Macintosh : Computer Hardware Buyers’ Glossary

The Mac computer was named after the popular McIntosh variety of apple tree. However, presumably for legal reasons, Apple deliberately misspelled the name as Macintosh. If you “correct” the spelling to McIntosh (the tree and also a stereo component maker) or Mackintosh (the toffee maker), Mac users will treat you as if you had defecated on the floor, ditto if you abbreviate its name to MAC instead of Mac.

The original Macs used the Motorola 68000 series of CPUs. Then Apple switched to using the IBM PowerPC RISC CPU. All the currently manufactured Macintoshes now use Intel CPUs, the same as used in Windows and Linux/Ubuntu machines.

Advantages

• Macs are better designed to be easy to use.
• Everything is designed to work properly together. In the PC world everything is created by people who have never met or even talked to each other.
• Virus writers tend to focus on the more numerous PCs. Viruses are not a problem with the Mac. Spam, of course, is, just as with the PC.

Disadvantages

• The market for Mac software is about 1/10th the size of the PC software market, so you won’t have as many choices of vendor for any particular application, and there are fewer niche utilities.
• Apple tightly controls Mac hardware. This means you will pay considerably more for it than for the equivalent PC hardware. For example, where I live, an iMac with 20-inch monitor, 2.4 GHz Dual core CPU, 2 gig RAM, 320 gig hard disk will set you back $1600.00 CAD A roughly corresponding 3 GHz Dual Core PC will set you back about only $975.00 CAD A Mac Pro with 4 cores, 2.8 GHz, 8 gig RAM, 320 gig disk and 24-inch monitor will set you back $5000.00 CAD . A comparable 4-core 3.16 GHz PC costs $3100.00 CAD Last revised/verified: 2008-08-22
• There is not as much niche add-on hardware available.

Keyboard Layout

Keyboard Notes

Macintosh keys
Key Legend	Function	Notes
esc	Escape
tab ⇥	Tab
caps lock ⇪	Capslock
shift ⇧	Shift
control ^	Control	In Java, depending on the look & feel selected, the control key might be used for copy/paste instead of the command key. Like the PC Ctrl key.
alt option	Option	aka Alt, Alternative. The option entity ⌥ ⌥ is not well supported.
	Apple symbol	Apple entity is   or   Only supported in Mac fonts.
⌘	Command	aka open Apple, clover. Used for copy/paste. The four lobed clover entity (officially called a place of interest sign) is ⌘
blank	Space	long unlabeled bar
return ⏎	Return	Like Enter on the PC
delete	Delete back	delete chars to the left, like PC Backspace
delete	Delete forward	delete chars to the right, like PC Del. The delete forward entity ⌦ ⌦ is not well supported.
help ◯	Help
home ⇱	Home
end ⇲	End
page up	PageUp
page down	PageDown
↑	Up arrow
↓	Down arrow
←	Left arrow
→	Right arrow
clear	Clear