Rating: 
Summary: Windows to French???
Review: A must have. Before I got my new 17" power book my freind gave me David Coursey book. I'm glad he did it, was great reading while I waited and waited for my new mac. I found the book to be great, up until I had to become interactive with the computer I didn't have yet. it was clear and very easy to read and of course the switch storys are great entertainment. After I got my new system is where the real help came in. I've only had to call APL-Care three times, without the this book I would have had a lot more hold time I'm sure. I used Move2Mac (as recommended) to move my data, which did a great job on most of it, I would recommend it also. I had to move my address book the hard way but found it not that tough, again with following the books step-by-step guide it was very simple for me. The book is well worth the money, it saved me a great deal of time.
Rating:
Summary: Windows to French???
Review: A must have. Before I got my new 17" power book my freind gave me David Coursey book. I'm glad he did it, was great reading while I waited and waited for my new mac. I found the book to be great, up until I had to become interactive with the computer I didn't have yet. it was clear and very easy to read and of course the switch storys are great entertainment. After I got my new system is where the real help came in. I've only had to call APL-Care three times, without the this book I would have had a lot more hold time I'm sure. I used Move2Mac (as recommended) to move my data, which did a great job on most of it, I would recommend it also. I had to move my address book the hard way but found it not that tough, again with following the books step-by-step guide it was very simple for me. The book is well worth the money, it saved me a great deal of time.
Rating: 
Summary: Lazy and sloppy
Review: Had this book been titled 'My Switch to Mac, a Personal Odyssey', it would merit two or three stars. But it's titled 'Mac OS-X for Windows Users', and with such a title one expects much more than this book deliversThe author is lazy and sloppy at all turns. Other reviewers have mentioned the 'filler' material such as pro-Apple testimonials from 'Switchers', and the author's habit of saying 'this should work, although I didn't try it'. But also take note of the screenshots, which often include oddball icons that the author explains away as software he happens to have installed on his machine, but isn't relevant to the current discussion. It's as if he didn't want to spend the $1000 for a clean-install machine and start from ground zero, as a new user in his target audience would, so he took screenshots from his everyday box instead. I've used Windows for many years and recently bought an iMac. This book provided little of value to me. There's a good book still 'waiting to be written' on the subject. For instance, when I first tried my iMac, I was puzzled that when I killed a window, it didn't kill the app. There's still a black triangle in the dock indicating the process is still alive and eating up RAM. In Windows, you click the X, and the app is dead. So what do I do on the iMac? Baffled, I opened a terminal window, looked at 'top', and 'kill'ed all the junk by process-ID. But I thought 'this can't be the best way', and it isn't. Among other 'better' approaches, you can hold down the mouse button on the dock icon and a menu with Quit comes up. But this is exactly the sort of useful explanation the book lacks.
Rating:
Summary: Lazy and sloppy
Review: Had this book been titled 'My Switch to Mac, a Personal Odyssey', it would merit two or three stars. But it's titled 'Mac OS-X for Windows Users', and with such a title one expects much more than this book delivers The author is lazy and sloppy at all turns. Other reviewers have mentioned the 'filler' material such as pro-Apple testimonials from 'Switchers', and the author's habit of saying 'this should work, although I didn't try it'. But also take note of the screenshots, which often include oddball icons that the author explains away as software he happens to have installed on his machine, but isn't relevant to the current discussion. It's as if he didn't want to spend the $1000 for a clean-install machine and start from ground zero, as a new user in his target audience would, so he took screenshots from his everyday box instead. I've used Windows for many years and recently bought an iMac. This book provided little of value to me. There's a good book still 'waiting to be written' on the subject. For instance, when I first tried my iMac, I was puzzled that when I killed a window, it didn't kill the app. There's still a black triangle in the dock indicating the process is still alive and eating up RAM. In Windows, you click the X, and the app is dead. So what do I do on the iMac? Baffled, I opened a terminal window, looked at 'top', and 'kill'ed all the junk by process-ID. But I thought 'this can't be the best way', and it isn't. Among other 'better' approaches, you can hold down the mouse button on the dock icon and a menu with Quit comes up. But this is exactly the sort of useful explanation the book lacks.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money or time.
