1. Use the excellent and free NTFS-3G driver
2. Buy Paragon Software’s Paragon NTFS

I’ve been using the NTFS-3G driver myself for quite some time. It works as advertised: Install it and you can read and write to NTFS-formatted drives with ease. These drives are integrated right into the Finder, appearing just like Mac-standard HFS+ disks. This is the method I used to assign custom drive icon for my Boot Camp volume and USB drives, for example.

Note: Snow Leopard’s NTFS driver is read/write capable. See my post, How To Write To Windows NTFS Drives In Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”

This post is part of my series focused on Apple OS X tips and tricks.

• Access NTFS Volumes On Your Mac
• Clean Up Your Mac! Essential OS X Tidiness Tools and Techniques
• How To Move OS X Time Machine Backups To A New Disk
• Hallelujah! OS X Can Reduce PDF File Size!
• Custom Drive Icons in Mac OS X
• OS X Custom Drive Icons 2: Boot Camp and NTFS

NTFS is a userspace (FUSE) driver, so installing it requires the installation of mac-fuse as well. It’s been nicely packaged for install over at MacNTFS-3G, or you can install it with MacPorts, along with lots of other great UNIX software.

Paragon NTFS functions similarly to NTFS-3G. The latest versions also include an HFS+ driver for Windows, allowing your Boot Camp instance to read your Mac drive, which is pretty cool. I was initially interested in Paragon’s software, thinking it would be more stable and supported than the open source NTFS-3G. But at $40, it’s hard to justify the cost when a free alternative is available. Once I tried the free version from Giveaway-of-the-Day, I know I would have felt cheated if I had spent the money on it. The MacNTFS-3G package is so nicely integrated, there is really no need to fear it. And I’ve had no trouble with it in over a year of use.

The Paragon Giveaway didn’t include the HFS+ driver for Windows, but reports are that Apple will introduce a similar driver with Snow Leopard. I think I’m liking free and bundled software more and more!

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Access NTFS Volumes On Your Mac
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Yup, my Boot Camp drive icon is customized, too!

In my last post, I discussed the simple but confusing steps required to add custom icons to Mac OS X drives. I mentioned that there were some tricks to getting custom icons on some drives, however, including Boot Camp and NTFS disks. This week, I’ll show how to customize these as well.

There are two core problems with customizing drive icons for certain volumes:

1. OS X can’t directly write to anything but HFS+ and FAT, and this includes writing icons
2. OS X needs a special resource on the drive to indicate that the custom icon should be used, and only HFS+ supports this

But it’s easy enough to get around these limitations. Apple takes care of number 2, and we can cover number 1 in one of two ways.

This post is part of my series focused on Apple OS X tips and tricks.

• Access NTFS Volumes On Your Mac
• Clean Up Your Mac! Essential OS X Tidiness Tools and Techniques
• How To Move OS X Time Machine Backups To A New Disk
• Hallelujah! OS X Can Reduce PDF File Size!
• Custom Drive Icons in Mac OS X
• OS X Custom Drive Icons 2: Boot Camp and NTFS

Techie Bits

Booooooring generic USB drive icon in OS X

Old versions of Mac OS stored lots of data (aka “resources”) in the resource fork of a file, including icon graphics. However, this became a problem with the advent of networking and cross-platform computing, since no other popular personal computing platform supported two-fork files. OS X moves most resources into the data fork – although resource forks still exist, they are rarely used.

However, it appears to me that although the “icns” data for a drive icon is stored in the data fork of the .VolumeIcon.icns file, Apple still uses a pointer in the resource fork of the root directory of the drive to tell OS X to use that icon. In other words, when a drive is mounted, OS X seems to look in the resource fork of “.” for a flag that says “use the icon in .VolumeIcon.icns” before it will use the icon. I’m not sure this is the case, but I do know that .VolumeIcon.icns has no resource fork (even on HFS+), but it requires a special resource file on other filesystems.

