the subject of universality, we come to the thing that's causing me more frustration in using a Mac than all the other issues combined - the apparently arbitrary Home/End shortcuts.  Sometime pressing Home/End scrolls you to the top/bottom of a page, while leaving the cursor where it is, sometimes it takes the cursor to the beginning or end of a line.  Sometimes Cmd+Left/Right takes the cursor to the beginning or end of a line, and sometimes it moves a word left or right (as does Ctrl+Left/Right in Windows).  I can handle the ambiguity in tab-switching shortcuts, but the frequency with which these shortcuts are used in word processing means that there's absolutely no excuse not to have a consensus - or at least the opportunity to alter them (none of which I've found on Dreamweaver - which, for all that people rant about it, I've actually found to be pretty disappointing - I'm actually missing PSPad, but that's a rant for another day)

Anyway, rant over.  I'm not a Mac hater; these are all reasonably minor quibbles in an otherwise excellent experience.  Considering the performance boosts and general interface excellence, if I were going to get a laptop without gaming in mind, I'd...well, ok, first I'd get a Chromebook because the Cloud is just awesome, then I'd install Linux on an old laptop, but THEN I'd get a Macbook!

Mac users, any comments or suggestions please?

(*Punctuation nerds are having orgasms right now...)