Review: I am a life long PC user who also has 3 Macs. I just purchase 2 of the hottest new Macs for my video edit suite and saw this book on the shelf and grabbed it without opening it. I actually thought it would contain some useful information about the OS X and help me get up to speed easier. Foolish me for judging a book by its cover. This author should be ashamed of himself. The only thing worse than the content is the writing. I do recommend this publisher however for anyone who cannot write and doesn't have much to say because clearly they don't care either. Bottom line - I purchased the Mac! I don't need to be validated or praised as a "switcher." The book is full of Mac ads and commercials and who needs that. What I wanted was to know how the Mac and PC are the same and how to get the job done in OS X not an assemblage of why the PC is inferior. BTW: I don't write reviews but this book is so bad I felt it was a must.
Rating: 
Summary: A good first attempt
Review: I enjoy reading David's Anchor Desk articles and I recall the editorials which eventually led to the creation of this book. I think that readers will find that the testimonials and David's own experiences provide compelling reasons to make the switch to Mac OS X. However, as a "switcher's guide" this book falls short. Besides being outdated, which can happen quickly with any computer book, it is a bit shallow and incomplete. For starters, David needs to consider a home network as a means of transferring data from a PC to a Mac and not just using third party software and cables or burning lots of CDs. A big concern for many people is how to transfer their data from Outlook to Entourage and if you do a Google search you can find information about how other people made this work. David would score big in a revised edition if he could try out some of these techniques and write about them as well. There needs to be a better discussion about the differences between OS X and Windows XP. I am currently trying to learn OS X on an upgraded G3 and have been confused about installing applications and making them easily accessible to other user accounts, as some applications installed by one user were not in the applications folder for another user. In fact, a good switcher's guide would help me with the differences between multiple user profiles on XP and OS X. I would like to see a revised edition of this book. David should search the newsgroups and other Mac websites and see what type of issues are commonly brought up by newbies. He should read the other reviews on Amazon.com and take to heart their opinions and suggestions. And he should remove what essentially is his own user manual for someone else's PC to Mac software. Despite all of this, David's book has still managed to help me decide to switch to Mac with my next PC purchase. Well, David and Symatec also, whose System Works 2004 install has all but crippled my PC.
Rating:
Summary: Moderately helpful
Review: I purchased this prior to actually purchasing my iBook and it was helpful in arranging my files on my PC desktop for the transfer to the new notebook. Beyond that, though, the information is fairly basic.
If you have any experience with computers, the transfer is readily accomplished without the software program that is promoted quite heavily in the book (and which the author had a hand in).
Rating:
Summary: useless for competent computer users
Review: If MAC is truly so much superior to the PC, then teach me how to use if and it will be self evident that it is a superior system. Don't spend a third of the book reprinting commercials from the apple website. I want to know how to use the MAC. I don't need to read stories about how the MAC saved Christmas. I was expecting a bit more substance, such as how to take full advantage of the Apple proprietary programs and to have a better understanding of how to exploit the MAC interface. Contrary to the advertising downloading files and organizing them using the MAC is not as intuitive as apple claims. Strangely enough, MAC OSX reminds me a lot of the interface for DOS 5.0. In order for me to embrace the advantages of MAC, I need to know how to use it, not be converted. This is a computer, not a religion. There are a lot of better MAC OSX books out there. I recommend MAC OSX, the missing manual. It actually goes in depth and explains how to use the apple proprietary programs. This book is a waste of time and money. It is only slightly more useful than the manual that came with the computer.
Rating:
Summary: Pipe dream
Review: It's funny how Apple diehards really believe Windows users switch to Mac OS. Let's see. Exactly a year ago Mac OS had 3% of PC market. This past weekend Barron's reported 2%. Hmm, who switched?
Rating:
Summary: Pipe dream
Review: It's funny how Apple diehards really believe Windows users switch to Mac OS. Let's see. Exactly a year ago Mac OS had 3% of PC market. This past weekend Barron's reported 2%. Hmm, who switched?
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