Since only HFS and HFS+ support resource forks, this is a problem. Apple gets around this by saving resource fork data in files with “._” prepended to their name. So the resource fork of “index.html” would be “._index.html” on a FAT drive. Every FAT drive I’ve added a custom icon to includes a file called “._.”, which sounds like the root directory’s resource to me, and this is required for the icon to work.

Getting It Done

Aah, that's a much better icon for my Maxtor 3200!

So you need two files on a non-HFS+ drive to get the custom icon to work:
 

1. .VolumeIcon.icns – the same exact file as on an HFS+ volume, containing the icon data in the data fork
2. ._. – a special file (resource fork, perhaps?) which seems to tell OS X to use the icon

As illustrated previously, adding a custom icon to a FAT drive is exactly the same as on an HFS+ drive – create the icon resource and copy and paste it in the drive’s Info inspector. If we move these two files over to any other OS X-readable drive (including NTFS-formatted Boot Camp partitions), it will use the icon!

OS X can’t write to NTFS, so there are two ways to get these files onto an NTFS drive:

1. Make OS X write to NTFS by installing NTFS-3G
2. Copy the two files over in an OS like XP or Vista that can write to NTFS

[ad#vmware]The first method is simple, but not one I wanted to try. NTFS-3G is great – it’s a reverse-engineered open-source read/write driver for NTFS, and works on lots of platforms. But NTFS is finicky, and I’m not too keen on risking the integrity of the drive with an unsupported driver. If you want to use this method, though, customizing the icons is as simple as it is with FAT, once the driver is installed.

I used method 2 – relying on VMware Fusion to allow me to write the icon data to my NTFS drives and using a FAT-formatted flash drive as an intermediary between OS X and Vista. I created my icons, applied them to my flash drive, then booted up Vista in Fusion and copied the two files over in a DOS window. They’re hidden by default, but that shouldn’t slow you down.

Note that this only affects the icons in OS X – it will not allow you to customize the boot icons.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | OS X Custom Drive Icons 2: Boot Camp and NTFS
This post was categorized as Apple, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This post is part of my series focused on PC/Mac Integration.

• Vista, OS X Boot Time Compared
• Quick and Easy Bluetooth Sharing Between PC and Mac
• Yes, FireWire is Faster Than USB
• How to Keep an IOGear KVM from Dimming Your Mac's Screen
• Command and Control: The Clash of Keyboards

My test was simple: I used the iPhone’s stopwatch to time the following key events after startup:

1. The Mac Gong or disappearance of the PC or VMware BIOS screen
2. The appearance of the login box (I paused the timer at this point to give me time to enter my password)
3. The appearance of the desktop
4. I then clicked on the icons to launch my mail and web browser apps, assuming this would be the first thing most people would do on startup, and timed how long it took for each to load and present content
5. Finally, I stopped the clock when the system appeared usable – hourglasses disappeared, the disk stopped chugging like crazy, and all background apps had loaded and were running
6. I also timed how long it took for the system to power down after ordering a shutdown

Not surprisingly, the MacBook with OS X was fastest, though it took a surprisingly longish time to get Mail and Safari launched compared to Firefox and Outlook in Windows. OS X also excels at knocking off the backup tasks and giving a stable, ready-to-use system.

Booting Windows Vista Ultimate in Boot Camp was surprisingly speedy, too, and this was the core of my test. The Mac gave me a working Windows environment in just 2:15, compared to 1:40 for OS X and 3:10 for my Dell XPS M1330. I’m not sure exactly what the Dell is doing, but it churns and chugs for quite a while on bootup, even after I stopped the clock, and it’s got a nice clean install with few apps running.

Finally, I timed my Boot Camp volume in VMware Fusion (1.1.3) and found that, although it was speedy enough when it was running, it took 30 seconds longer to get started than booting natively. But even Fusion was quicker than the Dell.

