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I never thought getting things done in mac would be this hard. First i must confess i am coming from windows 7 to mac. So it would always be a struggle. Some of the small things you take for granted with a windows machine are hard to do with a mac.

For example something as simple as a paint program. There is none on mac that comes bundled, i really was surprised. How hard can it be to make a paint program like windows paint.

Second thing i realized pretty soon is most useful apps are paid ones. Mine might be a specific case because i have a strange problem and needs for application.

Here are the things i wanted to do on a mac and the stuff i couldn’t do.

Renaming multiple files – There is no easy way of doing it. On windows select all the files and hit F2 and give a name and windows renames all the files. On mac you have to go and create a automator action to this. Which i did and it only worked the way i want after some tweaks. This shouldn’t be that hard. There is a free program on windows called Fsresize which allows you to do with with more control. Like the order in which you want to put your photos etc. So far i haven’t found a program to do it for free.

Resizing Images and watermarking them – I think most people now a days do that. There are some free alternative that do that but my was a special case i want a image water mark. In windows i used to do it with Fsresize which is a free program. It has so many features. There is nothing that comes close on mac, you can whip up some automator programs but you will have to make compromises. I have tried every way, finally i settled for Imagewell which is a big compromise compared to windows free program Fsresize.

Search and replace html pages – there is a free program for windows called notepad++ which does this very well. But on mac there are half arsed programs like Text wrangler etc that do it. But not as good and simple as Notepad++. Hope someone ports this free app to mac. Many paid options are available but i am not interested in them i want free alternatives.

Image editing – As i mentioned earlier there is no native program like paint to edit images. But luckily there are some free alternatives. The best one out there is Seashore which is a free program that allows you to work with transparent images which is what i wanted to do. Here too paid apps are available but are very expensive or some times too limited.

Indian Language support – I just want to read them, i don’t even need native support just browser support for this. But that too doesn’t work. So i had to use parallel and run windows to get Indian languages.

No email programs – Here too i have strange problem i think many have, i have to check multiple yahoo, gmail and hotmail accounts. On windows i used to do it with pop popper a free program. But on mac there is no alternative for this, even programs like Yahoo pop don’t work on mac.

No good ftp program – on windows there are many free alternatives. On mac i am using a firefox add on called fireftp to do ftp. Which is a sad state of affairs. I know there are free programs like cyberduck etc but they don’t work as well as fireftp which is sad and shameful.

And the final big one is Blogging – On windows there is windows live writer which is the best blogging software out there, but on mac there is no alternative for this not even paid ones are that good. So all i can do here is hope Microsoft brings a mac version of this program soon. At the moment i am using scribefire a firefox add on to do the blogging on mac.

There are many more nagging things like the lack of support for data cards from airtel, reliance, etc. Small programs like iphone browser, autotext, etc. Since mac doesn’t have such big market share many don’t even bother about making the drivers or a mac version of their software.

When i decided to move to mac i never thought i would have to make so many compromises. It was so tempting to move back to windows by installing windows on mac.

There are many good things about mac, but only if you are willing to work with the operating system limitations which are every where. Unlike windows where you can do what ever you want which ever way you want.

I will soon write about apps i am using on mac which make it at least tolerable to use a mac.

But the Apple hardware is excellent, i love my aluminum mac book its gorgeous and when mac is running on it. It last for more than 6 hours on battery. So far that is the only thing keeping me from switching to windows.

Mac is fine for you, if you just want to write some stuff and listen to music and movies and browse a little. If you want to do anything little complicated you are out of luck with mac. You will find road blocks everywhere.