Just got the new MacBook air (m4) haven't set it up yet. coming from a thinkpad and Dell laptop, what should I expect? any advice for a new macbook user? Im pretty good with the ecosystem (air pods,watch,phone) and wanted to know if adding the macbook would work well with my devices.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Advice for new macbook
- Thread starter confusedmacker
- Start date
-
- Tags
- macbookair
- Sort by reaction score
MacOS is quite different to iOS so you'll see similarities in the experience vs the phone, but they're not the same. Which is to be expected since one is a touch interface and one is a keyboard interface.
Keep reading the forum posts and look out for common M4 issues, is the best thing I'd suggest.
And check the Sequoia forum here -> https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/macos-sequoia-15.246/
There's lots of good stuff there too.
I remember my first Mac, after using Windows for years, and I couldn't figure out how to uninstall an app. "What?? You just drag it to the trash? It cannot possibly be that simple?!"
Keep reading the forum posts and look out for common M4 issues, is the best thing I'd suggest.
And check the Sequoia forum here -> https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/macos-sequoia-15.246/
There's lots of good stuff there too.
I remember my first Mac, after using Windows for years, and I couldn't figure out how to uninstall an app. "What?? You just drag it to the trash? It cannot possibly be that simple?!"
thank you for the response, Will be checking out the threads in the next coming daysMacOS is quite different to iOS so you'll see similarities in the experience vs the phone, but they're not the same. Which is to be expected since one is a touch interface and one is a keyboard interface.
Keep reading the forum posts and look out for common M4 issues, is the best thing I'd suggest.
And check the Sequoia forum here -> https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/macos-sequoia-15.246/
There's lots of good stuff there too.
I remember my first Mac, after using Windows for years, and I couldn't figure out how to uninstall an app. "What?? You just drag it to the trash? It cannot possibly be that simple?!"
Learn a couple of shortcuts:
the cmd key replaces control. you can use it with your thumb which is more comfortable than on the PC with the control key and little finger.
cmd+s = save
cmd+tab = switch application
cmd+` = switch window within application
cmd+q = quit app
Unlike in Windows - closing windows doesn't necessarily quit an app. Don't worry about it too much, if the document windows are closed (i.e., you just click the red close button) the app won't be taking much memory anyway and macOS memory management is good. The idea is that the app is there if you need to open a document in it again - it will be faster.
If you really want to quit an app use either the menu bar to "quit" or use the cmd+q shortcut above. If you want to quit a heap of things, cmd+tab will bring up the task switcher and then cmd+q (you are already holding cmd key) on the highlighted app will quit it.
You'll be used to constantly second guessing Windows and trying to check up on what it is doing. Try to let go of that tendency and trust macOS to do the right thing until you run into problems. They're generally pretty rare and if you go messing with things to figure out what's going on you'll either be wasting your time or maybe creating issues for yourself that don't exist.
Short version:
Worry less
Keep an open mind
Accept that it works differently
Be aware it may take a week or two for things to "click" before it feels better than using Windows.
Last edited:
I remember my first Mac, after using Windows for years, and I couldn't figure out how to uninstall an app. "What?? You just drag it to the trash? It cannot possibly be that simple?!"
It is indeed that easy, but it'd still be beneficial to use an uninstaller so you can purge any files that would be left behind (and some programs can leave behind a very large hunk of files).
Look to see if that program came with an uninstaller. If the program doesn't have an uninstaller, you can use a free program like AppCleaner to help you uninstall a program and all of the files created by that program.
Last edited:
This made me laugh out loud because I could very well have written this same thing lol. Glad I wasn't the only one!I remember my first Mac, after using Windows for years, and I couldn't figure out how to uninstall an app. "What?? You just drag it to the trash? It cannot possibly be that simple?!"