My feeling is that Microsoft has spent some time optimizing the startup experience in Vista, trimming the time it takes to get a login window and desktop by shifting some work to background tasks that interfere with usability once the system appears to be running. A clever trick, that, but one that frustrates me on a daily basis as I stare at a desktop full of icons that I can’t use quite yet.

Once again, this is not the most scientific test ever, but it helps to show what I feel about the Mac:

• It’s quicker when I want to sit down and start working
• Windows is much quicker on the Mac than the Dell, despite only slightly better specs (2.2/4 GB vs. 2.0/2 GB)

I ran each test a few times, and although they varied by a few seconds they were fairly consistent.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Vista, OS X Boot Time Compared
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Although some shortcomings have appeared, I’m pleased with the Mac overall. It definitely met my expectations and continues to meet my needs, mixing portability and performance in an excellent package.  I am impressed by Apple’s hardware design and component choices, especially when compared to other computers with similar specifications that I have used.  And, as noted by Tom’s Hardware, the specification of the machine was reasonably priced, especially since I purchased it at a substantial discount and upgraded it myself.

This post is part of my series focused on switching from PC to Mac.

• How To Buy Discount Apple Computers
• Got Some AppleCare For Cheap
• Switch! or How the Mac (Finally) Won Me Over
• Switch Day 1: This Mac is Hot!
• Switch Day 58: Ten Pros and Cons of the MacBook Pro

1. The Value Quotient is High

The value of a computer system is determined by two elements: Its specification, in terms of the components used, and the net price.  Macs are known to be pricey but often include high-end components and materials in their construction.  Focusing solely on the core interchangeable components of my Mac, evaluating it as a generic PC, the overall value for the money is very high.

My MacBook Pro contains a high-spec NVIDIA 8600M GT graphics card with 128 MB of dedicated GDDR3 video memory, an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 “Merom” CPU, Intel’s “Santa Rosa” PM965 chipset, built-in FireWire S800 and USB, a slot-loading 8x DVD-RW drive, gigabit Ethernet, Wireless-N Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, webcam, and slick features like an LED-backlit display and keyboard and infrared remote control.  My system’s MSRP was $2000, but I purchased it for $1524 (after receiving the rebate check).

Although PCs are available for less (I bought a family knockabout laptop for $435 recently!), a similar spec laptop from any major manufacturer would cost at least this much, even a year after this model MacBook Pro came out.  In my case, I am comparing the Mac to the Dell XPS M1330 laptop I use for work, which arrived the day before the Mac.  The Dell is a “thin and light” model with a 13″ screen, but feels almost the same weight as the Mac and is actually somewhat fatter with its 9-cell battery. The Dell retailed for $1700, including the inferior 8400M GS graphics and no gigabit ethernet.

Judging by these objective observations, the Mac was clearly a good value and features a strong set of components.  Note that both machines feature the flawed NVIDIA graphics chips, as do nearly all high-end notebooks, so I can’t fault anyone for that particular component choice.

2. Performance rocks

Even though my MacBook features the Merom CPU clocked at a modest (by 2008 standards) 2.2 GHz rather than the latest 2.4 GHz or more Penryn, the system as a whole just flies.  Mine is packed with 4 GB or RAM instead of the stock 2 GB, and my upgraded 320 GB hard drive is slightly quicker than the stock, both of which improve overall performance somewhat.  But even tasks that aren’t memory-intensive are super-quick, thanks to the 800 MHz front-side bus and solid system design.  The system is snappy in OS X, encodes video with ease, and is subjectively faster than my similar Dell when using Windows Vista Ultimate in Boot Camp.  The Dell has the same chipset and CPU, but is clocked at 2.0 rather than 2.2 GHz and has only 2 GB of RAM, so comparisons are not exactly apples-to-apples, but the Dell is noticeably slower.  

3. The Display is Gorgeous

The wide, LED-backlit 15″ screen is just gorgeous.  The off-angle performance is so good, even with the backlight turned all the way down, that the Mac suffers from serious over-the-shoulder “eavesviewing” issues.  My Dell is pretty much invisible off-angle, even without the privacy screen supplied by my company, but the Mac shows your photos and documents even at extreme angles. Not that I’m complaining, though – this performance just makes it that much more beautiful when I’m alone. There’s no need to constantly adjust the screen angle for optimal viewing.

4. The Chassis is Sturdy

The Mac really shines when one compares its sturdiness to the competition.  The Dell is flexy and plasticky, as is just about every non-ThinkPad PC notebook I’ve used recently.  But the Mac raises the bar even compared to my favorite laptop of all time, the brick-strong HP OmniBook 800.

The only poor spot is the nifty magnetic latch.  Although it works well most of the time (and exists – the Dell has no latch at all), it doesn’t lock closed as cleanly as I would like.  There is a gap around the edges, and lifting the closed Mac from one side tends to make the latch disengage.

5. Input is Solid

I’m a stickler for a good keyboard and can’t fault the Mac here.  It’s not exactly a Model M, but the keys feel good and are arranged and sized reasonably.  Even adjusting to the Mac keyboard layout hasn’t been much of an issue, since most functions remain in similar positions between Mac and Windows.

The trackpad is especially strong. PC notebooks normally have perplexingly tiny trackpads, so I’m always running out of space, but the Mac’s is generously sized and highly usable. It’s easily four times larger than the Dell’s!  I do wish there were two ”mouse” buttons, though.  Although OS X and Windows in Fusion supports two-finger-tap as a right-click, Boot Camp frustratingly does not!

6. The Apple Remote Could Be Improved

Let’s start by stating that I have never owned a PC that came with a remote control, so the Mac deserves kudos for even including one, though the 2008 models don’t. But the remote is just odd. Although it’s usable enough, it’s not integrated, hardware-wise, with the system. It’s clearly a throwback to the glossy white plastic Apple look of a half-decade ago, so like the power brick and DVI adapter it seems totally out of place next to the brushed aluminum MacBook Pro. And, judging from its size and shape, I expected it to dock in the ExpressCard slot of the Mac like a MoGo mouse, but it’s slightly too fat for that. Also, an IR remote seems out of date in these Bluetooth days. So, Apple, how about a dockable, Bluetooth, matching remote next time?

7. Battery Life Isn’t Great

Battery life has been about three hours in my hands, which isn’t terrible, but isn’t as good as I hoped. I ended up buying a second battery for the Mac for transcontinental flights. I did the same for my last Dell, of course, so this isn’t news. On the bright side, the Mac battery was cheaper and far more readily available than the Dell – I just dropped by the bright, cheery Apple store in Palo Alto during my last trip and picked one up instead of waiting for Dell to deliver one to my home. I still can’t get hot-swap to work, though, since my Mac refuses to suspend to disk.

8. Upgradability is Mixed

Upgrading the RAM on a MacBook Pro is just right, but swapping out the hard drive was much more difficult than it should have been. Disks should be user-replaceable, even in laptops, and the regular MacBook gets this right. The Mac also has poorer expandability than most PC laptops, since its Wi-Fi (sorry, “AirPort Extreme”) card is buried inside and it lacks a slot and antenna wiring for a 3G cell card. The fact that the Pro only has an ExpressCard slot isn’t that novel in today’s world, however, but the regular MacBook’s lack of one was a major factor in my choosing the Pro.

9. It’s Hot and Loud

My first impression was that the fan was deafening and the bottom was toasty. After using it for a few months, I have either gotten used to both or they aren’t as bad anymore. The machine still gets pretty hot on the bottom under heavy use, and the fan still makes a loud “whoosh”, but neither is unbearable or unusual when compared to other PCs, like my previous Dell XPS M1210.

10. Light Sensors are Confounding

I was intrigued by the idea of the MacBook Pro’s ambient light sensor, which would dim the display backlight and unique keyboard backlight under changing light conditions. But this was the first feature I disabled after actually using it. The sensor is located under your left pinky when typing, so the display suddenly dims and brightens as your hand passes over it. So I just adjust the backlight manually.

