OS X

A few months ago I got another call from a friend, giddy as a schoolgirl, telling me they got a Mac.  I’m not sure what it is about these machines:  It’s not like switching from Honda to Volkswagen.  People who get their first Mac act like their life just changed: their first baby may have just been born but they’re asking me what to do to their Mac.  They’re teenagers again, who just bought their first car.  Freaks. (Or was I the same way back in the last ice age when I got my first mac?) No matter.  This is not a social studies course.  I get questions about “what to do first” on a new Mac, so I’ll address them here.

But first a correction.  People seem to “switch” to mac these days.  I’m personally not keen on that word choice.  ”Switch” implies a fairly dramatic (if not major) change.  You switch a light off or on going from darkness to light or vice versa, for example.  I’m guessing the Apple marketing geniuses love this idea that you’re putting something behind you, switching to something new and exciting.  But I think it’s more of a shift. Like shifting from 2nd to 3rd: you’re still driving the same car on the same road, but you’re moving better now.  Apple goes to lengths to remind us that we can now run Windows on a Mac, so even when you’re switching, you don’t have to, really.  Parenthetically, I know only few people who run Windows on their Mac, and they have specific requirements such as server software that require Internet Explorer.  Even Windows devotees will tell you not to run IE but I’ll again leave this philosophical tangent for a later time, like after a few martinis at Old Ebbitt.

One last thing by way of introduction: this is not purely an entry-level “top ten” list on how to use the Mac.  There are plenty of these.  I’m assuming most of you have some, even minimal familiarity with OS X by now, have installed the software updates (your Mac will have told you to anyway), and are able to use Safari to get to this article.  If you don’t, follow along anyway…but if you are not yet comfortable with a one-button mouse, I suggest browsing Apples Mac 101.   

Now on to step 2.

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Google Chrome

Today on Google’s Blog, it was announced that Google will launch in 100 countries a brand spankin’ new browser and it’s called…
drum roll please…

Google Chrome

Aw yeah!  Aren’t we all excited?  Well for us website designers in DC, well at least this one that is, not so much.

“So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.”

Lets translate the subtext - we’re doing this here at Google, because we can.  We own the world’s largest market share in online search services, lets get the last mile going with a spiffy browser.

“We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we’re committed to continuing on their path. We’ve used components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox, among others — and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.”

Well, it is interesting to note that they making all of their code open source.  We’ll see how this plays out.  In the meantime, here’s yet another browser us web guys are going to have to test for… and surely there will be bugs.

Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser