Friday, July 20, 2012

Working with PC from Mac

"Microsoft should be proud of Apple since Apple makes the best hardware to run Windows"

I recently switched to Mac from PC thinking I will use Mac Windows RDP client to connect to Windows as my fallback option. However mac RDP experience is drastically different from windows, at the same time I don't want to go back to Windows. After lot of Googling I found the ways to get Windows experience from Mac. However I did not find a solution to map apple/command key to Windos key.

** First install CheatSheet. It's a wonderful tool displays the application sensitive shortcuts when you hold the Apple key for couple of seconds. No need to memorize all the shortcuts to begin with however I would recommend doing it.
http://www.cheatsheetapp.com/CheatSheet/

** Then start with installing mac RDC client 2.1
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/remote-desktop-client

** Launch RDC client and connect to your favorite windows machine.
** Apple  Key + 2 to goto fullscreen windows mode and come back.
** Access RDC preference menu using Apple + "," or through RDC-> Preferences.
     Goto Display and select "Fullscreen"as your Remote Desktop Size
     From Drives you can open up your Mac drives to be accessible from Windows machine. Oh ya, you  can edit your mac files from your favorite windows editor.

** Key board mapping
Windows ==> Apple equivalent
Backspace ==> Delete
Delete ==> Fn + Delete
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970299

Time to switch to MAC

I used to be a big fan of Windows since Windows 95 and I was the only one kept my pilot Windows Vista machine as my primary workstation for couple of years in my corporate environment without any support. I loved Windows 7 since it was launched as beta and have no problem working with that. I am split on Windows 8. I think it is too much for a normal Windows User to get comfortable with Windows 8. I like the Apple concept of keeping the Mobile devices including iPad for consuming web and using Macbook for the creating content. Now I am seriously thinking about ditching my PC for my Macbook Air. I had a Macbook Air for the past several months, however hardly used it since the experience is completely different and I did not get myself comfortable with the Mac environment. Every time I used my Mac, one thing attracted me, the performance and quality of hardware. I can't complain much about my PC hardware, it has Sold State Hard Drive, 4 Gig Ram, Windows 7 64bit enterprise, Intel core 2 duo processor, boots less than a minute etc, etc. However most of time 50% of my Windows PC resources consumes by the Antivirus security software, application monitor software, data protection software etc.,. Oh, not to mention, my Windows PC can read my mind. Whenever I am working on some important report, Windows as well accompany me by running its most important tasks like indexing service, Disk keeper etc. Some times Antivirus software as well joins the party by running everyday full system scan at the same time.
I do have antivirus, data protection software on my Mac, however I never felt the poor performance in it. Most of the time I sit on Chrome to support my web applications. Chrome on Windows got worst it crashes most of the time and takes about 30 seconds to launch. In Mac it takes lightening 2 seconds to launch. Not to mention, it takes about seconds to resume from sleep mode and automatically reconnects my VPN to my corporate network. I love two finger scrolling, three finger app switch, four and five finger gestures.  After working both PC & Mac, I think its time for me to switch to Mac permanently. Sure I will miss my Windows apps like TOAD, VSS, EditPlus. It's just a matter of getting myself comfortable with SQL Developer, TextMate..

PS: I wrote this blog on my Mac.