Then there is the keyboard backlight. The key cap markings are dark enough to be difficult to see in bright light, but the sensor won’t let the light come on, even when you press the hotkey to turn it on manually! I ended up installing Lab Tick to turn it on manually within OS X, but I expected more from Apple engineering. The light sensor is worse than useless.

11. USB is a Disappointment

As I noted in another post, the lack of a full-power dedicated USB port is a special disappointment. The 15″ MacBook Pro has just two ports, like most modern PC notebooks, but both are compromised. The one on the left lacks the power to spin up an external hard drive, and the one on the right is shared with the internal iSight camera. At least the FireWire is blazing fast and fully-powered! But I expected a better design from Apple.

12. The AC Adapter Is Obnoxious
    My biggest complaint is the “elegant” MagSafe AC adapter. Count the flaws:
    • The poor strain relief on the thin cable is known to fray and burn
    • Third-party replacements and alternatives are not available thanks to Apple patents
    • The cord-wrap “ears” aren’t large enough to actually hold the entire wrapped cord
    • The fact that there are three different identical-looking adapters with different wattage outputs is a nightmare waiting to strike the unwary
    • The iPod-like on-brick plug just barely hangs on when the weight of the brick is hung from a vertical wall outlet
    • Glossy white?!?

The AC adapter is a perfect example of the form-over-function flaws always cited by Apple critics. I expected better, and Apple refuses to admit the defects even as these things spark and burn.

Again, I’m happy overall with the Mac and would definitely buy one again. In fact, I think it’s about the best computer purchase I’ve ever made, even including the iPhone and my beloved OmniBook 800 and Portege 3010 subnotebooks. The flaws are minor compared to the overall strengths!

(Ok, there are twelve pros and cons, but ten rolls off the tongue better!)

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Switch Day 58: Ten Pros and Cons of the MacBook Pro
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Update: My MacBook Pro is now rocking a Toshiba 640 GB hard disk drive!

Read on for details on swapping a disk in a MacBook Pro, finding a great deal on the drive, and how to get Boot Camp and VMware Fusion to work again after you do it!  Surprisingly, this was the hardest part…

This post is part of my series focused on the MacBook Pro.

• Don’t Be Jealous Of The New MacBook Pros!
• Upgraded! 320 GB in a MacBook Pro!
• SanDisk ExpressCard Flash Media Adapter: Nifty MacBook Pro Accessory!
• How I Get 7 Hours of MacBook Pro Battery Life
• Panic! Green Light and MacBook Pro Keyboard is Half Dead!
• Low-Power USB Ports Haunt My MacBook Pro

Now for some particulars and lessons learned:

• The MacBook Pro is not an easy machine to install hardware in!  Although the RAM is readily accessible, all other components are sealed inside that sleek silver case, and it was not meant to be opened.  It is certainly doable for most people, provided they have the right tools, but closing it back up again is tricky!  There are 19 screws, both Phillips #0 and Torx T6, and the correct screwdriver is a must-have.  Apple must use some serious gorilla snot on the LED/IR cable to attach it to the drive inside, as it took much fussing to cleanly remove it.  And getting the front tabs “clicked” took some fussing and more pressure than I wanted to exert!
• I chose a Verbatim SmartDisk 320 GB FireWire/USB Portable hard drive as a donor.  It contains a very nice Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD3200BEVT drive that should be compatible with most mainstream notebooks since it’s just 9.5 mm tall.  This is a modern unit with two 160 GB platters, 3.0 Gb/s “SATA II” interface with native command queueing, and is fast and quiet.
• Why buy an portable drive instead of a bare hard disk?  Because Best Buy had the Verbatim on sale at $129, while the bare drive itself (sitting just down the aisle) was marked $179, that’s why!  Plus, the case can be re-used (see below).
• My MacBook had a 120 GB Fujitsu MH2120BH drive, which is a 2-platter 1.5 Gb/s SATA unit with modern perpendicular recording technology.  It fit nicely in the leftover Verbatim external drive case!  Sadly the case is flimsy compared to the very nice metal Maxtor OneTouch 4 Mini I use on the PC side.  But at least the FireWire interface is fast.
• I used SuperDuper to clone the Mac’s internal drive and then booted with the FireWire drive just to make sure it worked.  Very nice!  Then I cracked the MacBook and swapped the drives.

You might also be interested in my post on upgrading the hard disk drive in a new Mac Mini!

Some notes in particular for folks like me who Boot Camp and VMware Fusion and upgrade their drives:

• I chose Winclone (an OS X app) to back up the Boot Camp partition prior to the drive swap.  Worked like a charm, creating a 22 GB image of my 55 GB partition.
• To keep everything “native”, you must use Boot Camp Assistant to repartition the new drive after the upgrade.  But Assistant requires you to use GPT to partition the drive, and Verbatim shipped it with APM, so I had to repartition it in Disk Utility before using it.
• I wanted to have two partitions – one for OS X and another for my Home directory.  This is standard storage industry best practice and what I do on my Windows machines.  But Boot Camp Assistant can’t handle this, and OS X doesn’t make it easy either.  So it’s all one partition now.  Boo!
• The new Boot Camp partition has to be as large or larger than the old one for Winclone to restore to it.  I wasn’t using all my space and wanted to reduce it but couldn’t.  So even though I “only” have 22 GB of data in my Boot Camp partition, I had to devote 56 GB to it.  I’ll resize it later if I can.  Either way, I’ve still got over 200 GB free in my OS X partition!  Update: A utility called Camp Tune claims to allow you to resize your Boot Camp partition.  I’ll test it and report back!
• VMware Fusion works great with Boot Camp partitions normally, but falls on its face when you replace the drive like I did.  Fusion kept trying to use an invalid configuration for the new Boot Camp partition, and there is no easy way to make it work again after you’ve changed it.  But I found the answer – you have to delete /Users//Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp, reboot into Boot Camp, and restart OS X before Fusion will correctly detect and configure the partition!  This is crazy stuff, but it works now!

All in all, I’m really enjoying the Mac.  Many OS X features are great (though some are lousy) and the hardware is superb.  But it is the ability to run Windows, both natively and using Fusion, that really seals the deal for me.  This really is the ultimate laptop, with a nice desktop UNIX, serious Windows performance, and now as much RAM and disk as anyone is likely to need.  At least until the 500 GB drives arrive next month…

Greg Ferro just did exactly the same thing, and I got a kick out of the name of his post!

Note: Some of these links include affiliate codes that help pay for this blog. For example, buying an Amazon Kindle with this link sends a few bucks my way! But I don't write this blog to make money, and am happy to link to sites and stores that don't pay anything. I like Amazon and buy tons from them, but you're free to buy whatever and wherever you want.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Upgraded! 320 GB in a MacBook Pro!
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This post is part of my series focused on PC/Mac Integration.

• Vista, OS X Boot Time Compared
• Quick and Easy Bluetooth Sharing Between PC and Mac
• Yes, FireWire is Faster Than USB
• How to Keep an IOGear KVM from Dimming Your Mac's Screen
• Command and Control: The Clash of Keyboards

In this era of switchers, Boot Camp, KVM, USB, and virtualization, the question of how to deal with computer keyboard irregularities has become all the more important.  One of the most critical usability factors in cross-platform typing is the question of what to do about the so-called modifier keys: Control, Command, Alt, and the like.  See, each platform has its own key combinations for GUI shortcuts and common operations like copy and paste.  And although most are similar, they are different enough to frustrate even the expert user.

The Alt and Control keys found on most PC keyboards date from the first PCs, with so-called Windows and Menu keys introduced in 1995 and Fn or Function modifier keys found on laptops both before and after.  Combined with the Shift key (which pre-dated the personal computer) these are the most common modifier keys used today.

Most Windows commands use some combination of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift but the mapping is haphazard at best.  Generally, Alt-combinations control the GUI (switching windows and selecting menus) while Ctrl-combinations perform actions (copy and paste) but this is not always the case.  However, even though variations abound, the standard 101-key IBM layout dating from 1986 (shown at right on a 1987 IBM Model M) has dominated.  This places two “Ctrl” keys at the outermost position of the bottom row of keys with two “Alt” keys flanking the space bar.  The Windows, Menu, and (on notebooks) Fn keys are squeezed in between Ctrl and Alt.

The situation is quite different on the Macintosh.   Hardware-wise, the Mac inherited the Command (“open apple”/”cloverleaf” ⌘) and Option keys found on the Apple IIe of 1982, and added a Control key with the Mac II and SE to enable business-friendly terminal emulation capabilities.  As seen in the keyboard at right from my Mac SE, the Control key, as on the PC XT, occupies the space now associated with Caps Lock at left in the third row, while the Option and to-be-named Command key (with the Apple outline) sit roughly where the Windows and Alt keys would eventually live.

The popular Apple Extended Keyboard swapped Caps Lock and Control, settling the key layout of the Macintosh that has lasted through today, and added “Alt” to the Option key, clarifying its purpose.  In 2007, Mac fans were thrown into a frenzy as Apple made one more change, removing the Apple from the Command key and (finally) adding the word, “Command”, in its place.

If you’re a geek like me, you will find the history of these keys to be an interesting aside.  Wanting to add more functionality to their (integrated) keyboards, most early personal computer makers looked for ways of adding modifier keys without “breaking” existing programs, which were hard-coded for earlier layouts.  Most manufacturers settled on the so-called “Bucky bit” strategy, adding keys that modified the binary ASCII code from other keys. Alt set the eighth bit to 1, turning H (01001000) into 11001000, which could be a non-printable control character or one from another character set.  Similarly, Ctrl zeroed out the sixth and seventh places, turning both H and h (01101000) into backspace (00001000).  Apple took a different tack, literally wiring the open and closed apple keys to the joystick buttons on the Apple II.  Of course, nowadays keyboards merely send appropriate ASCII signals using a microcontroller, but these ingenious approaches certainly showed creativity!

This brings us to today.  Although both the PC and Mac feature a key called Control on the left, the Mac places Alt/Option next, followed by Command.  On the PC, the center spot is taken by the Windows key and the Alt is on the right.

This mapping problem is compounded by the fact that these keys do different things.  Command on the Mac takes on the GUI and action duties from both Control and Alt on the PC.  Alt and Ctrl stay true to their original uses, modifying the result of other keypresses and sending control codes, respectively.  None of this was much of an issue in the days of incompatible keyboard protocols, but today’s USB devices can be used with either platform, and virtualization and remote control have made rapid switching much more common.

Consider my case:  I use an IOGear USB KVM switch to control both my Mac and PC from a single keyboard (that ancient IBM) and mouse, as well as to output audio and video to a single LCD monitor.  I find myself switching rapidly between Vista on the PC, OS X on the Mac, and Vista in VMware Fusion, throughout the day.  And when I unplug the Mac and set it on my lap (in “Better Energy Saver” mode to keep from burning myself), I am suddenly using a Mac keyboard for OS X and Vista as well.  So sometimes the key combination for “copy” uses the key all the way to the left and sometimes it uses the one closest to the space bar, and this variation does not necessarily follow the OS I’m currently using or the keyboard I’m currently typing on.

OS X thoughtfully allows you to change the mapping of Control, Option, and Command in the Keyboard and Mouse preferences panel, and even lets you set different customization for different keyboards.  Lots of ex-Windows users use this to swap Command and Control with Control and Windows on a Windows keyboard, which harmonizes many familiar DOS/Windows command shortcuts.  And if you’re as insane as some Apple fans users, you could also use this panel to move Caps Lock and Option back to their original locations.

But is it a good idea to mess with the keyboard settings like this?  I think not.  Eventually you will need to use a “correct” keyboard, whether you are using a Windows or OS X computer, and crutches like this just serve to frustrate your efforts to acclimatize.  I think it’s best to simply live with it – to get used to using the right key combinations, no matter which input device or operating system one is using.

Of course, there’s one more problem for me.  See that keyboard layout up at the top?  My primary keyboard is, as I’ve mentioned, a 1987 IBM Model M.  Despite possibly being the best keyboard ever made, it is a 101-key model, not the more modern 104-key Windows unit.  I’ve gotten used to using Ctrl-Esc for the Windows key, and even Shift-F10 for the menu.  But I’m having a real problem with OS X because I simply do not have a Command key, and no amount of “getting used to it” will change this fact.  So for now I had to remap Control to Command, and I will have to live without a Control key in OS X.  Anyone have a better idea?

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© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Command and Control: The Clash of Keyboards
This post was categorized as Apple, Computer History, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This post is part of my series focused on switching from PC to Mac.

• How To Buy Discount Apple Computers
• Got Some AppleCare For Cheap
• Switch! or How the Mac (Finally) Won Me Over
• Switch Day 1: This Mac is Hot!
• Switch Day 58: Ten Pros and Cons of the MacBook Pro

• The MacBook Pro is much sturdier than the average PC notebook, and even somewhat better than the high-end machines I’ve used (like my replacement Dell XPS M1330)
• The machine is hot on the bottom when using it a lot, and even pretty hot on the top!
• The fan is really loud – much louder than I was expecting
• The MagSafe power cord is cute but very delicate – I’m not surprised at all that they break and burn right and left!
• The screen is gorgeous – I got the matte model rather than the glossy since I hate the bright reflections I always fight with on my other machines
• I wish the 15″ model I got had more than two USB ports – I just know I’m going to be swapping a lot more than I used to.  But the new Dell has only two ports, too – my old XPS M1210 had four!
• Since I got the older model, it included the Apple remote, which is cute
• Everything about this machine is classier and more elegant than any PC I’ve ever used, from the packaging to the case to the documentation to the power cord
• I hate the auto-dimming screen – it reacts WAY too fast, constantly dimming and brightening as my shadow falls over the left-side speaker grille. This was the first Mac feature to be disabled!

One really odd thing about this machine is that even though it’s a “Late 2007″ model, it was manufactured in April 2008!  Why on earth did Apple continue making the old model two months after it was replaced in February with the “early 2008″ version?

As for OS X Leopard, I’ve just begun exploring…

• Anyone who complains about UAC on Windows should try OS X – it interrupts just about as much but forces you to type in your password, too!
• I love the packaging system – everything is self-contained so you can just drag and drop or delete
• It took me the longest time to figure out how to be able to shut the lid and use the computer with an external monitor – turns out it always sleeps when you shut the lid but then wakes up again when you click the mouse or type on the keyboard
• The included applications look much more useful than the ones that ship with Vista, which themselves are far better than anything Microsoft bundled in the past – I can’t wait to use iMovie and Garage Band, and iPhoto seems just as good as Google’s Picasa
• I’m loving the included UNIX utilities – ssh and scp should be part of every operating system out of the box!
• It’s ridiculously hard to change the hostname – apparently you have to edit /etc/hostconfig by hand!  Do they expect that no regular people want to name their computer?!?
• Network setup beats Vista hands-down!  It correctly suggested that my wireless router was filtering based on MAC address, while Vista just said “can’t connect”
• I already installed Boot Camp and VMware Fusion with a Windows Vista partition – talk about easing the transition!

I’ll keep updating the blog with my experiences over the next few months.  As a reminder, I offer separate feeds for Enterprise Storage for those not interested in this topic, which will be posted in my Terabyte Home feed.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Switch Day 1: This Mac is Hot!
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.